[aspiwork-pdm-devel] Synopsis

[aashish atl]

Dear lispnik,
Following is description of how this project started. Much of the logic is
derived from my experiences when I was serving term at past employments.
Being with qualifications in design, I was dealing with loads of CAD files
with occasional office documents. I witnessed file clutter with names like
'latest-latest-latest.drawing' and was saved at minimum ten different
places. Level of sophistication depended on size of office and attention of
pointy-hair-boss.
An engineer's output is generally organized, specially if he is programmer.
I wonder if that's the case elsewhere. What is needed at other professional
offices is open to your own observation and survey. I have tried code as on
Dec'10 with requirements from a civil engineer's, an architect's and a
company secretary's(chartered like CA) offices.
---start---
Project: Aspiwork Product-Project Data Management Server
Synopsis (Nov'09)
Problem:
    Product and project are considered as 'ends a professional meets' for
sake of simplicity. PDM indicates software 'means' to meet the said ends.
    A small office, typically that of a consultant's, often lacks a system
to organize their resources reflected as an electronic file. They organize
their files in orderly folder hierarchies on different work stations or a
network file server. Yet individual users make inadvertent mistakes in
placing new or revised files at their correct locations. Rules to correctly
name files are missing or ignored. Additionally, unified listing of such
files with short description (meta information) is non-existent or poorly
maintained.  As the size of project or product increases, so does the team
size and related number of files. This leads to occasional problem of
'resource(file) difficult to locate even when job is done' crisis. User is
compelled to search for desired resource from a vast scatter of file system.
In search he often stumbles upon not-expected-to-visit type of files. On a
larger scale, its increasingly difficult to take view of overall project
status through file system. Proposed software incorporates file labeling
scheme, classification scheme, its storage and retrieval, revision scheme,
meta information management, access control and summary dashboards.
    Most offices or consultants perform their specific set activities to
complete a product or project. Such specific activities follow a typical
path that can be identified with movement of resource files from desk to
desk. As with file management, rules for such process are informal and are
subject to human efforts and error. Proposed software needs to incorporate
such rules in terms of flow of resource files.
Present condition:
    PDM as its available in software market today is often over-specialized,
locked with specific file types, expensive and complex to implement. So much
so that PDM is often seen as a tool only useful and affordable to large
companies. SaaS and Cloud Computing solutions, even if highly efficient and
economical, are turned down because of data privacy issues. Compulsory
vendor dependent nature of such implementation also discourages end user to
opt for such software. Geographic location of end user and software vendor
accentuates non-availability and no-awareness of such software tools.
Working style and demographic trends of software use by professionals are
subtle factor but greatly affect their curiosity, trust, openness, readiness
to pay and hence in selection of software.
Proposed solution:
    Basic PDM server shall be distributed under GPL. Primarily, this server
needs to provide least common denominator of each of the individual
subsystem e.g. revision scheme need not be as advanced as used by engineers,
same for file storage, office roll, access control and process flow. With
LCM terminology, generalization to accommodate diverse interests is intended
and not frugality. Such a software needs to be installable with least
possible assistance from a specialized IT professionals. It must not destroy
existing professional practices but shall reveal adaptive nature. It aims at
being simple, non-threatening and exploratory yet useful for end user.
    Customized PDM servers shall fulfill specific needs of professional
practices for a fee. This shall not only make best use of lisp's capability
to handle complex business operations but also promote lisp programmers at
their respective geographic locations via direct end user interactions.
    This project also intends to create interactive templates using
lisp-macros such that non-programmer-domain-experts can find expression for
their knowledge of specific occupational processes.
---end---
Thanks and warm regards
~Aashish
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.common-lisp.net/pipermail/aspiwork-pdm-devel/attachments/20110217/5163bff0/attachment.html>