project/summary_plan.html - gerrit/www.eclipse.org/birt - Git at Google

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 <p class="head">BIRT Project Plan Summary</p>
 <p class="subhead">Last revised February 18, 2005</p>

 <h1>Executive Summary of Current Plan</h1>

 <p>As a new project within the Eclipse Foundation, the BIRT project's overriding
 release 1.0 theme is to extend the Eclipse platform to provide infrastructure and
 tools that allow application developers to design, deploy, generate and view reports
 within their applications. In this context, the BIRT project also adopts and supports
 key themes within the overall Eclipse planning process:</p>

 <dl class="bold-list">
 <dt>Appealing to a Broader Community</dt>
 <dd>BIRT will address a new problem space for Eclipse that broadens the appeal of
 the Eclipse platform. By addressing this new market for Eclipse, BIRT aims to bring
 a new class of developers - report developers - into the Eclipse community.
 </dd>

 <dt>Simple to Use</dt>
 <dd>From the outset, the BIRT project regards ease-of-use to be a key objective
 for the project. Reporting technology is used by a broad range of users with a
 wide variety of skill sets - therefore the tool needs to be approachable and
 intuitive. The BIRT project team are focused on ensuring that users can quickly
 become productive with the technology.
 </dd>

 <dt>Enterprise Ready</dt>
 <dd>BIRT 1.0 will leverage the surrounding Eclipse infrastructure for Enterprise
 activities such as source code management and deployment of BIRT reports in the
 application. In addition, the initial release of BIRT will provide for support for
 key enterprise data bases such as Oracle and DB2.
 </dd>

 <dt>Design for Extensibility: Be a Better Platform</dt>
 <dd>Extensibility is a core principle behind the BIRT project. Extensibility
 will be supported in a number of areas: data access (both design time and runtime);
 report output formats; chart types; report components; and business logic.
 </dd>
 </dl>

 <P>In addition to these goals, the BIRT PMC want to ensure that the initial release
 of BIRT provides usable value to Java application developers. Even at the 1.0
 release level, the BIRT PMC has targeted common report types and a very approachable
 user interface design to ensure the release is immediately appealing to the Java
 development community.</P>

 <p>Details on the current plan(s) can be found at:</p>
 <ul>
   <li>Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT)
   <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/birt/project/project_plan_R1_0.html">
   1.0 release plan</a></li>
 </ul>

 <h1>Forward Looking Statement</h1>

 <p>Looking beyond the BIRT 1.0
 release, the project PMC's goals are to increase the number of applications
 and users that can successfully adopt the Eclipse platform and BIRT technology.
 This can be categorized into three  initiatives -- increasing the types of
 reports that BIRT supports; adding more features and capabilities to the
 initial BIRT projects  that target the typical report developer (rather than
 the Java developer); and developing additional business intelligence
 capabilities as part of the BIRT top-level project. These initiatives align
 well with the broader goals of the Eclipse platform and details on the first
 two are presented in the context of those themes:</p>

 <dl class="bold-list">
 <dt>Appealing to the Broader Community</dt>
 <dd>This is the most significant overall theme for the BIRT project since, as
 discussed above, BIRT does introduce the Eclipse platform to a new class of
 users and applications -- the report developers in the broader Business
 Intelligence market. Due to it's significance, this continues to be a theme
 that the BIRT PMC will push beyond the initial 1.0 release. In fact, it's
 significance cuts across other themes as will be seen below. Items that the
 PMC will specifically be looking at in addition to those mentioned below
 relate to the types of reports that BIRT can support. BIRT 1.0 will support a
 set of commonly used listing and grouping type reports, with future releases
 needing to add support for report styles such as cross-tab or matrix style
 reports, as well as free-form reports. By supporting a large range of report
 types, BIRT will appeal to a broad number of applications that have a
 reporting need.
 </dd>

 <dt>Scaling Up</dt>
 <dd>BIRT 1.0 targets the smaller 1 to 10 page reports, with relatively simple
 data sources, that are found in many web applications. In these cases, the
 processing of the data and reports can be handled in-memory and the desire to
 persistently store the output documents is often not a requirement. However, as
 BIRT is adopted by more and more applications, we anticipate community feedback
 that the complex processing of large datasets, the generation of large report
 documents (1000s of pages) and the persistent storage of those report documents
 will become a frequent request. Future versions of BIRT will need to provide
 support for these larger report types.
 </dd>

 <dt>Design for Extensibility</dt>
 <dd>Beyond BIRT 1.0, the PMC aim to further exercise the extension points in the
 BIRT framework by implementing additional extensions on the framework. A clear
 example at this stage is for additional data sources -- although we expect
 community feedback and participation will highlight demand, and provide
 implementations, in other areas. This will bring two benefits to the project
 and community as a whole: a) proof points that the extension interfaces
 work (or don't) and solid data on what needs to be improved (which will allow
 us to move rapidly towards a stable API set). And b) through those extension
 implementations to be able to support additional application scenarios and
 increase the adoption of Eclipse and BIRT (for example, by supporting XML as a
 data source).
 </dd>

