Business Processes

[Derek Atkins]

As Linas and I have been discussing, we need a somewhat flexible
business-process engine.  In particular, we need a flexible engine
that provides the right state-machine to help users properly
enter data into the system.

In particular, we need a process to allow users to:

	Enter Job/Sales Orders
	Invoice the Orders and Post to A/R
		Maybe print the invoice to send out?
	Process a Receipt and Post to A/R

	Enter Purchase Orders
	Invoice the Order and Post to A/P
	Process a Payement and Post to A/P

Part of these processes are obviously "choose XXX" where 'XXX'
is the Customer/Vendor/Job/Order/Invoice etc.  What's the "best"
interface for making these choices?  Quite frankly, what I think
is a good choice method may not be your choice.  This is why it
needs to be flexible.

Also, some users may want to enter items directly into a Invoice,
bypasing order entry.  Others may want a multi-stage process.
Similarly, some users may no want/need to 'Job' functionality -- each
Customer has one and only one job (or multiple jobs don't need to be
separated).  This would imply, again, a required flexibility.

Basically, I'm stuck right now.  I'm really at a loss for how to move
forward and a) get something coded, but b) keep the process flexible.
Clearly the process needs to be "scriptable", but I'm seriously at a
loss for what the building blocks of the process should look like, or
how to code the UI to match.

Yes, I acknowledge this is a hard problem.  I suppose I can put it off
and work on other aspects of the project, like data storage.  Or
perhaps I should work on the A/R and A/P Account types.  However,
without Order/Invoice Entry there isn't anything useful to keep track
of (IMHO).

Anyone who wants to help -- your help would be greatly appreciated :)

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord@MIT.EDU                        PGP key available