CNM Cloud Embryo

CNM Cloud Embryo (hereinafter, the Embryo) is the second phase of CNM Cloud Project. The work on that phase started in January of 2018 and, as of December of 2018, this phase is still current. CNM Cloud Beginnings is the previous phase.

Requirements

User stories

Three user stories shall describe completion of the second phase:

User story	Initial role	Allowed actions	Results	New role
First	As a NetAnyone, I shall be able to:	Click the button, Get started, at any CNM website; Get to the Opplet.net registration page; Fill in my credentials including (a) login name, (b) password, and, (c) optionally, email address; Submit my credentials	Get to the Welcome to Friends Of CNM course at CNM Campus while being automatically enrolled	NetConsumer
Second	As a NetConsumer, I shall be able to:	Complete the Welcome to Friends Of CNM	Get a choice of enrolling into the WorldOpp Orientation or Careerprise for Developers	CertAssociate
Third	As a CertAssociate, I shall be able to:	Get enrolled into the Careerprise for Developers; Complete Careerprise for Developers	Obtain a CertDeveloper role	CertDeveloper
Fourth		Get enrolled into the WorldOpp Orientation; Complete the WorldOpp Orientation and get automatically enrolled into the WorldOpp Placement Seminar; Complete the WorldOpp Placement Seminar	Get enrolled into the WorldOpp Bootcamp	CertFellow
Fifth	As a CertFellow, I shall be able to:	Complete the WorldOpp Placement Seminar	Further results shall be accommodated and opplet roles assigned manually

Software to be used

CNM software		Description	Service	Base(s)
Platform	Infrastructure	Hardware, operating system(s), environment for programming languages to operate, database management systems, web servers	(temporarily, outsourced)	Not important for the Project
	Opplet	In this phase, user management software that manages authorization of users and their access to CNM apps	Opplet.net	Written specifically for the Cloud using the Yii framework
Apps		User interface to allow end-users to interact with Opplet
	Productware	Studio for Careerprise vendors to document their developments and store developed files	Fixett	Redmine, Apache Subversion (SVN), (possibly) containers
	Courseware	Learning management software to accommodate learning processes	Campus	Moodle
	Wikiware	Knowledge management software to develop corporate knowledge collaboratively and access the results	Wiki	MediaWiki
	Siteware	Content management software to empower CNM websites	CNM website	WordPress

Role permissions

Role	NetAnyone	NetConsumer	CertAssociate	CertDeveloper	CertFellow
Opplet.net	Visitor	User
Campus	Visitor	Student
Wiki	Visitor		Registered		Admin
Website	Non‑registered	Contributor	Author		Editor
Fixett	No role			User	No role

Up-to-date story

Several concepts, lessons learned, and pieces of software that was developed in the First phase have been utilized in this successor phase. The Team calls the new phase Embryo because the Embryo of the new cloud is going to be developed during this phase. The key developments could be summarized as follows. The Team:

1. Identified:
   • Business needs. These needs are expressed in User stories;
   • System architecture including the core package of technology that would support User stories;
2. Designed and is implementing a new recruitment process based on the core package of developed technology;
3. Dramatically increased funding for both technology development and recruitment.

Second cloud initiation

In 2018, Romanof as a PHP developer, Gary Ihar as the product owner, and Natalia as a vendor liaison initiated a new cloud endeavor. Its goal is to create the simpliest system for onboarding employees and Careerprise vendors. The Team called this system embrio. No private cloud itself is going to be launched in the second phase of the Project and even the next phase, which emphasis shall be a new Odoo instance.

During the CNM Cloud Beginnings, a SimpleSAMLphp instance, as an integration tool, worked well, but it had a few drawbacks, most importantly, in difficulties to integrate an Odoo instance. Instead of a SimpleSAMLphp instance, Romanof now implemented an OpenLDAP instance for the directory access. That development completed the third sprint of Opplet.net.