 <dt>Simple to Use</dt>
 <dd>In BIRT 1.0, the tool will be simple to use for the Java developer.
 While we anticipate that the tool will also be very approachable for the
 typical report developer, we expect that there will be areas where we can
 improve ease of use for this audience in subsequent releases. This non-Java
 developer audience is largely new for the Eclipse platform and we expect some
 of the feedback we receive in this area will also drive requirements into other
 parts of the platform. At this stage, it is hard to predict exactly what
 enhancements will requested by the community but this will be watched closely
 going forward.
 </dd>

 <dt>Enterprise Ready</dt>
 <dd>As mentioned above, BIRT 1.0 will leverage many Enterprise features of
 the Eclipse platform with regards to code management etc. As the platform
 continues to enhance the Enterprise deployment capabilities, the BIRT PMC
 will need to adopt these in the BIRT Report Designer environment. For example,
 as outlined in the overall Eclipse Themes, making it easier to configure
 workspaces in an Enterprise deployment. Capabilities in this area will also
 support the BIRT PMC's goal of having BIRT appeal to a wider range of users
 since it will enable deployments of Eclipse BIRT to, for example, hide more
 complex code-development features from a report developer -- therefore making
 the tool more approachable.</dd>
 </dl>

 <p>For the 3rd initiative over time the BIRT PMC aims to add additional projects
 in the business intelligence space. Projects that are anticipated and
 encouraged would address
 other aspects of business intelligence, such as Ad Hoc Query &amp; Reporting;
 Online Analytical Processing (OLAP); Business Intelligence dashboards;
 Executive Information
 Systems (EIS); and statistical analysis. These also fit within the theme of
 Appealing to the Broader Community by addressing additional segments of the
 business intelligence market.</p>

 <p>As BIRT 1.0 becomes available and the community is able to use the project,
 we expect further themes and  needs will emerge. The BIRT PMC encourages feedback,
 comments and participation from the community on the
 <a href="news://news.eclipse.org/eclipse.birt">BIRT newsgroup</a>.</p>

 </body>
 </html>
	<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
	<html>

	<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
	<meta name="Author" content="Eclipse BIRT PMC">
	<title>Eclipse BIRT - Summary Plan</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="../style/compose.css"/>
	</head>

	<body>

	<p class="head">BIRT Project Plan Summary</p>
	<p class="subhead">Last revised February 18, 2005</p>

	<h1>Executive Summary of Current Plan</h1>

	<p>As a new project within the Eclipse Foundation, the BIRT project's overriding
	release 1.0 theme is to extend the Eclipse platform to provide infrastructure and
	tools that allow application developers to design, deploy, generate and view reports
	within their applications. In this context, the BIRT project also adopts and supports
	key themes within the overall Eclipse planning process:</p>

	<dl class="bold-list">
	<dt>Appealing to a Broader Community</dt>
	<dd>BIRT will address a new problem space for Eclipse that broadens the appeal of
	the Eclipse platform. By addressing this new market for Eclipse, BIRT aims to bring
	a new class of developers - report developers - into the Eclipse community.
	</dd>

	<dt>Simple to Use</dt>
	<dd>From the outset, the BIRT project regards ease-of-use to be a key objective
	for the project. Reporting technology is used by a broad range of users with a
	wide variety of skill sets - therefore the tool needs to be approachable and
	intuitive. The BIRT project team are focused on ensuring that users can quickly
	become productive with the technology.
	</dd>

	<dt>Enterprise Ready</dt>
	<dd>BIRT 1.0 will leverage the surrounding Eclipse infrastructure for Enterprise
	activities such as source code management and deployment of BIRT reports in the
	application. In addition, the initial release of BIRT will provide for support for
	key enterprise data bases such as Oracle and DB2.
	</dd>

	<dt>Design for Extensibility: Be a Better Platform</dt>
	<dd>Extensibility is a core principle behind the BIRT project. Extensibility
	will be supported in a number of areas: data access (both design time and runtime);
	report output formats; chart types; report components; and business logic.
	</dd>
	</dl>

	<P>In addition to these goals, the BIRT PMC want to ensure that the initial release
	of BIRT provides usable value to Java application developers. Even at the 1.0
	release level, the BIRT PMC has targeted common report types and a very approachable
	user interface design to ensure the release is immediately appealing to the Java
	development community.</P>

	<p>Details on the current plan(s) can be found at:</p>
	<ul>
	<li>Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT)
	<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/birt/project/project_plan_R1_0.html">
	1.0 release plan</a></li>
	</ul>

