Finding your inner Zachman

The last couple of weeks I have been working on applying the Zachman's framework for enterprise architecture to two projects. I have been struggling through the first row and then skipped around a bit. I think I have found the part of the project (any project) I am most passionate about.... Working with Human Interface Architecture and explaining it as a designer to the builder of the Presentation Architecture. In my mind this level needs to be closely related to the Business Process Model and to the List of Business Goals/Strategies. [1] John Zachman. 2008. Diagram of: A framework for enterprise architecture. http://zachmaninternational.com/2/Zachman_Framework.asp. [Accessed: 2 December 2011] [PDF] [Link]

Where do I see myself most helpful in the large project...

References

References
1 John Zachman. 2008. Diagram of: A framework for enterprise architecture. http://zachmaninternational.com/2/Zachman_Framework.asp. [Accessed: 2 December 2011] [PDF] [Link]

ProfDev Data Tracking

My wife has been tasked to be the Professional Development Coordinator for the company at which we work. Her task has several interesting things about in the area of data tracking. One question needing to be asked is: “what are the experiences and skills of our current employees?” This suggests that a databases with cross sections of professionally related events, people and skills is needed. These data then need to be able to be viewed by various stakeholders so that the data can be read and analyzed and understood; eventually to be acted upon and incorporated into company strategies for doing business.

One of the things that is obvious from the start is that a web based collection system is need for the data. A storage solution is also called for. And finally an web based analysis tool for presenting the data in a variety of manners for final use is needed.

So in an effort to help my wife out I have been looking a OpenSource implementations of Resume databases and CV building Databases. It has been my experience that when it comes to IT solutions that people need unique implementations and have unique criteria to meet but do not have unique problems. I think I even found a service that provides some professional development tracking called Onefile. But for our company it makes sense to approach this problem with an eye to integrate it with other corporate IT infrastructure, rather than silo it as an outsourced the system.

Summaries of Goals

This effort to take a strategic look a professional development of employees is part of an effort to look holistically at the corporation’s pool of human talent. The motivation is to be able to strategically deploy our skills in a manner where there is the largest return on investment. It is also important for us to be able to present our talented people and the products of their efforts to the world; both for credibility and for marketing.

Difficulties in the business world

There are quite a few legal challenges for companies (working in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere) retaining these kinds of records, let alone sharing them with business partners.

Social networks are notorious for being able (if they are successful networks) pull information from users easily.

The data to be tracked

Facebook CV/Resume Creator apps

Easy CV Creator EasyCV Curriculum Vitae

Example YouTube video: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egEadu5EUjI
CV Creative

Not popular…

My CV
Works with the http://moncv.com/ service.

Resume Factory

My Resume

1.5 of 5

Resume Central

Captain ResumeCaptain Resume
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?ref=sgm&id=23892177864
3.5 of 5

LinkedIn:
Share it on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=6394109615&ref=appd

Opensource stuff:
http://www.kite-eu.org/kite/en/download/
http://digitaldisruptions.org/rhizome/

http://www.margaperez.com/2009/08/resurfacing-the-kite-europass-cv-plug-in-for-wordpress/
http://digitaldisruptions.org/rhizome/2009/10/12/updating-the-application-profile-of-the-europass-cv-based-on-hr-xml-candidate-specifications-3-0/

http://digitaldisruptions.org/rhizome/2009/08/06/resurfacing-the-kite-europass-cv-plug-in-for-wordpress/comment-page-1/#comment-158
HR-XML:
http://www.sarmsoft.com/product/resumebuilder/

Plone:
http://plone.org/products/faculty-cv

Java:
http://gestcv.sourceforge.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gestcv/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lusid/

hResume:
Could not find a creator which worked

Conference Management
http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ocs
http://www.conftool.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wcmt/
Conman
http://github.com/herlo/ConMan
http://blog.utos.org/2008/01/31/utosf-hacknight-a-grand-success/
http://conman.utosc.com/pages/home/
http://code.google.com/p/utos-conman/
registration
http://code.google.com/p/scalereg/

Coraga
http://corga.sourceforge.net/

Drupal conference registration
http://drupalmodules.com/module/conference

Social Network
http://www.boonex.com/dolphin/
http://www.patrick-opitz.com/projects/facelift/about/
http://www.xoops.org/ This is an open source social network which looks interesting but I am not sure how much momentum is behind it.