Launch of the Wiki

In spring of 2018, this very CNM Wiki was launched. A new instance of MediaWiki is used for CNM Wikiware. Temporarily, this development used tentative requirements.

New documenting model

Lack of documentation was critical in troubles of the CNM Cloud Beginnings. Now:

1. Technical requirements for any critical software shall be developed before awarding of any contract. These requirements shall be published at this CNM Wiki;
2. After awarding any contract, Friends Of CNM shall grant its winner an access to the corresponding project at Fixett;
3. Technical documentation for the developed software shall be kept posted at Fixett.

The most comprehensive documentation for the Embryo phase was originally created in Russian (using Fixett and the Russian part of CNM Wiki at https://wiki.ksacerts.com/ru); however, since the recruitment efforts are shifting to East Africa and the United States, new documents shall be posted at the English part of CNM Wiki.

New management approach

The management model changed substantially:

• With some exceptions, Gary Ihar served as the only product owner, business analyst, systems engineer, and project manager from the Project inception. Those exceptions were contributions by Romanof, most notably, into Opplet.net, and CNM Digital by Loredana C. New apprentices are supposed to serve as product owners, business analysts, systems engineers, and/or project managers for those CNM apps that are being developed as deliverables of the Project. Thus, they are encouraged to substitute some part and expand another part of the work of Gary Ihar, so he would be able to expand his efforts to fund this change. A list of recent Gary Ihar's contributions can be found at Special:Contributions/Gary; basically, he developed about 99.98% of CNM Wiki as of November 1st, 2018;
• Romanof started playing a PHP sub-project manager role in addition to his technology development role;
• Natalia is encouraged to become a manager for an endeavor undertaken in order to create requirements for CNM Wikiware.
• The Team is actively recruiting the project administrator; the requirements are posted at Friends Of CNM Cloud Administrator.

Early recruitment of apprentices

In summer of 2018, dozens of candidates, primarily from Kenya and Philippines were tested for WorldOpp Fellow Staff positions, but no one has been eventually brought on the board so far.

• The majority of most motivated candidates were concentrated on their efforts instead of getting the results. That suggests that their project management skills needed some development;
• If those candidates were oriented on some results, their desired results were not communicated with the product owner and, consequently, their efforts couldn't be funded. That suggests that their business analysis skills needed some development;
• It looks like documenting remains at very least one of the biggest problems. No candidate has accomplished more than a dozen of actions on CNM Wiki so far.

A clear recruitment and onboarding process is considered being an important problem to be solved next.

Idea of the Incubator

An idea of WorldOpp incubator was developed in order to create an onboarding process generally and, to develop candidates' skills in business analysis, product ownership, project management, and records management particularly. Its idea is to hire those apprentices who could act as prospective members of WorldOpp Fellow Staff.

The apprentice candidates who participate in the incubator shall be enrolled into WorldOpp Placement Seminar and, consequently, WorldOpp Bootcamp and practice their concepts while creating and bettering curricula, as well as epics, user stories, and other documentation for CNM Cloud at CNM Wiki.

One of possible implementations could be a group of 7-10 apprentices working on some local site somewhere in Kenya. To make it real, a partner on the ground may be looked for.

Launch of the Campus

In the last months of 2018, CNM Campus was unexpectedly launched and tested by students of Shanghai Jian Qiao University. An instance of Moodle is used for CNM Courseware. Initially, Gary Ihar opposed launching the Campus without complete technical requirements. However, there was an urgent need in some learning management system used for a program of Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in that university in Shanghai, China. The Campus was tested successfully. Its technical requirements are still needed to be developed.

Minimal viable technology

In mid-January of 2019, a minimal viable product (MVP) of future CNM Cloud is launched. It includes technical availability for registration, enrollment into WorldOpp Orientation, and granting rights of NetAnyone, NetConsumer, CertAssociate, and CertFellow. On another side, instances of Apache Subversion (SVN) and Redmine are used for CNM Productware.