	<h1>Forward Looking Statement</h1>

	<p>Looking beyond the BIRT 1.0
	release, the project PMC's goals are to increase the number of applications
	and users that can successfully adopt the Eclipse platform and BIRT technology.
	This can be categorized into three initiatives -- increasing the types of
	reports that BIRT supports; adding more features and capabilities to the
	initial BIRT projects that target the typical report developer (rather than
	the Java developer); and developing additional business intelligence
	capabilities as part of the BIRT top-level project. These initiatives align
	well with the broader goals of the Eclipse platform and details on the first
	two are presented in the context of those themes:</p>

	<dl class="bold-list">
	<dt>Appealing to the Broader Community</dt>
	<dd>This is the most significant overall theme for the BIRT project since, as
	discussed above, BIRT does introduce the Eclipse platform to a new class of
	users and applications -- the report developers in the broader Business
	Intelligence market. Due to it's significance, this continues to be a theme
	that the BIRT PMC will push beyond the initial 1.0 release. In fact, it's
	significance cuts across other themes as will be seen below. Items that the
	PMC will specifically be looking at in addition to those mentioned below
	relate to the types of reports that BIRT can support. BIRT 1.0 will support a
	set of commonly used listing and grouping type reports, with future releases
	needing to add support for report styles such as cross-tab or matrix style
	reports, as well as free-form reports. By supporting a large range of report
	types, BIRT will appeal to a broad number of applications that have a
	reporting need.
	</dd>

	<dt>Scaling Up</dt>
	<dd>BIRT 1.0 targets the smaller 1 to 10 page reports, with relatively simple
	data sources, that are found in many web applications. In these cases, the
	processing of the data and reports can be handled in-memory and the desire to
	persistently store the output documents is often not a requirement. However, as
	BIRT is adopted by more and more applications, we anticipate community feedback
	that the complex processing of large datasets, the generation of large report
	documents (1000s of pages) and the persistent storage of those report documents
	will become a frequent request. Future versions of BIRT will need to provide
	support for these larger report types.
	</dd>

	<dt>Design for Extensibility</dt>
	<dd>Beyond BIRT 1.0, the PMC aim to further exercise the extension points in the
	BIRT framework by implementing additional extensions on the framework. A clear
	example at this stage is for additional data sources -- although we expect
	community feedback and participation will highlight demand, and provide
	implementations, in other areas. This will bring two benefits to the project
	and community as a whole: a) proof points that the extension interfaces
	work (or don't) and solid data on what needs to be improved (which will allow
	us to move rapidly towards a stable API set). And b) through those extension
	implementations to be able to support additional application scenarios and
	increase the adoption of Eclipse and BIRT (for example, by supporting XML as a
	data source).
	</dd>

	<dt>Simple to Use</dt>
	<dd>In BIRT 1.0, the tool will be simple to use for the Java developer.
	While we anticipate that the tool will also be very approachable for the
	typical report developer, we expect that there will be areas where we can
	improve ease of use for this audience in subsequent releases. This non-Java
	developer audience is largely new for the Eclipse platform and we expect some
	of the feedback we receive in this area will also drive requirements into other
	parts of the platform. At this stage, it is hard to predict exactly what
	enhancements will requested by the community but this will be watched closely
	going forward.
	</dd>

	<dt>Enterprise Ready</dt>
	<dd>As mentioned above, BIRT 1.0 will leverage many Enterprise features of
	the Eclipse platform with regards to code management etc. As the platform
	continues to enhance the Enterprise deployment capabilities, the BIRT PMC
	will need to adopt these in the BIRT Report Designer environment. For example,
	as outlined in the overall Eclipse Themes, making it easier to configure
	workspaces in an Enterprise deployment. Capabilities in this area will also
	support the BIRT PMC's goal of having BIRT appeal to a wider range of users
	since it will enable deployments of Eclipse BIRT to, for example, hide more
	complex code-development features from a report developer -- therefore making
	the tool more approachable.</dd>
	</dl>

	<p>For the 3rd initiative over time the BIRT PMC aims to add additional projects
	in the business intelligence space. Projects that are anticipated and
	encouraged would address
	other aspects of business intelligence, such as Ad Hoc Query & Reporting;
	Online Analytical Processing (OLAP); Business Intelligence dashboards;
	Executive Information
	Systems (EIS); and statistical analysis. These also fit within the theme of
	Appealing to the Broader Community by addressing additional segments of the
	business intelligence market.</p>

	<p>As BIRT 1.0 becomes available and the community is able to use the project,
	we expect further themes and needs will emerge. The BIRT PMC encourages feedback,
	comments and participation from the community on the
	<a href="news://news.eclipse.org/eclipse.birt">BIRT newsgroup</a>.</p>

	</body>
	</html>