11.23.2011 Developer Meeting

Owned by Ed Cable
Last updated: Nov 23, 2011Version comment
6 min read

Who Attended

  • Keith W (Ireland)
  • Venkat (India)
  • Ed C (USA)
  • Binny (India)
  • Jakub (Poland)
  • Kakha (Georgia)
  • Udai (India)
  • Krishnan (India)

Notes

From: http://sync.in/F98zhy8bdV

Agenda:

  • Discussion of Feature List
  • Discussion of Process for Features
  • Technical Updates
  • Discussion of Technical Issues

Action Items:

  • Feature List/Product Roadmap
    • Ed to send out document summarizing processes
    • Sub-team to form to streamline current list, organize it, apply lables, consolidate with other lists
      • Ed, Lukasz, Krishnan, any others?
    • Will hold community-wide meeting in 2 weeks to establish roadmap. 
  • Accounting team will be scheduling meeting for this upcoming week - 1st half a demo/2nd half discussing best accounting path forward.
  • Data Migration Toolkit work - technical handover occuring between SunGard and Hugo Technologies
  • Keith/Udai taking on bulk import work to support Kakha/Binny and client needs.

Feature List Discussion

Resources:

Feature List

  • Created by Lukasz, selecting which of the 400 issues were relevant/important
  • Priorities were assigned by Lukasz.
  • Keith: do we want to go through each line item and look at it?
  • Keith: need a page on each org on what the main priorities of each org are.
  • Udai/Ed:
  • Lists of issues: use macro that can filter based on labels/components/etc
  • Ed: would like to use this with components, priorities, labels
  • How will we organize multiple priorities?
  • How do we attach priority?
  • Who has best knowledge to assign this.
  • What is the actual process. 
  • Voting could be a good means of using the tool.
  • Next Steps:
    • Encourage voting
    • Attach Labels for MFI
    • Separate by components.
    • Form small team to organize and label existing list
    • Pull together other lists and consolidate.
  • Krishnan:
    • Split list into purely technical and those that are purely functional. 
    • Customers don't pay for working on technical backlog.
  • What is the way to componentize?
    • Components?
    • Epic Stories could be used: 

Updates

  • Data Migration Toolkit
  • Hugo Technologies will be taking on maintenance and extension of the tool
  • Based on priorities will first be compatibility with current versions of Mifos and then migration of savings.

Molly Accounting Integration

  • Specification of API aim to publish as soon as possible - December 3. 
  • Work on Mifos end for that to send consolidate data hasn't begun and won't be done till specs are published. 
  • Binny: need screens in Mifos UI to make entry of transactions in Mifos. 
  • Krishnan: could volunteer to add UI screens for manual entry of general ledger transactions.
  • Binny: both APAC and BWDA are blocked on accounting.
  • Action: Let's schedule a call to demo and do screencast of the Molly functionality in upcoming week (Ed/Krishnan to coordinate)
  • Udai: Are these MFIs that won't consider integration aware that there are many much more complex accounting requirements that need to be supported?
  • Binny: Indian MFIs just want the simple ability to track some general expense/income transactions - would be happy with those screens.
  • Krishnan: mind-boggling task to keep track of high volume transactions unless MFI itself can have some integration between MIS and accounting.
  • Venkat: MFIs and NGOs have many other programs that they need to track and need to record these projects for financial accounting purpose --> need additional software and best story is integration. 
  • Kakha: isn't most of this covered in Mifos? // Krishnan: can greatly improve flexibility in Mifos
  • i.e. changing chart of accounts - must modify XML file and have deep knowledge of how to modify.
  • Binny: can't generate financial statements in Mifos w/o ability to track expense/income transactions.  
  • Kakha: why is it so difficult to just add this into Mifos?
  • Udai: can agree that Mifos should have a basic-level of accounting or at least to visualize accounting data in a simple format. For advanced integration can use Molly, etc.
  • Kakha: understand and agree on all the requirements for local/HR; can't we easily build the simple double-entry into Mifos?
  • How difficult is it to add these additional transactions into Mifos? // Binny 99% of transactions fit into those buckets. The 1% is at end of year when accounts don't tally - for that
  • Kakha: just need a debit/credit/amount and description or if multi - summation.
  • Binny: do we want to develop it twice? once in mifos and once in Molly?
  • Krishnan: unless we're very disciplined about what accounting we provide in Mifos, it's difficult to draw the line at where we stop to put in accounting functionality in Mifos.
  • Venkat: Accounting should be outside mifos and then have a seamless integration.
  • Keith: shouldn't be blocked from adding in these interfaces. 
  • Udai: Molly itself is not an accounting package but more an interface but can be used for simple entry (not duplicating effort)
  • Krishnan: can actually write something such that you can import any of this data from Mifos to any open package (extending integration for other OS packages).
  • Action: Discuss this offline in accounting subgroup when demo takes place this upcoming week. 

