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How To Use The ERP5 Consulting Business Template

Information on usage and capabilities of the erp5 consulting bt5
  • Last Update:2016-04-14
  • Version:001
  • Language:en

This document introduces the modules provided by the ERP5 consulting template and how they can be used to structure and map consulting process to an eventual implementation of ERP5.

Table of Contents

Requirement (Feature) Module

This module allows entering all feature requirements of a client in tabular mode. Features should be converted into small excerpts defining individual requirements. Some clients already provide their requirements in tabular mode. In this case, all requirements should be entered in ERP5 Requirement/Feature Module.

Features can be grouped into feature families to simplify navigation. Thanks to the traceability process of the ERP5 consulting module, it is possible to track the coverage of all requirements through the project design and implementation.

Project Module

Once all features have been defined, it is possible to design a project using the ERP5 Project Module.

Projects are entered as a list of tasks broken down into arbitrary levels of sub tasks with associated resources and time. Tasks and subtasks can be associated with all the features they implement.

It is possible to produce a project design report to include in a commercial proposal for an ERP implementation. The project definition and speicfication of tasks also allows for calculating the price of a project. The project definition should start with a rough estimation with reduced depth. Once a project has been approved by a customer, final project design consists first in extending the definition of sub task with more precision, schedule tasks and assign them to specific persons or organizations.

Use Case Module

The Analysis phase of a project is supported by the Use Case Module and the Document Analysis Module.

The Use Case module supports the Use Case phase in the ERP5 implementation process. It allows for every use case to define involved actors and scenarios. During this process, actors are described and mapped to the ERP5 5A security model (Assignor, Assgnee, Author, Auditor, Associate).

Each scenario consists of a list of steps with detailed description. The condition of when to apply a scenario is defined for every scenario aswell. Scenario steps may refer to requested features whenever relevant. Use Case reports can be exported from ERP5 and included in a detailed design document to be used as reference for the client or the project team.

Document Analysis module

The Document Analysis module supports the Document Research phase and part of the Decision Analysis phase in ERP5 implementation process. The main purpose of document analysis is to identifty and name documents and document items both from a property and decision point of view.

The result of Document Analysis is a description of items in a document along with a list of document families. Items in a document are the rough building blocks of a document. For example, if a document contains 10 properties grouped in 3 frames and one table with 5 columns, there is a total of 4 items. Each frame correponds to one item. A line of table is the fourth document item. An item may for exemple represent the customer (with its name, address, country which consist overall in 3 properties). A line of table may represent of quantity of products to be invoiced.

Document Analysis should also search for traces of decisions in a document: signatures, decision histories, status, etc. A specific tab is dedicated to Decision Items.

Document Lexicon

The Lexicon Module supports PropertSheet Analysis in the ERP5 implementation process.

Lexixons are based on document analysis and Use Cases related to a given module. A useful lexicon should identify any properties defined in a document item or in a Use Case and map them to existing propertysheet or classes in ERP5. Some properties may be stored, others calculated dynamicaly.

Very often, properties defined by ERP5 PropertySheets are quite generic use names completely different from the names used for management in an industry or activity. For example, the property "quantity" is used to store debit and credit values in accounting. The main interest of Lexicons is to force a team to define all names which are then manipulated by ERP5 and to accelerate the mapping of such names to the existing ERP5 framework through a review workflow on Lexicons.

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