Three pillars of the platform for the workflow system
“We are what we eat” - the ancient Greek sages came to this conclusion. It is they who noticed that the food from which the foundation of the body is formed, as if from bricks, affects not only a person's well-being, but also his mood, mental activity and is even responsible for "spiritual health."
The workflow system can also have its foundation - a technological platform. The choice of the platform and the principles on which it is built, literally affects how the SED will continue to live - after all, these principles are the very “building blocks” that ensure its sustainability.
The EDS presented by the “boxed” version are practically all similar in functionality, since they are typical solutions suitable for most organizations. However, if the organization’s workflow is distinguished by a number of features that no single “boxed” solution can take into account, one cannot do without a designer: the system should provide opportunities for refinement.
In such cases, the choice of a platform solution is important. However, what should be the platform underlying the future EDS? What fundamental principles should underlie it? We have identified for ourselves three basic principles that the technological platform of the electronic document management system must possess in order to ensure the successful development of the SED in the future.
By adaptability, we understand the configurability of the system under the functional requirements of the customer organization. The SED technology platform can be called adaptive if it includes:
In this concept, we put the lack of binding to the supplier and the system environment - the operating system, a certain type of devices, and so on, and specifically:
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Using open source software is now a trend. The platform on which the EDS is built should provide opportunities for modification by the Customer’s efforts, without involving a vendor’s specialists — for example, by transferring the system to the Customer along with the source code. Detailed documentation on the platform and a certain community of users sharing their experience will not be superfluous. Thus, the Customer gets rid of the binding to the vendor, which can last for years, and gets the opportunity to hire its own specialists to further develop the system.
Practically all EDS includes client and server parts. Cross-platform on the client side is feasible using web-technologies. Using a full-fledged web client allows you to connect to the EDS from any device: personal computer, tablet, mobile phone. The web client does not require installation of special software (with the exception of the browser, which can be any of the popular ones), thereby simplifying the update of the EDS software. Cross-platform server allows you to select any database and operating system. Linking the EDS to a specific database and operating system may result in hidden costs for infrastructure: you will need to buy licenses for operating systems and databases.
After the SED is implemented in the organization, it is necessary to support it. Thus, when choosing an ERMS, you should pay attention to whether the platform underlying the system is supported by the vendor or the community (or both) and whether new system releases are released. Or was the system once written, and new versions do not come out, errors are not corrected? If the ERMS allows you to make changes to the functionality by changing your code, then you need to try to implement any function of the system using the platform. This will help you determine whether you can maintain the system yourself. At the same time, important factors with self-support of the system are:
Our electronic document management system TEZIS is built on the open source CUBA platform that meets all three of the above principles. I would like to pay special attention to the specialized development environment for CES TEASIS, based on CUBA Studio. If you choose EDMS for long-term use and plan to support the system, adapt and develop it yourself, then first of all we recommend trying to make an application on the CUBA platform using Studio. To do this, you can go through the Quick Start and see how easy and intuitive you can create enterprise applications on the platform. A hand-made application will allow you to understand all the above principles of the platform and make a choice in the direction of SED TEZIS.
The workflow system can also have its foundation - a technological platform. The choice of the platform and the principles on which it is built, literally affects how the SED will continue to live - after all, these principles are the very “building blocks” that ensure its sustainability.
The EDS presented by the “boxed” version are practically all similar in functionality, since they are typical solutions suitable for most organizations. However, if the organization’s workflow is distinguished by a number of features that no single “boxed” solution can take into account, one cannot do without a designer: the system should provide opportunities for refinement.
In such cases, the choice of a platform solution is important. However, what should be the platform underlying the future EDS? What fundamental principles should underlie it? We have identified for ourselves three basic principles that the technological platform of the electronic document management system must possess in order to ensure the successful development of the SED in the future.
Adaptability
By adaptability, we understand the configurability of the system under the functional requirements of the customer organization. The SED technology platform can be called adaptive if it includes:
- The module for managing users and their rights. It allows you to create users in the system, and then distribute to them permissions to access various objects and functions of the system. The user management and user rights module should be dynamic: user rights should be changed on the fly, without restarting the system or updating the software version.
- Business process module. The flexibility of the system depends on the availability of a business process design module, which will allow creating unique document flow processes for an organization.
- Reporting module. The availability of the report design module will allow the creation of new print forms for electronic documents, as well as ensure the availability of business intelligence tools that allow organizations to obtain statistics on the organization’s work in various sections.
- Designer screen forms. The functionality of this constructor allows you to add new fields to the cards of documents and tasks, expand and create new directories in the system in visual mode without the use of programming tools.
- Ability to adapt to increasing system loads. Over time, the amount of information stored in the system is growing steadily, so it is important that the system was initially designed with the possibility of working with large amounts of data. Also, with an increase in the number of users, the load on the server part can significantly increase. The system should continue to provide minimal response time at increased loads. The clustering of the system allows solving this problem.
Independence
In this concept, we put the lack of binding to the supplier and the system environment - the operating system, a certain type of devices, and so on, and specifically:
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Openness
Using open source software is now a trend. The platform on which the EDS is built should provide opportunities for modification by the Customer’s efforts, without involving a vendor’s specialists — for example, by transferring the system to the Customer along with the source code. Detailed documentation on the platform and a certain community of users sharing their experience will not be superfluous. Thus, the Customer gets rid of the binding to the vendor, which can last for years, and gets the opportunity to hire its own specialists to further develop the system.
Cross platform
Practically all EDS includes client and server parts. Cross-platform on the client side is feasible using web-technologies. Using a full-fledged web client allows you to connect to the EDS from any device: personal computer, tablet, mobile phone. The web client does not require installation of special software (with the exception of the browser, which can be any of the popular ones), thereby simplifying the update of the EDS software. Cross-platform server allows you to select any database and operating system. Linking the EDS to a specific database and operating system may result in hidden costs for infrastructure: you will need to buy licenses for operating systems and databases.
Maintainability
After the SED is implemented in the organization, it is necessary to support it. Thus, when choosing an ERMS, you should pay attention to whether the platform underlying the system is supported by the vendor or the community (or both) and whether new system releases are released. Or was the system once written, and new versions do not come out, errors are not corrected? If the ERMS allows you to make changes to the functionality by changing your code, then you need to try to implement any function of the system using the platform. This will help you determine whether you can maintain the system yourself. At the same time, important factors with self-support of the system are:
- The use of free software and popular programming languages. Currently, the most popular programming language is Java, making it easy to find a programmer on the labor market. Electronic document management systems built on Java technology will be easier to maintain.
- Availability of development tools for the platform. If the vendor provides specific tools for modifying the program code of its SED, it will be easier to refine such a product. Such tools are diverse, from simple tools for editing the configuration to specialized IDE, “sharpened” to work with the platform.
- The possibility of easy expansion of the existing functionality of the system. This refers to the mechanisms laid down in the platform, providing for the creation of system extensions and ensuring compatibility of improvements with the new versions of the ERMS.
CES TEASIS and CUBA platform
Our electronic document management system TEZIS is built on the open source CUBA platform that meets all three of the above principles. I would like to pay special attention to the specialized development environment for CES TEASIS, based on CUBA Studio. If you choose EDMS for long-term use and plan to support the system, adapt and develop it yourself, then first of all we recommend trying to make an application on the CUBA platform using Studio. To do this, you can go through the Quick Start and see how easy and intuitive you can create enterprise applications on the platform. A hand-made application will allow you to understand all the above principles of the platform and make a choice in the direction of SED TEZIS.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/302470/
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