Contributing to Openbravo projects: A win - win proposition

We truly believe that anyone can be personally benefit by contributing to Openbravo and the Openbravo project. Whether you're an independent consultant, student, open source hacker, or even part of a company, contributing could be great for you.


Specifically for the company there are many advantages:

1. Contributions to Core are Maintained by Openbravo: If you contribute your enhancements to Openbravo ERP Core, they will be part of the product and will be maintained, documented and tested as part of the Openbravo product and all subsequent versions. This means that, after the initial development investment, you will not need to invest in upgrading these features anymore and that your upgrades to future versions will be smoother. This translates in very significant savings in your total cost of ownership for Openbravo ERP during the life time of the system.

2. Free up Resources through Teamwork: Contributing to Openbravo and having developments supported by us leaves you more time for your own developments and installations. You develop, and let us take care of maintaining the code during versions. For example, think of the big changes occurring in each one of the versions (2.30 with the new skinnable user interface, 2.40 with PostgreSQL 8.3 compatibility, 2.50 with Modularity, new developments as Database independence, etc.). Whatever you put in our Core is monitored by us for life.

3. Work with People with Common Goals: Whether by leveraging on other's work or collaborating on a project, push development in your own direction by leading it. The product will support what you want, and when you want it. This also helps ensure that your priorities, issues and features becomes the communities goals.


And for everybody:

4. Gain recognition and exposure: Make yourself known in a community of individuals and companies deploying professional open source solutions.

5. Network: Work with and meet others just like yourself, while potentially getting job or professional opportunities worldwide.

6. Build something you believe in: Help build a free and open source infrastructure that can be used for companies and non-governmental organizations. Yes, we're for profit, however many NGO's and non-profits are getting our code free of charge, and saving a ton of money in the process.

7. Learn and Apply Skills: Enhance your knowledge by working on open technologies like Java, XML and Web related technologies. These are today's industry standard tools for building professional software solutions. As well, you work is edited by peers, Openbravo developers, and tested by around the world.

If you are interested in contributing to the Openbravo project, please visit our Contributor's guide