To RoR or not to RoR ,that is the question

I've been approached by a friend to engage on developing a web-application for electronic designers & students.I initially proposed CakePHP as my framework of choice.However my friend is an advocate of the Ruby-on-Rails framework.

The next stage would be ascertain which of the 2 frameworks would be best suit our objectives.
Both frameworks have similar features:

• Object-orientated
  
• MVC Architecture
• Open Source

The deciding factors will be:

• Learning curve of Ruby
• Availability of RoR servers
• Strength of the RoR community
  (compared to the PHP & Cake community)
  
• Special features of Ruby

Meanwhile , Im gonna research on RoR and the health of its IRC community.

HR Leave Application system

I find it hard to accept that an IT company with so many tech-savvy employees, would stick to a paper-based leave application system.But , such is the case at my firm.I have taken-upon myself to computerize the system for the benefit of both staff & the environment.And following the precepts of Fred Brooks I will:

1. Steer clear of re-inventing the wheel
2. get it FREE

The office currently uses Google Calender to track which employees are on leave & for what period.However this method:

• Requires double data-entry
• Employee fills-out form
• HR Staff validates request and inputs to Gcalender
• prone to human-error
  
• Paper-intensive

I'm looking into using Google Calender's API in conjunction with Cake PHP provide a solution to our HR woes.

UML for Cake

Being a big fan of Frank Brooke's "Mythical Man Month" and other trends in Software Engineering.I feel obliged as a corporate developer to introduct UML to our Web Developer Department.The reasons being:
Documentation

• A need for proper standardized documentation
• A graphical means of representing all facets of a Cake application

Architecture
In the pre-implementation stage when the boss issues the requirements document which briefly outlines what he expects of the application.The developers should don their architecture/system-analyst hats and :

• Beat the potential bugs & loopholes out of the requirements
• Submit their 'requirements' document to the boss for confirmation
• Start designing the application in either
• Top-Down method
• Bottom-Up method
• Outline the architecture of such a system : 1 layer at a time