Universities

Introduction

Universities have played a very significant role in the development of the Internet and open source. Some of the basic technologies in the open source space, such as the BSD based operating systems, the X-Window graphical system and many others, have been developed and improved in universities. Openbravo ERP is an open community which strives to maximize collaboration and welcomes contributions from the academia world. The objective of these collaborations with academia is to produce deliverables that are usable in the Openbravo ERP project.

The following proposal targets academia institutions allowing students to get real hands-on experience on an active open source project that produces projects used in the business world. This proposal also wants to help students to develop their domain of knowledge in the ERP space, gain experience in contributing within open source communities, experience in distributed software development, and in the use of tools used in business environments.

Suggested structure

Our suggested structure for organizing the contributions between academia and Openbravo ERP project is based on mentors and students. Mentors, who are usually teachers, supervise the work accomplished by students to ensure that the quality of their outputs and focus matches Openbravo community standards.

For software engineering courses

Our suggested requirements for academia mentors are:

• Strong understating of Openbravo functionality.
• Understanding of the Openbravo source control system.
• Basic understanding of the Openbravo bug tracking system.
• Strong understanding of web based applications, databases and the Java framework.
• Basic understanding of Openbravo architecture and data model.
• Familiarity with Openbravo community resources (forums, IRC, Wiki, etc).

Our suggested skills for students are:

• Put aside at least two weeks full time to be devoted to the program.
• Basic understanding of web based applications, databases and the Java framework.
• Basic understanding of Openbravo architecture and data model.
• Basic understanding of Openbravo functionality.
• Familiarity with Openbravo community resources (forums, IRC, Wiki, etc).

For business applications courses

Our suggested requirements for academia mentors are:

• Strong understating of Openbravo functionality.
• Understanding of web based applications, databases and the Java framework.
• Understanding of Openbravo architecture and data model.
• Familiarity with Openbravo community resources (forums, IRC, Wiki, etc).

Our suggested skills for students are:

• Basic understanding of web based applications, databases and the Java framework.
• Basic understanding of Openbravo architecture and data model.
• Strong understanding of Openbravo functionality.
• Familiarity with Openbravo community resources (forums, IRC, Wiki, etc).

Suggested learning path for Openbravo ERP

ERP systems are complex pieces of software and require time to learn. Our suggested path of learning for students is:

• Use Openbravo ERP virtual images to learn the product.
• Read Openbravo ERP's Functional Documentation, User Manual, Developer's Guide and Architecture documentation.
• Execute Openbravo ERP's Acceptance Tests to get familiar with the most basic functionalities.
• Participate in Openbravo ERP forums to acquire domain understanding.

For software engineering courses only

• Install Openbravo ERP and the necessary underlying stack.
• Setup the development environment and compile the application from the source code to get familiar with it.
• Bug fixing to acquire technical understanding of Openbravo ERP technology and development processes.

What can Openbravo offer

• Provide you with documentation to set up an instance of Openbravo ERP.
• Provide you with documentation on how to set up your development environments.
• Initially, assign you small development tasks ranging from editing documentation to fixing bugs in order to develop your knowledge of processes and Openbravo technology.
• Eventually assign you new development projects.
• Provide a supervisor that can guide the mentors on how to structure their work.

If you are responsible for a program in an academic institution and you have interest in participating in this program, please contact us at collaborate_AT_openbravo.com. Openbravo offers a framework agreement for academia institutions willing to participate.

Students that do not belong to academia institutions that are part of this program can participate on their own as any other potential contributor but without having access to the benefits described as part of this program.