This document outlines a six-stage methodology for deploying the Mifos financial software. The stages include assessment and planning, configuration and setup, report development, data migration, user acceptance testing and training, and a pilot rollout. Project management is important throughout the process to keep the project on schedule and on budget. Additional areas that are addressed include customization, post-deployment support, and community resources for Mifos users.
2. Methodology Overview Our six-stage approach is a guide for you to ensure your Mifos technology implementation aligns with your organization’s business processes and is effectively adopted by staff Additional Areas Project Management Customization Post Deployment Operational Review, Configuration & Set-up Assessment & Planning Reporting User Acceptance Testing, Training& Test Rollout Pilot & Rollout Data Migration
3. Example Timeline Actual duration of teach stage and overall deployment is dependent upon size, complexity and needs of each organization.
4. Introduction and Mifos Demo Needs Assessment Submit Proposal Sign Contracts Pre-Deployment If you choose to engage an outside resource to guide your deployment, the following activities should be conducted to accurately determine your information needs and plan out the project scope accordingly.
5. Keep project on task and on schedule Remove roadblocks Send weekly status updates Hold daily stand-ups Hold executive level meetings Hold internal stakeholder meetings Keep MFI Executive Champion aware of project status Initiate awareness programs Project Management Strong internal and external project management is key towards being on-time, on-budget, and most importantly implementing a solution that is adopted by all users.
6. Assessment & Planning Perform in depth gap analysis Identify project resources Develop rollout strategy Determine data migration approach Build project schedule Hold kickoff meeting with all stakeholders Stage 1 In-depth exploratory and planning stage to determine internal and external information needs across the organization and how Mifos accommodates them followed by planning and project scheduling.
7. Operational Review, Configuration & Setup Run Mifos orientation Review business processes and update Conduct IT and infrastructure review. Configure & setup Mifos Stage 2 Review and optimization of business processes and how they’ll align with Mifos technology along with setup of infrastructure and configuration of Mifos system.
8. Reporting Review existing reports Collect requirements for new reports Create mock-ups Prioritize report development Build Reports Stage 3 Planning, design, prioritization, and creation of business and performance reports to be generated by Mifos system.
11. All Historical DataIdentify Gaps Map data between current MIS and Mifos Clean source data Select data for manual entry Develop data migration scripts and/or tools Stage 4 Analysis of need for migration of historical data, followed by cleaning of data, and migration via scripts, tools, or manual entry if necessary.
12. User Acceptance Testing, Training & Test Rollout Draft UAT plan Prepare test server Execute UAT Develop training Perform a live test Stage 5 User Acceptance Testing of configured system, training of key personnel followed by live test of Mifos system with operational data.
13. Pilot Rollout Train staff Migrate Data Rollout to branch Monitor and validate Make final adjustments Stage 6 Training of additional staff, followed by rollout to pilot branches, along with monitoring, validation and final adjustments.
17. Systems & applications administration Troubleshooting & end-user support Infrastructure upgrades and planning Disaster recovery & contingency planning Applying upgrades & bug fixes Ongoing training & documentation Learning & monitoring Determining future product needs New features | New reports Hiring/staffing to support Post-Deployment Planning & Support
18. Mifos Cloud Hosted offering in Amazon EC2 Cloud (visit Mifos.com to learn more) Professional Services Technical Support Packages and Consulting Building tools and supporting materials To be posted in Support Section of Mifos.org Community Resources Expanding our mailing lists/user forums, etc. What Grameen Foundation is doing