Please find an update below. The missing part in the OFBiz-implementation is the billing of materials used in the project. However the orders can be used for this purpose, but a separate materials plan and materials usage would be preferable. ************************************************** Actor definitions ----------------- Client ------ The client is an internal customer or an external customer.
Project manager --------------- A person that manages the project, and are responsible for reporting to the internal steering group and the customer Project role ------------ As the project is going through the four phases (analysis, preparation, development and delivery) there is need for the different roles. In fact there is a complete organisation of roles delivering the results to the client. In the mini-organisation there is at least a need for the following roles: . Account manager. Responsible for keeping track of time and materials . Change manager. Most project fails because of having too weak staffing on this role. The key role of not accepting changes from the client without having a formal process of agreeing upon the change in the agreement terms. This could be o Changes in the agreement text o Change in delivered materials o Change in the number of hours o Change in the fixed cost o Change in the delivery date . Verification manager. Verifying the project delivery before it is handed to the client. General delivery project story ------------------------------ A company using project as a means of delivering the products, are most likely company that are delivering complex products that cannot be standardized into a standard organisation, since either the nature of the product or the nature of the customer makes it the most cost effective to deliver the product as a project. Before diving into the details of projects it is important to define the two basic project pricing models: Fixed price and Time and material. The pricing model gives directions onto how the project is run, and a time-and-material-project can be converted into a Fixed-price-project (but I have never been in a project that has converted from Fixed-price to Time-and-Material). The Fixed-price-project means that the customer is not interested in the time and the materials used in the project. The Client is only interested in the end result. How much is ready and how much is left. The Time-and-materials-project the customer are interested in all three and the project are committed to deliver reports about progress, time and material usage. In both pricing models, the change-orders are the most important part of the project managers work, since the changes will need to be incorporated into the plans, agreements, dates, the staffing and the cost. Changes may or may not change time and/or materials. Ideas to incorporate -------------------- Using BOM in project management. Managing logistics plans for materials used. Dependencies ------------ . Sales Representative Leads Prospects from RFQ to Sales Order (This needs more text) . Placing Customer Places a Sales Order (This needs a rewrite) . Customer Places Order for Quote (Needs to be written, for a wide perspective) . External Reporting . Budgeting Story ------ There has been done an analysis or a bid-phase, where the parties have agreed to deliver a project. The requirements are attached to the agreement and there has been made an outlined plan that consists of a start date and an end date of the project. The out-line plan for the project and the sub-projects are not written before the Analysis phase has been done. The project will be divided into the remaining phases of the project, where the subprojects are delivering into the main project. The plans of the main project and the sub-projects will have milestones, and at a milestone there can be a decision point. The decision is made either by steering group, project management team or technical team. All decisions are documented. The agreement with the client will be used as a base for delivery and for the plan, and is the base for the end date and the cost estimate. The agreement will also be used to plan the materials used during the project (by the logistics team). The following documents should be produced from the analysis phase and should be reflected in the agreement: . Functional specifications describing what will be delivered to the client. This will be a detail of the requirement in the agreement, describing how the requirements will be implemented. For each functional specification there will be written acceptance criterions . A Bill of Materials (BOM) that describes what products and documents that will be delivered internally and externally to aid the final delivery (including verification and training). Using the company model for handling incidents during the project, an incident can be received from the customer as a request for additional functionality, or an internal incident. As the incident is classified it can be classified as a change. Changes are handed to the change manager, and the change manager classifies the change into smaller changes that can be done outside a change board, or needs to be handled by the Change board. If the Change manager hands the change to the Change board, the change will be prioritized and may be added to the project as a Change order (based upon a cost benefit analysis). The change order is added as a sub-project with separate usages for time and materials (that are reported and invoiced separately). To keep track of what to deliver to the client the Bill Of Materials (BOM) is used to keep track of what has been delivered and what is still remaining (this should be an internal list, and is not reported to the customer). ****************************** Regards Torstein Hegbom -----Opprinnelig melding----- Fra: David E Jones [mailto:d...