Apache OFBiz at ApacheCon US 2009
Project Management Committee: See Apache OFBiz PMC Members and Committers
Subprojects covered by Track: None
PMC Liason/Spokesorganizer(s): David E. Jones
Planning Team Mentor & Liason: William A. Rowe, Jr.
Track Description
A series of presentations covering effective use of Apache Open For Business (OFBiz) and effective collaboration with other people who use Apache OFBiz. Topics covered will include testing, sales, management, and analysis and design.
Target Audience
Anyone interested in using or contributing to a Apache OFBiz. Some presentations will be more of more interest to those who want technical details while most will be targeted at people with business interest including sales, management, and effective collaboration with others who use and contribute to OFBiz.
Proposed Schedule
Friday, November 6th, 2009
http://www.us.apachecon.com/c/acus2009/schedule#ofbiz
09:00 - 10:00
REGISTRATION
10:00 - 10:50
Session 1: Getting Started with Apache OFBiz in 5 Easy Steps
10:50 - 11:15
BREAK
11:15 - 12:05
Session 2: Collaboration on Requirements and Designs for Apache OFBiz
12:05 - 13:30
LUNCH
13:30 - 14:20
KEYNOTE
14:30 - 15:20
Session 3: Selling Open Source E-commerce and ERP
15:20 - 16:00
BREAK
16:00 - 16:50
Session 4: Functional Testing OFBiz Applications with Selenium XML
17:00 - 17:50
Session 5: Roundtable Discussion: Usability, Content Management, Current Areas of Project Activity
18:00
END OF PROGRAM
Additional Events
Questions and Answers
Proposed Sessions
Session Title: Getting Started with Apache OFBiz in 5 Easy Steps
Session Code: TBD
Speaker: Ruth Hoffman
Speaker Bio: Ruth began her computer career before the advent of the Internet as a real-time embedded software engineer. She wrote command and control simulation systems in languages long since extinct. From there, she moved into enterprise and applications support where she was responsible for the technical marketing of operating systems, databases and infrastructure software. She has held roles in software product management, sales support, marketing, and training. Over the last several years, she has moved back to her roots as a software developer, embracing the Web and Open Source software. As an advocate of OFBiz, she has been using the OFBiz project software since early 2003 for a variety of enterprise projects including: VOIP Consumer E-Commerce and Self-Service Provisioning Portal, Enterprise License Key Management Application, Log File Management Framework, Database Performance and Management Console, and Numerous E-Commerce Web Stores. Her most recent project, myOFBiz.com, is an endeavor to use OFBiz exclusively to develop, market and distribute the highest quality learning resources for and about OFBiz.
Session Description: Apache OFBiz brings Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to the masses with a no cost, Open Source, Enterprise ready suite of business automation applications. Built on best-of-breed technology, the database agnostic OFBiz ERP platform makes cost effective, reliable and secure business automation a reality. No longer are ERP systems beyond the reach of the small and medium sized business owner. In this session - Getting Started with OFBiz in 5 Easy Steps - we shall discuss getting OFBiz up and running quickly to maximize return on investment and minimize upfront costs. Using a real life example we shall demonstrate that it is possible for any sized organization to build a sound business using the Apache OFBiz Open Source ERP platform.
Target Audience: New Users, "Tire Kickers", Potential Users who don't know where to start with OFBiz.
Session Title: Collaboration on Requirements and Designs for Apache OFBiz
Session Code: TBD
Speaker: David E. Jones
Speaker Bio: A co-creator of the Apache Open For Business Project (OFBiz), David is now the Vice President representing the project at the Apache Software Foundation. In addition to being heavily involved in the maintenance and development of the open source project, David has provided enterprise software architecture and development services based on OFBiz to organizations including British Telecom, United Airlines, and dozens of smaller organizations. David has presented on OFBiz at national and international conferences including JavaOne, ApacheCon, SIPA (Thailand), and BIOS (Finland). He holds a Computer Science degree from Brigham Young University.
Session Description: To date most of the collaboration in the OFBiz project has been on implementation. What to implement and how is frequently discussed, but there have been very few efforts to produce artifacts that represent requirements that can drive designs, and designs that can drive implementation. In this presentation David will offer an overview of UBPL, the HEMP artifacts it is based on, designs based on parts of UBPL and applications being developed based on those, and overlap analysis between UBPL and what exists in OFBiz. With these tools business people can directly participate in the project and developers can more effectively communicate and understand the context in which they are working. The result of these efforts will be software in the project that more directly meets the needs of a variety of end-users.
Target Audience: Anyone who cares about what is developed in OFBiz, regardless of preference to collaborate on requirements, designs, or implementation.
Session Title: Selling Open Source E-commerce and ERP
Session Code: TBD
Speaker: Mike Bates of HotWax Media
Speaker Bio: Mike founded HotWax Media in 1997, and his career in sales, marketing, design and web development spans a dozen years. Mike is focused on business development, acquiring and growing key accounts, and developing a profitable business model around open source software. He has led high-profile projects for numerous national and global brands and has taught web development courses at the graduate level. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from the Monterey Institute of International Studies with a B.A. in International Studies, he earned his MBA in International Management from the Fisher School.
Session Description: As open source becomes more mainstream, the pool of potential open source e-commerce and ERP clients continues to grow. In this presentation Mike Bates, CEO of HotWax Media, discusses the act of including open source in the sales process with different target audiences; what works, what doesn't, the anatomy of a success story, and perhaps a catastrophic failure or two.
Target Audience: Direct (external) sales teams as well as those working in internal positions who have a goal of encouraging open source adoption within their organization.
Session Title: Functional Testing OFBiz Applications with Selenium XML
Session Code: TBD
Speaker: Brett Palmer of Automation Groups
Speaker Bio: Brett has been developing software professionally for the past 15 years. He currently works as a software consultant helping companies and governments implement large ERP systems. He has been developing custom business applications using Open for Business (OFBiz) since 2002. For the past 6 years, Brett has been working on several offshore projects combining software developers in the US with offshore teams working in India. Brett holds an Electrical Engineering degree and a Masters of Business Administration from Brigham Young University. He also holds a Masters in Computer Science from Utah State University.
Session Description: Functional testing for ERP applications like those in OFBiz can be very laborious and time consuming. In this presentation, Brett explains how OFBiz users can create effective functional tests for their applications using a framework called Selenium XML Selenium XML is an extension of Selenium (http://seleniumhq.org) and allows a user to create and run functional tests in a simple XML format. The framework supports multiple browsers and provides functional and visual verification of a real user experience. This presentation will cover recording tests and converting them to Selenium XML, parameterizing those tests, combining functional and system level tests, and automating test running. Brett will also be presenting on future directions such as converting test cases to functional document, auto-generating test cases based on OFBiz artifacts, and adding scripting support and AJAX libraries to Selenium XML.
Target Audience: The session is intended for all users of OFBiz including developers, testers, and users. A knowledge of
XML is the only prerequisite for learning how to create test cases in Selenium XML.
Session Title: Roundtable Discussion: Usability, Content Management, Current Areas of Project Activity
Session Code: TBD
Moderator: David E. Jones
Session Description: This is a roundtable discussion focused around a few different aspects of the project and will provide an opportunity for people to share related ideas, become familiar with some of the ideas that have been discussed on the mailing lists and that people like or don't like. The goal will be to share experiences, opinions, and ideas about what opportunities are around and what sorts of tools and practices we can use to go after them.
Target Audience: Users of, and contributors to, Apache OFBiz