Hi there! I would like to ask some assistance with my homework. It is a Case study that needed more explanation out of the ordinary and would gladly appreciate if you have any feedbacks and recommendations on the questions asked below: Case no. 20 - Consultant Engineer As a consultant computer engineer hired by a credit bureau named FWD, you have been asked to analyze problems which have occurred with their 20-million-record credit file. (Such large files do exist and one large credit agency claims to have records on 67 million U.S. households). FWD management became concerned when the following situation came to their attention. A couple moving to a retirement community has an eye on their "dream home". They have a good credit history, so they assume they will have no trouble getting a mortgage to purchase their dream home through a local bank in their new community. A routine credit check through FWD uncovers the "fact" that they are a bad credit risk. When Toby Cavanaugh from the local bank pursues the case, he discovers the couple has been mis-identified in the FWD databank and had been confused with another party having a very bad credit history. In making amends, the local bank approves the loan, but by now the home has already been sold to someone else. The couple is heartbroken and, worse yet, continues to have credit problems for some time.

Questions:

1. FWD has called you in as a consultant to make recommendations. Where do you begin? 2. What design flaws in the database have allowed this problem to occur? 3. Management at FWD claims they have only 1 error per 100,000 records in their databank. How would you develop an experimental design to credit (or discredit) this statement? 4. After assuming or validating whether FWD is right in statement #3, how many bad records do they have in their major file at the present time? What implications does this have, if any? 5. At what cost per record do you decide they need to rework the database? What other data or assumptions do you need to make before recommending a solution?

[ Assume you need (1) a cost per record to update, (2) the number of errors per year (which can be estimated), and (3) the cost per error found by users.] [You also need to know the rate of updates or new records per month or year. Assume there are 300,000 accesses or updates per month to the database.]. [Also assume it costs $10/record to clean up the database plus $50,000 in fixed costs. Finally, assume the cost for insurance, lawyers. etc. for each bad record found is $100,000.].

6. Compare the two costs, draw conclusions, and recommend a course of action in a one-page memo to FWD management. Alternatively, write out a dialogue for a discussion of the matter with FWD. 7. Estimate the time required to clean up the database. Can you design a solution which would not take the database off-line for _____ (your estimate) in time (months/years)? 8. List the "stakeholders" (those with something to lose or win in this case). 9. Should someone has done (or not done) something earlier? 10. Who benefits here? Who is harmed here? (There could/should be multiple answers.) 11. How does one go about preventing this situation from occurring again? Thank you so much for your help.