@me.com] Sendt: 26. juni 2009 17:56 Til: dev@ofbiz.apache.org Emne: Project Story (was: ASF Board Report for 2009-06) Torstein, I apologize, I should have been more clear. Is this something that you would like to see become part of the UBPL? I ask because it is unclear for 2 reasons: 1. it does not use the same style and conventions as other stories in UBPL 2. it does not attempt to reuse (and modify/extend/etc as needed) existing stories in UBPL -David On Jun 26, 2009, at 9:20 AM, Torstein Hegbom wrote: > It should be a new story, and maybe more than one. The companies > that I can > see are the following: > > * Construction companies > * Installing companies > * IT development projects > > Basicly all companies that creates something using projects as a way > of > working (establishing an organisation, has its own budget and has a > start-date and an end-date). > > Companies that are using projects for the way of working multiple > projects > to make deliveries. The major challenge is to keep track of > materials used > to make deliveries. Should the project make or should it buy (I > tested the > BOM-simulator, and that could be used for that decision). If it > decides to > by it will use an order. If it decides to create, it will use tasks > and > man-hours. > > All of these companies has something in common: There will be > something > delivered to a customer, and there needs to be deliver documents to > go along > with it. Therefore there is a need of a list of deliveries as well > as tasks. > > Torstein > > > -----Opprinnelig melding----- > Fra: David E Jones [mailto:d...@me.com] > Sendt: 23. juni 2009 00:01 > Til: dev@ofbiz.apache.org > Emne: Re: SV: ASF Board Report for 2009-06 > > > This looks like a good start Torstein. > > How do you see this fitting in with the stories that are currently in > the UBPL (ie: > http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBREQDES/Universal+Business+Process+Library+I > ndex)? > > -David > > > On Jun 22, 2009, at 1:23 AM, Torstein Hegbom wrote: > >> Please find the user story below: >> ------------------------- >> 1.1 A delivery project >> A delivery project will deliver some functionality, where the >> functionality >> is based upon a requirement from a business organisation. The >> functionality >> is some text that describes an organisation, some processes and some >> business rules. >> >> The delivery can be a physical piece, a building or it can be an IT >> system. >> All of these has in common that there is a need for a project >> organisation >> to deliver. The project will have a planned start-date and a planned >> end-date. The project will have an project organisation and a project >> manager. >> >> The most important role of the project manager is to manage the >> changes >> impacted on the project organization. This can be changes external >> to the >> project, changes in the project staffing or changes in what and when >> to >> deliver. If the project manager fails to manage these details, the >> project >> will fail. However having a good steering group and a good change >> management, the project manager has good prospects to succeed. >> 1.2 Two different preconditions >> Below there is mentioned two different cases where a project can be >> initiated. >> 1.2.1 A new delivery for a new customer >> If there is not an established customer, there may be a RFQ (request >> for >> information), and there may be a bid-process. In any case the result >> will be >> an agreement for a delivery, with delivery-terms. The agreement will >> outline >> a delivery date and the functional requirements. >> 1.2.2 A new delivery for an existing customer >> If there is an established customer, there may be cases where the >> line >> organisation finds the delivery too big (too many man-hours) that >> cannot be >> done in an ordinary maintenance delivery-release, and decides to >> establish a >> new project. >> 1.3 Change orders >> All changes related in dates or functionality will be handled by the >> project >> manager (and the change manager), by change-orders. The change >> orders can be >> written by the customer or the supplier, using a computer or a hand >> held >> device. >> >> These change orders are analysed and estimated by the project >> organisation. >> The analysis will describe the impact on the delivery date and the >> added >> cost for the customer. The change board will finally sign the change >> order, >> and it will added to the agreement. >> 1.4 Project model >> All organizations should have a project model, which is used for all >> delivery projects. This will make the steering group committee have >> an >> easier job of understanding the status of the project. The project >> model >> will describe the phases and the decision points in the project. The >> project >> model can vary from company to company. One project model can be a >> delivery >> project that has four phases: >> . Analysis phase >> . Delivery phase >> . Verification phase >> . Deployment and handover phase >> >> Note that the project can be split into smaller projects, but all >> subprojects will have all phases, independent upon the method used >> for >> implementing the requirements. >> 1.4.1 Decision point >> Within each phase there will be milestones. Each of the milestones >> has a >> delivery that can be celebrated by a cake. If the achievement is not >> applicable for a cake, it is not a milestone. Connected to a >> milestone there >> can be a decision-point. A decision that cannot be made before the >> milestone >> has been passed. The decision point is related to the project and the >> information to