On 09/08/2014 7:11 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
Le 08/08/2014 17:49, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
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.
What is PMS? You mean PMC?
Yes
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
Feature descriptions :
we have something up to 2004
https://web.archive.org/web/20100414073023/http://ofbiz.apache.org/feature-list.html
which could be updated based on
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Main+New+Features
An effort has already been made
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Feature+summary to
summarize this page but it's incomplete
customization possibilities:
we have
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Addressing+Custom+Requirements+In+OFBiz
And soon the http://www.ofbiz-fr.org/ will make a proposition based on
https://code.google.com/a/apache-extras.org/p/ofbiz-adm/ (now
deprecated) which is related with
http://community.ofbizextra.org/community/control/COMMUNITY_HOME
- Organization profiles
Could you elaborate?
It would be nice to have some articles explaining how organizations have
benefited from adopting OfBiz.
- User interface and user documentation/ on-line help
We have an online help in 2 forms, the ? button and
demo-trunk-ofbiz.apache.org/cmssite/cms/APACHE_OFBIZ_HTML
There was also an effort
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-4941 by the late Tom Burn
which is now in the branch
https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ofbiz/branches/webhelp-2012-12-07
from which an addon has been created by the Noegia team
- Operational options - SaaS through a reliable supplier, BTF
SaaS: we have multi-tenant
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Multitenancy+support
only scale by adding DBs though... So limited to small to medium numbers
What does BTF means?
Behind the firewall - installation on the organizations own hardware.
- TCO for SaaS and BTF
TBD...
- Standards
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Open+Source+Projects+and+Standards
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/Best+Practices+Guide
- Support and technical documentation
http://ofbiz.apache.org/documentation.html
- Feasibility - will it run in the IT infrastructure, can IT support it
Yes they can. If they want to use an external app server there is with
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBTECH/Run+OFBiz+under+outside+Application+Servers
though we are a bit late on this :/
- Stability and operational reliability
I think we are good :)
Is there a doc describing the features/architecture/release
process/bugs/etc. from the point of view of stability and reliability
Demo should be available that looks attractive and easy to use.
I think we have something good, I mean from http://ofbiz.apache.org/
Video demos of common user functions could be a positive factor
We have some not bad too
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBTECH/Framework+Introduction+Videos+and+Diagrams
maybe a bit old, but still relevant
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
We have some examples, we could link them from the multitenancy page...
OK, I ran out of time, to be completed later...
Jacques
PS: some cleaning should be done in the FAQ page
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/FAQ+-+Tips+-+Tricks+-+Cookbook+-+HowTo
Hope I will get some time... one day...
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
