| Info | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
The 2017 Google Summer of Code application period has opened. The Mifos Initiative will be applying as a mentoring organization and hopes to be selected once again in 2017. Applications are due by February 9 and accepted orgs will be announced by February 27. Subscribe to this page for the latest updates to project ideas and mentors assigned to projects. |
...
- When you need help, ask for help! Do some searches before asking, please. We are very excited for you to join us, but we need to know that you're willing to put in the time and effort required to do your part. When you do ask, ask well.
- Not sure if you are qualified? Download and build the code, then run the Platform and the Mifos X distribution.
- Instructions for running the platform are in the Apache Fineract Contributor's Zone
- Getting started with the web app can be found in the Getting Started Guide
- Source Code:
- Apache Fineract platform: https://github.com/apache/incubator-fineract
Android App for Field Officers: https://github.com/openMF/android-client
Android App for Clients (Self-Service): https://github.com/openMF/self-service-app
Data Import Tool: https://github.com/openMF/DataImportTool
Message Gateway: https://github.com/openMF/message-gateway
- Email the mifos-developer mailing list with your questions and project ideas.
- Install Skype for (generally infrequent) video calls. You'll need a headset for Skype, too.
...
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | For this project, we require an intern who is qualified and willing to work core HTML5 offline functionality. If we able to add offline support in community-app then we can have same application working on all browsers with offline support and need of a desktop app will not be needed. |
| Description | The project will involve the following:
|
| Helpful Skills | Javascript, CSS, HTML5. HTML5 Offline support knowledge i.e - Service workers, Sw-toolbox, IndexedDB wrappper - Dexie.js |
| Impact | Offline Functionality to Community App |
| Other Resources | More Information on Project |
...
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | We have released a full set of client-facing APIs to enable self-service channels for clients to interact with their own data and transact in a self-service manner. Previously all Mifos operations were performed by back office staff. Now clients can authenticate themselves, view and edit their account details. and make repayments or transactions between their own accounts. It is now possible for them to have direct banking apps that they can utilize including smartphone-based mobile banking, USSD-based mobile banking, and online banking via a web app. The focus of this project would be building out a clean and simple AngularJS application that can be used as a reference web app for financial institutions to directly deploy and offer to their customers or for our our support partners to customize and enhance to the local needs of their market. There currently is a proof of concept architecture that can be used as a starting point along with detailed wireframes and user stories. |
| Description | |
| Helpful Skills | AngularJS development, SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, MeteorJS |
| Impact | Allows a member/client in having a self-service channel allowing them more direct control and visibility into their financial livelihood. |
| Other Resources | Self Service APIs - https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Customer+Self-Service Source Code - https://github.com/openMF/web-self-service-app |
...
Accounting Module Enhancements
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | Mifos X and the Apache Fineract platform already provide a range of sophisticated financial accounting needs, however for organizations that use it as both their core banking system and accounting system all in one, they continue to need other features. While Mifos X never intends to replace an ERP or accounting package, we do want to continue to add additional functionalities that provide the necessary integration with the portfolio and general accounting functionality to support a financial institution's core operations. Several features have been requested by users and partners that we've grouped together as one task. Applicants should be familiar with the stack as well as the accounting and financial services domain. Some of this work will include finalizing and incorporating existing pull requests and contributions that have been made by partners. |
| Description | These enhancements will all be built into the Apache Fineract platform as part of or enhancements on top of the existing accounting module which provides full configuration of the chart of accounts, support for cash and accrual accounting, automated integration with the portfolio accounts and financial mappings, and single and compound journal entries to the general ledger. New enhancements include:
|
| Helpful Skills | HTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, Javascript, SQL |
| Impact | Better internal control and financial transparency |
| Other Resources |
Collateral Management Module
| Mentors | Maek Twain, Avik Ganguly | ||||||||
| Overview & Objectives | As financial inclusion evolves, more loan products are collateral-based and require more detailed tracking of the asset (gold, property, etc.) along with its value, and its depreciation. Some institutions also require tracking collateral as off-balance sheet items. | ||||||||
| Description | We have a complete specification in place and need a team to build out a new module on top of the platform that tracks the additional collateral values. The work involved includes creation of new APIs and database tables to track additional parameters for the collateral, and to build out the UI screens for this module. If the off-balance sheet collateral tracking is included, the work will also require extending the general ledger to support new types of accounts that are off-balance sheet. | ||||||||
| Helpful Skills | HTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, SQL | ||||||||
| Impact | Clients and Small Businesses are able to take out higher value loans when they can offer up different forms of collateral. This is essential as MFIs move beyond just group loans and to individual lending. | ||||||||
| Other Resources | See |
Insurance Claims Module
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | A crucial part of financial inclusion is micro-insurance and the ability for clients to safely manage risk in their lives. Mifos X will not fully handle the entire lifecycle of an insurance product but it should integrate with microinsurance system and track the key parts of the process that relate to the core banking system - collection and pass through of the premium and tracking claims and processing of these. |
| Description | This project would involve building out a separate module that tracks claims being made by a client, likely leveraging the CRM functionality being build to track activities. It will integrate with APIs to enable processing of the claim and tracking what proceeds must be paid out to the client. It will involve creating a new module with data model, UI screens and business logic that leverages Mifos X APIs Tasks involved include:
|
| Helpful Skills | HTML, Spring, Hibernate, REST, Java, AngularJS, SQL |
| Impact | Clients are able to lower their risk and have a much larger safety net when they have affordable access to insurance policies. |
| Other Resources |
...