4.5 out of 5
This social network looks really cool and targets the e-portfolio
http://mahara.org/

Services:
http://en.easy-cv.com/

People Exist in Space and Time

The situation though is that everything that goes into a resume or a CV after biographical information is an event in which the person was involved, a skill they have or a resource they have helped to create. So if we could automatically pull information from the events and resources and then organize them according to Who then we would almost be there. (I am not sure how our company is tracking these kinds of information. It is most likely in a MS Word document.)

Events have several attributes one of those is time.

This is course management software: with calendars and DHTML in Video.
http://www.olat.org/website/en/html/about_features.html

NO CALENDAR….
http://www.davical.org/
http://www.bedework.org/bedework/update.do
http://trac.calendarserver.org/wiki/CalDAVTester

So How do we pull data from the container which holds our resources?
Well the container holding our resources is DSpace.
But these options work with wordpress….
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wikindx-macro-plug-in-for-wordpress/
http://wikindx.sourceforge.net/
http://refdb.sourceforge.net/features.html

http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Citeline_Developer%27s_Guide
http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Citeline_User%27s_Guide

Example resumes
http://matthewlevine.com/resume

Why do we need a Resume now that I have a Job?
http://optional.is/required/2010/02/01/have-gun-will-travel/

Open source HR tools / Office forms

In the company I work for, it is common practice for them to send me .doc files to use as forms for administrative functions. They are often created as templates and then when when the purpose of the form is triggered then a .doc is sent as an attachment in an email. In today’s modern age this process seems relatively inefficient in terms of man hours involved for several reasons:

  1. Some admin person has to create the form.
  2. I have to fill it out and send it back.
  3. In order for the information to be used more than once the information has to be taken out of the form and inserted into a database of some kind.

It also seems irresponsible use of bandwidth and harddrive space when one considers:

  • The email sent the first time takes up bandwidth, and harddrive space in the sent box and received box.
  • The form is likely to be saved in a folder related to the project it is needed for, and then possibly saved again after it is completed.
  • The Completed form is likely to be sent back to the first person sending the request form and then possibly several other people.

It seems a lot more efficient to create a web based application on a company LAN/WAN and then have the employee fill out the application there and give the (all) admin personnel needing the info access to the completed info and have the data displayed as a form. – simple. Except in our industry there are two obvious difficulties which need to be overcome:

  • How does the admin person create the web based form?
  • How does the company supply off-line access to employees for filling out the form?

As for the second point I am not sure that I have an answer. But concerning the first point, .doc files are probably used because that is what is easy to use and .doc / word processing is a tool which is familiar to the admin person.
The question I am asking is, is there an open source LAMP app which lets one create forms for office processes which lets users (admin personnel) quickly and easily create and deploy forms? It would also be nice for the fields to pull from the same database when practical. i.e. The office needs to create two forms. Both require the employee filling out the form to put their name in the form and the names of the people to whom they are sending the form. Because the employee logged into the LAN/WAN then the form should auto propagate with the name of the logged in user. However, if it didn’t then it should be prompted when the employee starts filling out the form “Autocomplete style” and the suggestions for names should come from the corporation central database of employee names. The end goal is that the admin person should be able to click button and activate a widget in the form and the widget should behave the someway, relating data or relating to data sources across different forms created for the office.

Some OpenSource Projects I found through a Google Search but have not tried:
http://www.orangehrm.com/download.php
http://www.openhris.com/
http://www.kineoopensource.com/index.php/role/hr/
http://www.joobsbox.com/
http://www.jobdigtracker.com/
http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/open-source-job-board-application-joobsbox/

http://www.toplev.com/OfficeForms.html

Zoho Office
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/07/create-web-forms-with-zoho-creator.html