Launch of the Orientation

In January, Kevin joined the team to help developing materials of the WorldOpp Orientation that is planned to be launched in mid-February.

Deliverables of Embryo phase

Projected deliverables:

1. A software system capable to execute the User stories for the Embryo;
2. Contracts between Friends Of CNM and Careerprise vendors to run:
   • CNM Infrastructure;
   • CNM Productware;
   • CNM Courseware;
   • CNM Wikiware;
   • CNM Siteware.
3. Contracts between Friends Of CNM and members of WorldOpp Fellow Staff to run:
   • WorldOpp Project and Fixett;
   • The Project;
   • CNM Campus;
   • CNM Wiki;
   • One or more CNM websites.
4. Curricula at CNM Campus:
   • WorldOpp Orientation;
   • WorldOpp Placement Seminar;
   • WorldOpp Bootcamp.
5. Organizational structures:
   • WorldOpp incubator.

Current state

Developers

Three members of the development group who are currently working on the Project are as follows:

1. Romanof. As the PHP sub-project manager and developer, Romanof developed all working parts of the existing technology. Romanof also documented in Fixett a deal of the work done;
2. Gary Ihar. As the product owner, Gary is drafting documentation in CNM Wiki on every software included in the second phase;
3. Natalia. As a vendor liaison, Natalia is working on CNM Wikiware documentation.

Completion rates

The DADP is the development cycle that includes 4 components: (1) discover, (2) analyze, (3) design, and (4) plan. No component is fully developed to the date. The following table presents estimates on every component of every software to be launched:

CNM software		Service	Sprint	Description	DADP component
					Discover	Analyze	Design	Plan
Platform	Infrastructure	(temporarily, outsourced)	Second	Requirements and designs are drafted in Russian in Fixett; DigitalOcean is temporarily used for implementations	90%	90%	90%	90%
	Opplet	Opplet.net	Fourth	Requirements and designs are drafted in Russian in Fixett; Opplet.net handles user management for CNM Cloud	75%	75%	75%	75%
Apps
	Productware	Fixett	Second	Requirements and designs are drafted in Russian in Fixett; the current implementation is located at a classified URL	50%	50%	50%	50%
	Courseware	Campus	Second	Requirements and designs are drafted in Russian in Fixett and English in CNM Wiki; the current implementation is located at https://campus.ksacerts.com	25%	25%	25%	25%
	Wikiware	Wiki	Second	Requirements and designs are drafted in Russian in Fixett and English in CNM Wiki; the current implementations are located at https://wiki.ksacerts.com and, in Russian, at https://wiki.ksacerts.com/ru	90%	90%	90%	90%
	Siteware	CNM website	Second	Requirements and designs are drafted in English in CNM Wiki; some implementations launched in the first sprint include worldopp.org and careernetworkministry.org	25%	10%	10%	0%

Challenges

Lack of procurement documentation is still the primary obstacle for the Project to move forward faster. There are a plenty of developers ready to implement technical requirements, but those requirements are needed to be documented. If some backup has been de-facto implemented, the state of cyber-security is either inappropriate or unknown.

Vacancies

Neither education nor experience is needed for the vacancies listed below. Full-time (at least, 40 hours a week) availability and willingness to learn on the job (and any learning includes so-called "errors" and "mistakes") are absolute musts. Since English language is the primary medium at Friends Of CNM, some level of English capacity is needed as well.

• Urgently needed. Any assistance with documentation published at CNM Wiki for upcoming procurement or topics related to procurement of CNM Wikiware, CNM Courseware, CNM Productware, CNM Siteware, CNM Infrastructure is urgently needed. These topics may include any information on what needs to be done, how to select the best vendor, and how to make sure that the chosen vendor has delivered the requested product.
• Needed on an ongoing basis. As always, the Team is hiring staffers of WorldOpp Fellow Staff generally and Friends Of CNM Cloud Administrator specifically to expedite the Project.

Related lectures

• Introduction to CNM Cloud.