Client: U.S. Army
Service: Data Integration
Industry: Government; Defense
Business Case
Army suicide rates have been steadily rising since 2004. In 2008, the confirmed suicide rates reached an all-time high of 20 soldiers per 100,000 people in the general U.S. population. The Army Science Board Suicide Mitigation Subcommittee presented its findings and highlighted data challenges to the Army Senior Leadership. At the time, data sources were disparate and not integrated. The current data environment did not allow users to identify and analyze suicide factors and means to affect the suicide mitigation program. Within this context, the Army Suicide Mitigation Program is an effort to develop an integrated data environment to facilitate the study of reducing the suicide rates within the Army.
Solution
Data Blueprint worked with the Vice Chief of the Staff of the Army (VCSA) to define an environment, identify data, integrate data from 29 sources and build an analysis environment. All this needed to be accomplished within a tight project time frame.
Technical Environment
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Prototype developed by Data Blueprint
Results
- Led the facilitation of working groups (functional data managers and legal advisors)
- Developed and managed the project schedule
- Identified project requirements
- Defined data elements
- Established metadata standards and data dictionaries
- Coordinated and published a concept of operations
- Negotiated formal data use agreements
- Developed a logical and physical data model
- Established data feeds
- Built the system, filled it with data and passed user acceptance on schedule and within budget
