I don't see why it needs to be reverted. If it needs to be built out
more, then devs can supply patches for that.
There have been many times in the past where some basic functionality is
introduced to the project, and then it is up to the rest of the
community to finish building it out.
Adrian Crum
Sandglass Software
www.sandglass-software.com
On 6/19/2014 5:26 AM, Pierre Smits wrote:
Hi All,
I finally had some time to review the functionality and code submitted
under:
- http://svn.apache.org/r1573884
- http://svn.apache.org/r1574400
The functionality is available in the demo environment on
https://ofbiz-vm.apache.org:8443/accounting
The code is related to OFBIZ-3169
<https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-3169>, but apparently the
committer (Hans Bakker) didn't feel the need to follow due process by
adding the improvement as a patch for review by other community members
before dumping it into trunk.
Though it may seem that missing budget functionality can be regarded as a
bug, it should be considered an improvement and therefore it should follow
the Review-then-Commit principle in stead of Commit-then-Review.
Functionality overview:
Basically the functionality allows users of the the accounting component to:
- search and find existing budget request
- create a new budget request
- enhance the budget request with
- budget items
- budget request roles
- budget request reviews
- change the status of the budget request
Findings:
First of all, documentation describing the functionality and how to use it
is not available. This is a mayor omission. Assessment of usability by end
users is hindered by this lacking.
Secondly, the functionality as presented works. No errors occurred when
clicking on the various buttons and executing basic process steps, like:
- adding removing budget items
- adding and removing a review
- adding and removing a role
- Changing the status of the budget request
But, can we say that this functionality is complete and lifts OFBiz in
general and the accounting module in particular a step higher on the ladder
towards best of breed in the category 'Open Source ERP Projects c.q.
Solutions'?
It definitely does not. The functionality appears, though included in the
accounting module, to be an island. Budgets in general (and at least), are
related to organisations (in OFBiz the internal organisations), P&L
centers, gl accounts, and persons. This is lacking in the functionality. No
internal organisation can be assigned, nor a P&L center or at the lowest a
gl account. Budgets without such associations are meaningless.
No permissions where incorporated in menu-items to ensure that
functionalities can only be executed by appropriate users. No roles were
predefined, which is customarily applicable regarding this kind of
functionality. Not every users having access should be able to create
budget request, or perform subsequent actions.
Lacking this, the user can (must?) select any partyId and roleId to
associate with the budget request. Even parties not working with (or
allowed to work with) OFBiz in general and the accounting module in
particular can be selected.
But also due to the lacking possibility to set the internal organisation,
no default currency is set. Thus, making the amounts ambiguous to interpret.
Furthermore it provides only a basic workflow process consisting of
(approve, reject and review). Associating a party to a budget request
doesn't warrant that others can not manipulate the content/data associated
with the request. When I approved a budget request, I had the button to
reject available. This shouldn't be possible. And at one occasion I could
click the 'reject' button multipe time to get to the final state.
While status changes are registered, it should also show who invoked the
status change.
Due to the fact that arbitrarily any party can be associated to a budget
request without any restrictions, the workflow is rendered meaningless.
Conclusion(s):
This solutions hasn't been thought through properly and does no good for
the quality of OFBiz (both the project and the product) in general and for
the accounting module in particular. Prior to dumping the code into trunk
it should have been posted for review by the community, so this could have
been avoided.
If any other contributor to this project made such a set of functionalities
available as a patch to an OFBiz issue in JIRA, it would sit there for a
great length of time before it would have been committed.
I advice to remove it from trunk.
Regards,
Pierre Smits
*ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
Services & Solutions for Cloud-
Based Manufacturing, Professional
Services and Retail & Trade
http://www.orrtiz.com
