Matrix Systems & Technologies, Inc. Latest News

Matrix Systems & Technologies, Inc. was recently recognized by the Maryland Indian Business Round Table (MIBRT) winning the "Best Emerging Technology Company" during the MIBRT's 5th Annual Gala and Awards Celebrations at Martins Crosswinds in Greenbelt, on November 19th 2009.

The dinner was attended by the Honorable Jack B. Johnson, County Executive of Prince George’s County, Hon. Bridget Bean, Director-SBA Washington DC Metro District, Hon. Christopher Thomaskutty, Deputy Mayor-City of Baltimore, Maryland State Attorney General, Honorable Douglas Gansler, and the Honorable John McDonough, Secretary of State, Maryland.

Matrix Systems & Technologies, Inc. was recognized for its' commitment to business opportunities domestically and abroad by forging partnerships with International firms such as; Radix Web and Persistent Systems, Ltd. of India.

Matrix Systems & Technologies, Inc. has been awarded the contract to provide Project Management services to Maryland's State Department of Education (MSDE). As a result, Matrix Systems & Technologies, Inc. will manage the full life cycle IT development and support operations for the Maryland Longitudinal Data Systems Project (MLDS).

The MLDS is a project that will design, develop, implement, and support the execution of a longitudinal data system that links student level data across prekindergarten through grade 20 (P20) and incorporates the linking of teachers to student level data from the data warehouse upon completion of cleansing transforming and ensuring data quality.   The Maryland Longitudinal Data System Project (MLDS) represents an enterprise solution to the Data Quality Campaign 10 Essentials Elements of a Longitudinal Data System.

Under this contract, Matrix Systems & Technologies, Inc. is tasked to provide project management services responsible for the day-to-day project management and planning activities in support of MLDS project. This will include creating various project plans that will deliver the project objectives, managing the activities of the project team(s), foresee, plan, organize and control the resources necessary to effectively meet the project deliverables, manage the entire project process and assure for the successful attainment of each and every goal set out at the onset of each project.

*The project objectives for the MLDS are as follows:

1. Re-engineer the current Education Data Warehouse to accommodate all new data elements that will expand upon previous Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) initiatives;
2. Add modules to the Web Data Collection System to facilitate all data collection and reporting activities and increase efficiency and data quality;
3. Provide advanced business analysis and reporting tools to an expanded user base;
4. Plan and implement the collection of student-level course-related information allowing for the creation of virtual student records used for program evaluation, analysis, and reporting across Local school system (LSS) and school boundaries;
5. Increase the capacity of the Maryland Unique Student Identification System (USIS) for the inclusion of Higher Education and state Workforce data;
6. Provide the knowledge and ability to access MLDS data directly to an expanded user base.

*Expected Outcomes:

As a result of this project, Maryland expects to:

1. Complete the linking of student data across data collections and years;
2. Further reduce the silo structure of major program data collections and integrate the Special Education program with the state’s system;
3. Increase capacity to provide educators and policy –makers with new and useful data reports to enhance and improve program evaluation and policy decisions;
4. Open access to data repositories for schools;
5. Work with local school systems to develop a standardized process of defining courses at all three levels (elementary, middle and high) and implement a data collection that will populate the MLDS with student course and performance (grades) data, adding significantly to Maryland’s capacity to use data in policy-making and evaluate student educational experiences;
6. Make significant progress in converting all major data collections to the web data collection format that will be used to collect, validate and report Maryland’s data. This system includes a Statistical
7. Process Control feature that analyzes submitted data for discrepancies from previous five-year trends, and will improve the accuracy of EDFacts files;
8. Increase the capacity of MSDE to provide needed data to policy-makers, especially the State Board of
9. Education and legislators, thereby further reinforcing the need for and value of the longitudinal data system.

MLDS Project Management Deliverables for Matrix Systems:

1. Develop and then maintains the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) on MSDE MLDS activities using Microsoft Project 2003 on a weekly basis;
2. All meetings between MSDE staff and the TO Contractor require a Meeting Minutes to be completed and filed in the project workspace;
3. Prepares a monthly status report for MSDE of the project 5 business days after the end of each month.  The status report must cover the milestones due that month and any overdue milestones, status of all tasks, new risks identified, scope changes and any other project issues.  Issues must include identification, escalation and resolution steps;
4. Prepares for the TO Manager a quarterly status report 5 business days after the end of each calendar quarter.  Report shall be in a format as required by DOIT.
5. Develop a Requirements Traceability Document and maintain the document across all project phases;
6. Manage Change Control, Issues escalation and resolution, Schedule, Costs, and Resources as defined in the project management plan;
7. Review of deliverables by the major project development contractor for completeness, adherence to standards and contract requirements
8. Work closely with functional managers to resolve team members' workload conflicts;
9. Ensure appropriate product-related training and documentation are developed and made available to customers through project team meetings; and
10. Develop and utilize a communications plan for project;
11. Validate functional requirements and provides support for the RFP process;
12. Prepare a System Boundary Analysis document that meets the State SDLC methodology under the System Concept Development Phase;
13. Prepare a Risk Management Plan document that meets the State SDLC methodology under the System Concept Development Phase;
14. Prepare a Project Management Plan document that meets the State SDLC methodology under the Planning Phase.

Maryland State Department of Education. Maryland Longitudinal Data System: Continuing the Vision. National Center for Educational Statistics. 2009-12-14. URL:http://nces.ed.gov/Programs/SLDS/pdf/2009marylandabstract.pdf. Accessed: 2009-12-14. (Archived by WebCite^® at http://www.webcitation.org/5m0ph1v0V)