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | Because of regulatory reasons or to do background check of a client (risk management), MFIs depend on credit bureaus. As part of it, MFI must submit client details to credit bureau and also need to pull client information from credit bureau before approving any new loans to a client.Mifos X can be integrated with a popular CBs in India and from other regions (based on the demand). |
| Description | During the 2016 Google Summer of Code, Nikhil Pawar, completed the credit bureau integration module with integrations for the major credit bureaus in India. This project will continue extending the functionality of the module and work on integrations with the major credit bureaus in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The major functionality will be sending the data to CBs on regular intervals in the format CB expects. And option to pull the client’s information from CB whenever loan officer/branch manager/ user wants to view the information for a particular client. |
| Helpful Skills | SQL, Java, Javascript, Git, Web Services, Big Data (Hadoop, Hive) |
| Impact | The credit report shows account information such as repayment record, defaults, type of loan, amount of loan, etc. of the customer. This information facilitates prudent decision-making when the credit underwriter processes the loan application. This help MFI to reduce the risk of bad loans and reduces the multiple lendings to same person from different MFIs. |
| Other Resources | Detailed requirements https://goo.gl/aZWMZa Mifos Credit bureau Integration. (Risk calibration Module -RCM) Source Code: https://github.com/apache/incubator-fineract/pull/215 |
ETL-Based Data Migration Tool for Loan Performer to Mifos X
...
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | Right now Mifos X contains core client management functionalities including tracking basic demographic information, know your customer information, document management, and survey collection through data tables. As financial institutions serving the poor begin to offer a more in-depth and diverse range of financial inclusion products, the need for more robust client management and in-depth client understanding has grows. Their core system needs to provide more and more CRM-type functionality that complement the portfolio management and financial/social reporting the Mifos X provides. This project will work to deliver the initial set of customer relationship management functionalities including a module for tracking inquiries, complaints |
| Description | This module will have a request management functionality. A request can be of 2 types: Complaints and Service Requests. Each request must be against a customer and optionally against an account of the customer. Each request will go through a simple workflow. Actions that can be performed on a request: Assign -> will change status to "assigned" Start Work --> will change status to "in progress" Close --> will change status to "closed" (with a sub-reason code) At each step user can enter comments. The customer summary screen will have a link to view the requests of the customer - along with a summary and current status - with option to click-through to get the complete history of each request. |
| Helpful Skills | |
| Impact | Deepening the client relationship and ensuring fair, responsible, and transparent financial services to the poor is a core piece of the industry's roadmap for financial inclusion. Providing customers the ability to voice their concerns and feedback about the services they're receiving provides a simple yet powerful tool to protect the client. Empowering the financial institution with the ability to track these inquiries and overall maintain a more holistic relationship tracking entire lifecycle of their clients gives them a much better ability to understand their clients and respond to their needs with appropriately designed services and products. |
| Other Resources |
JPOS Integration - Point of Sale Cash Out
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | Integrate MifosX with an opensource Point of Sale (POS) called JPOS. |
| Description | Use case would be to get a debit transaction (cash withdraw from checking account) thru the POS device /local runtime with 2FA. In India, the ability to get cash out through a point of sale network is provided for under RBI regulations. In production there will likely need to be an intermediate "Merchant Acquisition" or "Payment Processor" in between a single POS and MifosX Instance, but this could be abstracted out as a payment gateway only (primarily data mapping). The implementation target is the ability to do a 2 factor authentication on a POS device running JPOS (emulator ok), input account number (via some simple method), then be able to do a (cash-out) account withdrawal in real time to the MifosX account. Additional use cases would be to implement a transaction for payment for goods. i.e. enter specific goods, then do payment from MifosX account to Merchant Account (probably also in Mifos). |
