THIS IS A TEST INSTANCE. ALL YOUR CHANGES WILL BE LOST!!!!
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Introduction
This survey was created to get feedback about Apache OFBiz,and how the existing documentation resources support its installation and use. The information gathered will be used to help update and re-organise the documentation in way that will make it easier for a wide range of people to use.
- It was conducted over the period 22nd September 2014 to 6th October 2014. Details of the survey was posted on the mailing list, Twitter and also Linked In groups.
- A total of 76 responses were recorded and the details are recorded below.
Survey Catchment
Additional statistics were captured about the respondents country.
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| Country | No. Responses | Country | No. Responses | Country | No. Responses | Country | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 2 | US | 14 | South Africa | 1 | Malaysia | 1 |
| India | 23 | Canada | 2 | Singapore | 1 | Luxembourg | 1 |
| UK | 2 | Italy | 3 | Vietnam | 2 | Pakistan | 2 |
| Germany | 1 | France | 12 | Thailand | 2 | Kuwait | 1 |
| Chile | 1 | Ireland | 2 | Afghanistan | 1 | China | 2 |
Response Frequency
The survey was open for a total of 2 weeks (22nd September - 6th October 2014).
- The majority of responses were recorded during the first two days
- Based on this I would suggest that future surveys be limited to a week
Survey Questions
Question 1: Please tell us about how do you use Apache OFBiz. Do you
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| install or implement OFBIz for other people's businesses? | 80% | 59 |
| use OFBiz to run your own business? | 42% | 31 |
| consult in the ERP space and evaluate or recommend OFBiz to clients? | 31% | 23 |
| plan to look at evaluating OFBiz for your company's use? | 12% | 9 |
| Other (please specify) | 0% | 0 |
| Total Respondents: 74 |
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- Currently the OFBiz project and mailing lists attract more integrators and consultants than end users
Question 2: Which version of OFBiz do you use?
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| Trunk | 28% | 21 |
| 13.07 | 35% | 26 |
| 12.04 | 26% | 19 |
| 11.04 | 8% | 6 |
| 10.04 or earlier | 3% | 2 |
| Total Respondents: 74 |
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- There tends to be a big focus on patches for the trunk and latest branches but we also need to think about what support is available for earlier releases and have a clear plan as well as communication about when a version reaches its end of life.
- Are the upgrade paths clear?
Question 3: How did you install or implement Apache OFBiz?
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| yourself | 60% | 45 |
| with an integrator | 0% | 0 |
| someone else did it for you | 0% | 0 |
| we are an integrator | 40% | 30 |
| Total Respondents: 75 |
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- We didnt any responses from anyone who is the customer of an integrator and this is a real information gap as these would be real end users.
- No one used an integrator to install OFBiz which means that somehow they all found enough information to do it
Question 4: Evaluate the following statements:
| Answer Choices | Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neither Disagree nor Agree | Agree | Strongly Agree | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finding documentation to download and install OFBiz was easy | 3 | 15 | 8 | 37 | 10 | 73 |
| Finding documentation about setting up and configuring OFBiz was easy | 3 | 23 | 17 | 25 | 5 | 73 |
| Finding documentation about how to customise or develop with OFBiz was easy | 7 | 25 | 21 | 17 | 2 | 72 |
| Finding documentation about what OFBiz does 'out of the box' was easy | 15 | 29 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 73 |
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- Some documentation gaps have been uncovered, the biggest being documentation about what OFBiz does out of the box.
- In general the community feel that there is documentation available but there is room for improvement.
- Some of these opinions could be caused by the organisation of the data or how it is accessed rather than the documenation itself
Question 5: How long have you been using Apache OFBiz?
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 12 months | 9% | 7 |
| 1-2 years | 31% | 23 |
| 2-5 years | 19% | 14 |
| Over 5 years | 39% | 29 |
| Not applicable as only evaluating OFBiz | 1% | 1 |
| Total Respondents: 74 |
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- New users are still being attracted to OFBiz
- There is a good mature knowledge base of people that have used OFBiz for a long time that are still involved with the community
Question 6: How many Apache OFBiz users do you have?
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | 25% | 18 |
| 3-5 | 10% | 7 |
| 5-10 | 18% | 13 |
| 10 or more | 47% | 34 |
| Total Respondents: 72 |
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- The community OFBiz implementations tend to have a small user base. NOTE: I think this is because the majority of respondents are integrators and consultants who are generally small companies
Question 7: How often do you use or search for information in the Apache OFBiz Wiki?
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| Never | 3% | 2 |
| Rarely (less than once a month) | 36% | 27 |
| Sometimes (less than once a week) | 35% | 26 |
| Often (once a week or more) | 27% | 20 |
| Total Respondents: 75 |
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- Work is ongoing to update and reorganise information on the Wiki so these figures confirm that it is still worthwhile and will benefit the community
Question 8: How often do you search the Mailing Lists for information about how Apache OFBiz works?
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| Never | 3% | 2 |
| Rarely (less than once a month) | 20% | 15 |
| Sometimes (less than once a week) | 31% | 23 |
| Often (once a week or more) | 47% | 35 |
| Total Respondents: 75 |
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- The mailing list is being used as alternate source of information to the Wiki.
Question 9: Evaluate the following statements
| Answer Choices | Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neither Disagree nor Agree | Agree | Strongly Agree | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I think the Technical Documentation is the highest priority | 2 | 5 | 19 | 22 | 19 | 67 |
| I think the End User Documentation is the highest priority | 2 | 5 | 16 | 17 | 29 | 69 |
| I think both Technical and End User Documentation are important | 3 | 1 | 10 | 27 | 31 | 72 |
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- I now think that this question should have been a single answer only (rather than a multi-answer) because a respondent could agree with all three and it doesnt give a clean result breakdown that I was looking for
- In general respondents thought that work needs to be done on both Technical and End User documentation
Question 10: Describe your involvement with the Apache OFBiz project and community
| Answer Choices | Percentage | No. Responses |
|---|---|---|
| I am already officially involved | 21% | 16 |
| I would like to get more involved | 28% | 21 |
| I respond to question in the community mailing lists | 8% | 6 |
| I ask questions or read the community mailing lists | 40% | 30 |
| What community ? | 3% | 2 |
| Total Respondents: 75 |
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- The biggest result here is the number of people wanting to become more involved with the community
Final Comments
Thank you to everyone who completed the survey that enabled me to provide these results and details.I hope that these are useful now and into the future as we continue to look and survey or community base.
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