© 2004, the trustees of indiana university kuali project architecture ja-sig december 7, 2004 james...

© 2004, The Trustees of Indiana University

Kuali Project Architecture

JA-SIG

December 7, 2004

James Thomas

Manager, Systems Integration

Indiana University


Session Agenda

• Kuali Project Overview (brief)

• Service Oriented Architecture

• Kuali Development Methodology

• Standard Tools and Frameworks

• Key Infrastructure: Portal & Workflow


Kuali Project Overview


Overview

Kuali – kitchen wok; humble utensil

Community Source Project

See www.kualiproject.org for details


Overview

Develop a comprehensive suite of financial software to serve the needs of higher education. Modules include:

Chart of Accounts PurchasingGeneral Ledger Accounts PayableGeneral Accounting Cash Receipting/DisbursementAccounts Receivable Travel Req/ReimbursementCapital Asset Mgmnt E-CommercePre/Post-Award Admin Budget ConstructionAuxiliary Accounting Workflow (infrastructure)


Overview

Project Status

Work has already begun

“Official” kickoff in January 2005

Two-year development plan


Kuali Project Architecture


Architecture

Key Objectives• Design highly functional and flexible software

• Technology choices based on industry standard, open source, and “proven” solutions

• Deliver applications via loosely-coupled components and services with clearly defined APIs

• Leverage core “IT assets”

• Emphasize code re-use/reduce redundancy


Architecture

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

• Services are loosely coupled.

• Services have well-defined interfaces and

are reusable.

• Focus on business processes


Architecture

Benefits of SOA

• Improved ROI – some reusable components will outlive applications

• Easier to maintain code base

• Code Mobility


Architecture

Benefits of SOA (continued)

• Can support multiple clients - browser or “rich client”

• Services can be assembled to build new applications faster

• Independent layers make development by different groups easier using standard APIs


Kuali Development Methodology


Methodology

Problems with previous methodologies• Process driven• Difficult to keep up with changes• Time consuming• Inefficient• Sometimes less than satisfactory results• Inflexible – requirements do change


Methodology

What’s wrong with this picture?

Where is our focus?

Our goal is to develop software that works for our customers


Methodology

Development Methodology for delivering working software

• Flexible (b/c the only certainty is change)• Efficient• Results-Oriented• People-Centered• Feedback Driven• Sustainable


Methodology

Strategy• Plan for shorter development cycles• Embrace change• Developers and functional experts should

work together continuously• Open communication• Quality software builds trust and faith• Keep it simple/avoid over-engineering


Methodology

One Possibility: Test-Driven Development (TDD)

• TDD is a lightweight methodology emphasizing fast, incremental development and writing tests before writing code

• Start with small pieces of functionality and then build the app little-by-little (red/green/refactor)


Methodology

Benefits of TDD• Code that works! • Immediate feedback on design decisions• Flexibility• Users provide input “as you go”• Confident programmers• Fully testable code base• Clean and maintainable code


Methodology

Exploring other concepts from• Agile Processes• Extreme Programming (XP)

Learning and adapting as we go

Like the results thus far


Kuali Standard Tools and Frameworks


Tools/Frameworks

Standards• Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)• XML/XSLT

Tools/Frameworks• Struts/JSTL• Spring• Object Relational Bridge (OJB)• jUnit and jMeter• Log4J


Platforms

• Web Server: Linux, Apache

• Application Server: Linux, Tomcat 5

• DBMS: Oracle *

*avoiding triggers, stored procedures, proprietary data types, etc. in order to achieve database independence


Key Kuali InfrastructurePortal & Workflow


Enterprise Portal

Kuali services will be designed to be delivered via a standard enterprise portal framework

Access to “Action List” service for managing electronic transactions (eDocs) via enterprise workflow


Power of Workflow

A general-purpose infrastructure for conducting mediated transactions with electronic documents (eDocs)

Quick, easy, and accurate routing

Automate University business rules

Complete Audit Trail


OneStart Workflow

EXAMPLE:

OneStart Workflow is currently routing over 1,800 eDocs/day and 55,000/mo

Human Resources eDocs previously requiring 1 to 2 weeks to process have been approved in < 1 hour

38 different types of eDocs from 3 diff apps


Workflow Lessons

Causes re-evaluation of current business processes. Are they efficient?

No more “Bottleneck Bills”.

We see Workflow…

…everywhere!


Conclusions


Conclusions

Kuali Partners are committed to:

Community Source Software

Service Oriented Architecture

Iterative and Flexible Methodology

Open Standards

Enterprise Application Integration


Conclusion

We are genuinely excited about the challenges and the possibilities!!!


Want technical details?

Attend this session TODAY (12/7/04):

“Pragmatic Application Building: Step-By-Step”

Build IT Track

2:00 to 3:00PM

Presenter: Jay Sissom

Indiana University


Questions?

James Thomas

Manager, Systems Integration

University Information Systems

Indiana University

[email protected]

© 2004, the trustees of indiana university kuali project architecture ja-sig december 7, 2004 james...

Documents

sustainable slide

redundancy slide

standard apis slide

portal workflow slide

code base code mobility

shorter development

applications easier

industry standard