Database Examination Required

[ACS_Norfolk]

Good Afternoon,

We are in need of having a database examined and a report written for the purpose of a court hearing. There will be no need for attendance to the hearing – its just a written report that will be submitted. We require an “expert witness” whose definition is ““ An Expert witness can be anyone with knowledge or experience of a particular field or discipline beyond that to be expected of a layman. The Expert Witness's duty is to give to the Court or tribunal an impartial opinion on particular aspects of matters within his expertise which are in dispute.”

If this is something you would be interested in quoting for, further information is below. I have attached a template for the report, this can be used as a guide. This case is on the small claims track and our charges for this report has been capped at £750+ VAT


We are the claimant in an ongoing court case where the judge has ordered the work produced be assessed by an expert witness. To provide a brief context, we are a computer company offering many services including database and programming. The defendant, is a company that specializes in selling various animal products. The original remit was to create a new database for the company, which linked into a front-end website and linking into various selling platforms, eBay, amazon, and the like. The product was tested by the defendant's office and approved; the MD, however, had some objections. As a way to move forward, the claimant offered to provide the defendant with a copy of the work if they wished to use it in the future and make modifications to their existing database system within the original price quoted, and all parties agreed on this. The only work in the scope of this assessment, therefore, is the modified database.

The claimants claim all the work was completed as directed and to a satisfactory standard; the defendants claim the quality of work fell below the required standard.

The database that needs to be assessed is a basic Microsoft Access database with a client-side that connects to the backend database holding all the tables and information. This work was concluded in 2018 and since the defendant has had a new database from a 3rd party.

The defendant provided a list of five issues, and the claimant responded with how they proposed to address them – this document forms the standard to which the database needs to be assessed.

1. Defendant issue with database: The database is old and crashes

Claimants response: The database has half a million records, far more than access was meant to do – we will upgrade to mySQL/MSSQL

1. Defendant issue with database: The "select dispatcher section can be removed"

Claimants response: We will remove this section

1. Defendant issue with database: The stock control section and create search reports is missing

Claimants response: We will enable the stock control section and create the search reports that are missing

1. Defendant issue with database: Searches for previous orders have stopped working

Claimants response: We will repair the search for previous orders function

1. Defendants issue with database: Remove the card payment information and relace with a box so they can enter notes

Claimants response: We can remove the payment section and add a new box for staff to keep notes on the computer


Therefore, we are looking for a quote to examine the database against the above points and determine if the work has been completed as described and has been done to an adequate standard. Should you decide that any of the five points have not been made to a satisfactory standard, a price indication to correct at standard market rates is requested. In addition, we would ask that screenshots be provided for each of the five points examined so it's easy for the court to visualize.

You would be provided with the following:

1. A copy of the court order
2. A copy of the claim
3. A copy of the defense
4. A copy of the email agreeing to resolve the impasse by repairing the defendants existing database
5. A copy of the email outlining the five points above
6. A copy of a report the defendant claims lists all the issues with the repair
7. Remote access to a machine where the database is installed.

If possible, the court ordered us to provide a joint letter of engagement; failing that, we were granted permission to send out our own. So far, the parties have not been able to agree to this. The claimant has reached out to the defendant a number of times, requesting a copy of point 5 above and access to the remote machine so we could both determine the correct version of the database to be assessed. So far, the defendant has rejected access to either. Can you, therefore, provide two price indications

A price for examining a single database with a joint letter of engagement

1. A price for examining two databases with two separate letters of engagement
2. You're time scale once you have received the remote access.

I appreciate your time.

 

[Pat Hartman]

How would we contact you? I am interested. I think my credentials here would qualify me as an expert. Please send me a PM with your contact information. I have some questions.
Thanks.

 

[arnelgp]

I am interested.

be careful not to be on the Seat of the defendant, once you fail

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Good Afternoon,

We are in need of having a database examined and a report written for the purpose of a court hearing. There will be no need for attendance to the hearing – its just a written report that will be submitted. We require an “expert witness” whose definition is ““ An Expert witness can be anyone with knowledge or experience of a particular field or discipline beyond that to be expected of a layman. The Expert Witness's duty is to give to the Court or tribunal an impartial opinion on particular aspects of matters within his expertise which are in dispute.”

If this is something you would be interested in quoting for, further information is below. I have attached a template for the report, this can be used as a guide. This case is on the small claims track and our charges for this report has been capped at £750+ VAT


We are the claimant in an ongoing court case where the judge has ordered the work produced be assessed by an expert witness. To provide a brief context, we are a computer company offering many services including database and programming. The defendant, is a company that specializes in selling various animal products. The original remit was to create a new database for the company, which linked into a front-end website and linking into various selling platforms, eBay, amazon, and the like. The product was tested by the defendant's office and approved; the MD, however, had some objections. As a way to move forward, the claimant offered to provide the defendant with a copy of the work if they wished to use it in the future and make modifications to their existing database system within the original price quoted, and all parties agreed on this. The only work in the scope of this assessment, therefore, is the modified database.

