The documentation issues discussed in the paper are certainly a barrier
that can be addressed in OfBiz.
The paper is a little bit focused on building the PMS and internal OSS
project community rather than worrying about adoption by users.
As a potential user, I am going at the documentation problem from a bit of
a different POV.
If we look at the adoption process, we can identify several stages that an
organization goes through during the implementation.
In reading this, bear in mind that I have never done an implementation and
am still at stage 1 of the OfBiz implementation process.
However I have been through this process a number of times over the last
40 years with roles ranging from the most junior programmer on the team to
Technical Support manger to lead architect to the consultant preparing the
RFP and the recommendation to management.
I expect that I have missed many things but I wanted to at least start a
discussion about this potential way to look at the documentation.
I have tried to be a definite as possible about what I think is required
so that people could take issue with my suggestions in a concrete way.
Please feel free to add, delete or modify this.
I would also ask that people who have contributed documentation take a few
seconds to consider the various stages where you think the information
contained therein is most helpful.
1) Selection.
At this stage the new organization is looking at various alternatives from
Quickbooks to SAP.
Key stakeholders - Accountants, business managers, IT, CFO, Marketing if
the organization is looking at reselling or providing services based on
OfBiz.
Important information:
- Feature descriptions and customization possibilities
- Organization profiles
- User interface and user documentation/ on-line help
- Operational options - SaaS through a reliable supplier, BTF
- TCO for SaaS and BTF
- Standards
- Support and technical documentation
- Feasibility - will it run in the IT infrastructure, can IT support it
- Stability and operational reliability
Demo should be available that looks attractive and easy to use.
Video demos of common user functions could be a positive factor
The goal is to get through this stage as the winner!
If this part fails, the rest is pointless.
2) Demo
At this stage the organization needs to see if the thing actually works as
advertised.
SaaS:
Supplier demo site with the organizations logo showing functions available
in the SaaS version - Not an Apache problem but perhaps of concern to some
who are offering OfBiz as SaaS
BTF:
Stakeholders: IT Operations, Business Managers, System Analysts
Important information
- Installation documentation
- User documentation
- Feature Checklist
- Video end-user Training
- Architecture Overview
- Customization Overview
- Implementation plan/checklist
3) Implementation Planning
In this stage, the development team may hire a consultant or sign a TSA to
support the internal team or they may go it alone if they have the right
staff.
The major task is to develop a requirements doc, a plan and a budget to
get the system operational.
At the end of this step
- the CFO should be able to give a Go/NoGo for the budget
- the Business managers should be able to sign of on the functional
requirements
- IT Operations should be able to sign off on the Performance, Security
and DR capabilities
Stakeholders: IT operations, System Analysts, Business managers, CFO
Important Information
- System initialization and data migration
- Customization doc - Database, Framework, Tool list, Best Practices
- Use cases
- Customization templates - plans, budget estimating tools
- System Administration tools and environment docs
The books that are recommended and available should be considered as being
owned and read by the team at this point.
The organization is starting to expend significant resources and
purchasing books is the least of the expense.
This may help reduce the amount of documentation required to be provided
by Apache.
New books could also be created to cover areas not well covered by
existing books.
Outdated books should be clearly identified as such with strong
recommendations about purchasing them or not and some guidance about which
sections are particularly misleading.
If this is too much work, the book should just be removed from the list of
"Books about OfBiz" and if there is any information that is critical and
not covered elsewhere, it should be identified as documentation to be
created.
4) Development
At this stage, the implementation team has received the go ahead to
implement and has a plan for all customization required.
The development team is having fun with code and the IT operations group
is preparing to purchase any equipment required and is setting up QA sites
for integration testing
Stakeholders : Development team including consultants if required, IT
operations
Important Information
- Customization doc - Database, Framework, Tool list, Best Practices
- Properly commented code
- System Administration tools and environment
5) Implementation
At this stage the system is put into operation and data is migrated
Stakeholders : IT Operations, Training, OfBiz Support team
Important Information
- End-user training material - videos, on-line courses, course templates
that can be branded and customized
- System Administration tools - Security, DR procedures, Update procedures
- Data migration tools and Best Practices
I hope that this helps.
On 07/08/2014 7:25 AM, Pierre Smits wrote:
Hi all,
Newcomers experience problems when they start to participate. This has
been
the subject of following stud: http://t.co/bc0gn2SQOZ
Do you feel that this project should have an onboarding strategy for
newcomers, and if so what should it entail en where should it be embedded
or incorporated?
Regards,
Pierre Smits
*ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
Services & Solutions for Cloud-
Based Manufacturing, Professional
Services and Retail & Trade
http://www.orrtiz.com
--
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: [email protected]
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102