the decision is quantifiable, and could relate to >> cost and/or >> resources. Milestones can have dependencies and can be used as an >> outline >> plan before adding the tasks. >> >> The decision points are numbered DP1, DP2, etc, and the decision >> will be >> documented, so that the next project will learn from this project. >> 1.5 Analysis phase >> The main goal of the analysis phase is to detail requirements and >> details >> the plan. The result should be a functional description giving >> details into >> the specifications, what and how to deliver and the dates of the >> plan. >> >> The following documents should be produced from the analysis phase: >> . Functional specifications describing what will be delivered, >> connected to the requirement in the agreement >> . For each functional specification there will be written acceptance >> criterions >> . The plan will be detailed >> . A Bill of Materials (BOM). A document that describes what pieces >> and >> documents that will be delivered internally and externally to aid >> the final >> delivery (including verification and training). >> 1.6 Delivery phase >> The delivery project will be to produce the results described during >> the >> analysis phase, and to merge in the changes that are arriving from >> the >> change-management. >> 1.7 Verification phase >> During the verification phase the customer/klient will verify each >> piece >> that has been delivered from the delivery phase. Normally there will >> be an >> internal verification before the customer/klient verification is >> started. >> >> The number of changes during this phase is more than in any other >> phase, >> since everybody now can understand how the end-result will work in >> practice. >> The change-board will be an aid to keep the process moving and >> decide if a >> given change will be delivered in the project or the first change- >> delivery >> after the project. >> 1.8 Deployment and handover phase >> During deployment there may be a migration process from the old to >> the new. >> Typically the migration is a sub-project. >> >> After the deployment has been done there will be a handover phase >> where the >> project is scaling down after each piece has been handed over and the >> training has been finalized. >> >> When all handover has been done there is a final acceptance, the >> agreement >> has been fulfilled and there may be written an agreement for >> maintenance. >> --------------------- >> >> -----Opprinnelig melding----- >> Fra: Torstein Hegbom [mailto:torst...@itpolaris.no] >> Sendt: 19. juni 2009 12:29 >> Til: dev@ofbiz.apache.org; 'Jacques Le Roux' >> Emne: SV: ASF Board Report for 2009-06 >> >> I don't have access to the space. :-( >> >> Torstein >> >> -----Opprinnelig melding----- >> Fra: Jacques Le Roux [mailto:jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com] >> Sendt: 19. juni 2009 10:44 >> Til: dev@ofbiz.apache.org >> Emne: Re: ASF Board Report for 2009-06 >> >> I think you could create a story there >> http://docs.ofbiz.org/pages/listpages-dirview.action?key=OFBREQDES >> But I'm not sure if you have access to this space. Then adding a >> comment at >> the right place would be taken into account >> >> Thanks >> >> Jacques >> >> From: "Torstein Hegbom" <torst...@itpolaris.no> >>> I have been testing the project manager module, and maybe there >>> should be a >>> connection to content-management, or something else. Before a >>> project >> starts >>> there is a set of requirements and suggestions. >>> >>> A sub-project has a start and an end, where purpose is to make some >>> deliveries. The deliveries are described in the requirements. These >>> requirements are an attachment to an agreement with the klient. >>> >>> When a project has been decided the requirements are frozen, and a >>> Bill Of >>> Material can be created for a sub-projet. The Bill Of Materials will >>> describe what the sub-project will deliver, and the tasks in the >>> project-plan describes how, who and when to deliver each item in >>> the Bill >> Of >>> Materials. >>> >>> Torstein >>> >>> -----Opprinnelig melding----- >>> Fra: Jacques Le Roux [mailto:jacques.le.r...@les7arts.com] >>> Sendt: 17. juni 2009 02:00 >>> Til: dev@ofbiz.apache.org >>> Emne: Re: ASF Board Report for 2009-06 >>> >>> I think it's a bit harder for the wiki part (we hage a project >>> manager but >>> no wiki), thus need for requirements collection and >>> design thereafter >>> Anyway, David already sent his links... >>> >>> Jacques >>> >>> From: "Ean Schuessler" <e...@brainfood.com> >>>> I think the most reasonable first step would be for us to build >>>> importers that mirror the state of JIRA into OFBiz project >>>> management. >>>> All user accounts should be modeled as Party with the proper >>>> corresponding roles. Once we see that we can get to a parallel >>>> level of >>>> functionality we could then transition OFBiz development onto our >>>> own >>>> infrastructure. Achieving this result should speak more firmly >>>> about our >>>> intent than any spoken claim and will convince other Apache >>>> projects >>>> that we have the capability to execute on the plan. >>>> >>>> Hans Bakker wrote: >>>>> In general these subjects were handled by Tim, perhaps better he >>>>> reacts >>>>> on that? >>>>> >>>>> i was referring to the last report about Infrastructure, >>>>> shouldn't we >>>>> mention that we are now using contegix resources and are waiting >>>>> for the >>>>> infrateam to respond? >>>>> >>>>> Then there was also a request to use ofbiz for the apache >>>>> administration/content management, shouldn't we say we are ready >>>>> for >>>>> that and are interested to make ofbiz suitable for that? >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >> >