Offline Client

  • Binny: Centers are more or less completely disconnected from internet. Want loan officers to continue their entire day's work offline even without internet.
  • Krishnan: perhaps a client/server solution is best for them. The big 4 (SKS, Spandana, etc - all are still using branch-based system) - just learned how to work very well with it. What works for them works for them, like way web-based software works for us.
  • Udai: Excel based system they're using currently is very sophisticated. Suggesting offline client to replace Excel functionality. 
  • Kakha: don't have computers in any of these branches - just field officer going from Village Bank to Village Bank. Agree that they've recreated MIS in Excel.
  • Kakha: functionality they requesting is so complex that current web-based client is not enough. 
    • Concentrate on server side. Use excel as temporary solution for data exchange. After successful first iteration, think how to change/how to improve client. 
  • Krishnan: how large is the organization?
  • Kakha: 5 NSOs with 20-100 village banks. Each village bank has about 100-150 customer. 
    • 100s of rows of data for each trip for a field officer before syncing and entering into database. 
  • Binny: client wants lots of historical info visible on offline client // proposed they will give them collection sheet report or excel of data.
    • Want to see history of client in collection sheet view including past deposits/withdrawals/etc.
    • Want to add new customers, new savings accounts, new loan accounts.
    • Correction of old transactions. Currently applying adjustments
    • Members who have exited - closed loans and left completely. 
  • Udai: would say that the first and third point may be feasible with offline client. - information can be visible in the client - just payment transactions
    • Showing data should not be a problem, but showing data apart from transactions will be quite tricky.
    • But creating a client and account. Requires all the business rules on Mifos application - i.e. individual/group client - would essentially need to reduplicate functionality.
    • Udai: back-dated transaction is a different problem that Keith is taking care of.
    • Loan creation/client creation workflow is completing separate complexity. Client can handle transactions but becomes too tricky to handle client management.
    • Udai: good idea to expose those APIs - but trying to search that data historically - like having a distributed set of Mifos data and essentialy a complete software.
    • Binny: just need basic client information. 
    • Udai: when you create client, are you suggesting flat data being entered or need validation?
    • Binny: don't need workflow - savings will be automatically approved. Meeting happens and customers have been pre-approved
  • Krishna: Udai wants to have a very thin layer over API and not implement a lot of logic implemented in offline client because logic in offline client can quickly diverge from Mifos
  • Binny: why Kakha keeps going back to Excel. // Krishnan: Have you considered approach where upload excel sheet to central location and then a batch process that speaks to API of Mifos.
  • Krishnan: Don't think should do 1 iteration purely for 1 customer if it's not part of the general roadmap.
  • Kakha: Ideal next steps
    • 1st iteration - simple Excel showing
    • Keith: FO uses excel doc, reading this and getting into Mifos by importing into document - what is most common thing that they need to deliver on? For first iteration...
    • Binny: create client and repayment. repayment is done. Keith - need format of how they enter client data in spreadsheet. Udai will try to do work for that to pass into Mifos.
    • Plan: Binny will talk with client
    • Can Udai do the import of CSV to build client structure based on format of data - hitting restful service. 
  • Cutting out details - but just showing iteration - showing bulk import of data - commonly needed by many MFIs - this format here would be structured for this demo case. 
  • Kakha: Binny will need to get commitment from client. 
    • Udai and Keith will implement upload of new client functionality going into DB properly and supports back-dated transactions.  
  • Bulk Import functionality:
    • Udai: it's not too difficult - but will this evolve and not be throw-away. 
  • Krishnan: what does client use? SQLLite? // Udai - HTML5 localstore - chrome extension.