| Helpful Skills | Familiarity with API work. Understanding of transactional flows. Java. Two-factor authentication - see other project idea . |
| Impact | |
| Other Resources |
Security Penetration testing
| Mentors | Mark Reynolds |
| Overview & Objectives | We believe the Mifos X platform is super secure and impenetrable. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to prove us wrong, and help close gaps you may find. |
| Description | Beyond a one time exercise, you should integrate (some of) the tools you've used into our build chain so that, even after you've gone, tools flag up future newly introduced potential vulnerabilities. |
| Helpful Skills | Candidates applying for this project would ideally have prior experience in penetration testing, and document this in their application. |
| Impact | Re-assuring the more Entreprise-y type Mifos clients that they can safely bet on Mifos X as an MFI platform. |
| Other Resources | https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Main_Page https://code.google.com/p/zaproxy/ Run FindBugs & related tools for some serious static code analysis |
...
| Mentors | |
| Overview & Objectives | Create a POC of a scalable MifosX implementation on OpenShift. Also publish a whitepaper with details of this set up. |
| Description | Mifos X was built to be cloud ready from the ground up. One of the most popular deployment environments for MifosX has been on Amazon EC2, however due to country specific regulation, many implementors are forced to seek alternative models that can scale as effectively. The aim of this project is two-fold:
To prepare for this project, applying students must demonstrate at least that they have already successfully locally built and ran a Mifos X REST back-end server and UI, populated the database etc. as well as provided a simple pull request proposing some minimal deployment related improvement. Note that we now believe that a Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a more suitable foundation for this project than a raw Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform (such as Openstack, offered by public cloud provider such as e.g. Rackspace; or Azure, or raw Amazon EC2). This is because a PaaS, such OpenShift, already come with relevant features such as built-in, managed, supported and monitored HTTP load balancing (e.g. OpenShift comes with HAProxy). We are aware that OpenShift out-of-the-box currently does not provide supported clustering for the MariaDB/mysql database used by Mifos (there is documentation for un-supported example based on an OpenShift template and suggested descriptions on blog posts, or also this one based on Severalnines.com; similarly one could deploy the commercial Percona XtraDB Cluster product ). However at this point we believe that this would not be required, and that proper configuration on OpenStack of the already existing cache facility (incl. distributed cache invalidation) available in Mifos X will add more value at signficantly less operational complexity. You may need to develop some minor "adjustments" for Mifos X to work well in a PaaS. For example, writeable directories may be limited, and configuration changes may be needed to pick up allowed data directories from an environment variable configuration (but consider multi node distribution in this cluster setup!). Also a cloud PaaS like OpenShift may not support "always running" instances, and scheduled jobs may have to be configured to be kicked off via an explicit HTTP "wake up" request from a cron job. While OpenShift should already take care of automatic distribution of Mifos code (WAR) updates among nodes in the cluster, you may also have to consider distributed configuration in a cluster. Normally all Mifos X configuration should reside 100% fully in the database only, and as such this may be a non-issue. If however there are any customized configuration files, then perhaps something like the Spring Cloud project could be of interest to ease distributed configuration management. We are aware of other PaaS product similar to OpenShift, such as notably Cloud Foundry, or even Heroku (closed source..) but would suggest to use OpenShift. |
| Helpful Skills | Continous Integration, UNIX, OpenStack, experience with any public cloud (AWS etc) and Percona Server is a plus, plus some minor Java coding required to adapt Mifos code to be able to pick up the database configuration from the OpenStack provided environment variable (and possibly automated Cache configuration tuning on OpenStack). |
| Impact | Improves deployment options for Mifos. Would be very helpful for specialists in African countries who deal with strict regulatory controls in hosting data outside their region |
| Other Resources | OpenShift https://www.openshift.com Old Mifos mailing list posts related to related things, search e.g. "mifos google app engine", and find as this one as well as this one. |
...