The claimants claim all the work was completed as directed and to a satisfactory standard; the defendants claim the quality of work fell below the required standard.

The database that needs to be assessed is a basic Microsoft Access database with a client-side that connects to the backend database holding all the tables and information. This work was concluded in 2018 and since the defendant has had a new database from a 3rd party.

The defendant provided a list of five issues, and the claimant responded with how they proposed to address them – this document forms the standard to which the database needs to be assessed.

1. Defendant issue with database: The database is old and crashes

Claimants response: The database has half a million records, far more than access was meant to do – we will upgrade to mySQL/MSSQL

1. Defendant issue with database: The "select dispatcher section can be removed"

Claimants response: We will remove this section

1. Defendant issue with database: The stock control section and create search reports is missing

Claimants response: We will enable the stock control section and create the search reports that are missing

1. Defendant issue with database: Searches for previous orders have stopped working

Claimants response: We will repair the search for previous orders function

1. Defendants issue with database: Remove the card payment information and relace with a box so they can enter notes

Claimants response: We can remove the payment section and add a new box for staff to keep notes on the computer


Therefore, we are looking for a quote to examine the database against the above points and determine if the work has been completed as described and has been done to an adequate standard. Should you decide that any of the five points have not been made to a satisfactory standard, a price indication to correct at standard market rates is requested. In addition, we would ask that screenshots be provided for each of the five points examined so it's easy for the court to visualize.

You would be provided with the following:

1. A copy of the court order
2. A copy of the claim
3. A copy of the defense
4. A copy of the email agreeing to resolve the impasse by repairing the defendants existing database
5. A copy of the email outlining the five points above
6. A copy of a report the defendant claims lists all the issues with the repair
7. Remote access to a machine where the database is installed.

If possible, the court ordered us to provide a joint letter of engagement; failing that, we were granted permission to send out our own. So far, the parties have not been able to agree to this. The claimant has reached out to the defendant a number of times, requesting a copy of point 5 above and access to the remote machine so we could both determine the correct version of the database to be assessed. So far, the defendant has rejected access to either. Can you, therefore, provide two price indications

A price for examining a single database with a joint letter of engagement

1. A price for examining two databases with two separate letters of engagement
2. You're time scale once you have received the remote access.

I appreciate your time.

While I am not interested in this project, I would like to point out that you omitted information that is crucial in obtaining your price and time scale. The size of the DB itself from an internal structure viewpoint is a sine qua non for any such estimates. The number of forms, the number of fields in the tables, the number of records involved, the presence of any reports, and the presence and statistics of code modules - all of these will contribute to the implied engineering time required to perform the evaluation. Also, the availability of any documentation would be a major factor in trying to understand the intent of the DB, since "adequate standard" will certainly imply that the darned thing does what it is supposed to do.

In particular, this is a VERY sticky phrase in your problem statement: "Therefore, we are looking for a quote to examine the database against the above points and determine if the work has been completed as described and has been done to an adequate standard."

There is a MASSIVE potential ambiguity in the phrase "adequate standard." For instance, the U.S. Navy's standard of program structure, performance, and maintainability is different than commercial organizations. Some organizations deal with personal privacy laws. Others must deal with laws regarding fiduciary responsibility. There ARE standards, true, but that is the problem. There are standards PLURAL, often overlapping - or interfering. You might have to carefully decide the meaning of the phrase "adequate standard" because there is a lot of wiggle room to be had.

Pat Hartman expressed interest in this report and I would agree in a heartbeat that she is fully competent to do this. But expect her to have questions more or less in line with my comments. Consider this a "heads up" on the direction this could go - and the direction your defendant could take in response to your report.

 

[ACS_Norfolk]

Thank you for your reply and I do agree with what you have said and this is part of the issue for the court. Due to how the project was structured this “agreement” was put together very fast.

All the documentation would be provided alongside access to the database (and the original to compare) for an assessment before commitment - the message I put in the forum was just to gauge initial interest.

At this stage the examiner would have the same information the claimant had - the court is just asking for an independent third party with knowledge of programming to act as a guide based on the information at hand. There is no in-depth specification that has been nailed down so it’s just a judgment call on based on what was available was an adequate job done.

In reality whilst the database has a lot of information stored in itself it’s very simple running from one form and I believe has one report etc.

But as you say - pat has been very helpful.