Open Source Financial System What Are You Crazy

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Open Source Financial System? What?? Are You
Crazy?
Barry Walsh, Indiana UniversityOctober 16, 2006
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Community Source Projects
Community source describes a model for the
purposeful coordinating of work in a community.
It is based on many of the principles of open
source development efforts, but community source
efforts add more explicitly defined roles,
responsibilities, and funded commitments by
community members than some open source
development models. . from
www.sakaiproject.org
Community source describes a model for the
purposeful coordinating of work in a community.
It is based on many of the principles of open
source development efforts, but community source
efforts add more explicitly defined roles,
responsibilities, and funded commitments by
community members than some open source
development models. . from
www.sakaiproject.org
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Why Would a Trend Stop Short?
Historical Trends with Open Source
Moodle Sakai Kuali
SAP PSFT/Oracle SCT Blackboard
Applications
???
Apache Tomcat Zope
WebSphere BEA Oracle
Web/Application Servers
MySQL Ingres Postgres
DB2, Oracle, SQLServer
DBMS
FreeBSDLinux
MVS, Solaris, DEC, XP
Operating Systems
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This Stuff is NOT Going Away
Rob Abel, CEO of the IMS Global Learning
Consortium and president of the Alliance for
Higher Education Competitiveness, says that the
most exciting iterations of open source in higher
ed today are applications that institutions are
using to replace software they once purchased
from vendors. Theres a real interest in this
and real potential for this stuff to come in and
help schools better manage the technology theyre
using, he says. To call open source the wave of
the future would be an understatement.
http//www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id18
779p2 July, 2006
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Future?
Current ERP Model
Integrated Suite
Course Catalog
Personal Database
Standards Based Core Technologies WS SOA
Workflow
Degree Advising
Financial Aid Regs/Processing
Registration for Classes
Admissions
Bursar
Transcripts.
Goal ZDU (Zero Disruptive Upgrades)
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IU FIS
Current Release 47.1 July 15, 2006
How many of these 47 releases were
disruptive? -shut down of system for extended
period (gt few hours) -major expense to campus
(technical or functional) -major business
process changes forced by software -significant
retraining of users -etc.
Release 1 July 1, 1994 Release 27 June 10,
2000
2!!!
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Huh?
Loose Coupling
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KFS Founding Partners

• Started with Six Institutional Founding Partners
• NACUBO and The rSmart Group are Founding Partners

On 7/8/06, a new Investing Partner joined
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Kuali Financial System

• Functional/Technical leads met Dec 2004
• Scope and the data that was to be contained in
  the system (based primarily on existing FIS)
• Person-years estimated to be somewhere around 60
• Time allotted for project was 2.5 years
• So 60 / 2.5 24 FTE developers plus some
  additional project management and ancillary
  resources required

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Kuali Financial System

• Scope
• Over 700 distinct tables
• Over 100 distinct routable business transactions
• Over 400 distinct maintenance transactions
• Hundreds of inquiries, lookups, and mandatory
  reports to support online decision making

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Kuali Financial System

• Phase I Deliverables (Oct 2006)
• Chart of Accounts
• Financial Transactions/General Ledger
• Kuali Nervous System (KNS)
• Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW)
• Phase IIA Deliverables (July 2007)
• Accounts Payable/Purchasing
• Budget Construction
• Labor Ledger
• Research Administration/Grants Contracts
• Phase IIB Deliverables (Mar 2008)
• Accounts Receivable
• Capital Assets Management System

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Governance

• Kuali Foundation
• Ongoing governance, post Mellon Grant
• Support
• Direction
• Initial Board members
• Kuali Partners Program
• Institutions
• Commercial Affiliates

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Kuali Foundation

• May, 2006
• Not-for-profit
• Filed for 501c3
• Shared Services
• Leverage
• Engagement
• Commercial Affiliates
• Continuity
• Standards

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Governance /contd

• Kuali Financial Systems Board
• Voting member from each Investing Institution
• NACUBO and The rSmart Group
• Extended Board
• Project Manager
• Developers from each Institution
• Functional Council
• Members from each Partner Institution
• NACUBO and The rSmart Group
• Subcommittees

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Formula for Success
New System Design ?
Start from Some Existing System(s)
Limited Enhancements Defined by Functional
Council
Refactor The Technology
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Developing Enterprise-scale systems is Really
Difficult.
Developing them With Others is Really, Really,
Really Difficult
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• The Secret Sauce Recipe
• Begin with an Existing System
• Use Date-Driven Development
• Board Members Must Face Delivery Back Home
• Create a Strong Board and Governance
• Engage in Post-Project Community Development up
  Front

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Vette Project Talent Carefully and Make Necessary
Decisions Kindergarten lessons learned
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Effective Collaboration is a valuable
Organizational Capability
Staff Development Work to Learn How to Partner
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Public Presence

• It is essential to develop and promote a public
  presence for open projects
• For KFS we have embraced several ideas
• KFS Days events for interested non-contributors
• Front facing websites for the project
• www.kuali.org
• www.kualitestdrive.org
• Presentations at NACUBO, ACUBOs, EDUCAUSE, JA-SIG
  and other venues

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(No Transcript)
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Questions?
Barry Walsh, Indiana Universitywalsh_at_indiana.edu
812 340 3718