Ending Poverty With SoftwareSoftwareS l i l bl ith O SSolving large problems with Open Source software, distributed teams, and Agile

th d l imethodologiesAdam Feuer, Van Mittal-Henkle, Adam MonsenGrameen FoundationGrameen FoundationMifos Initiative

Poverty – a large problem

● Six million children die of hunger every year, 17,000 every day.

2 7 Billiy y , , y y

● 2.7 billion people live on less than $2/day

2.7 BillionPoor

4.1 Billion $2/day● (World Bank poverty definition; 2001 data).

40% f th t t l ld l ti f

Non-poor

● 40% of the total world population of 6.8 billion

● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty#Absolute_poverty● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_poverty#Poverty_as_restriction_of_opportunities● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_poverty

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Microfinance is key to ending poverty

● Financial services for the “unbanked”● Smooths irregular income flows● Provides cushion for emergencies● Expands economic activity

● Vision is to eradicate poverty by helping the poor to help themselves.● Yunus: “Our grandchildren should have to go to the museum to see what poverty was

like.”

● Prof. Muhammad Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in the late 1970s in Bangladesh and successfully scaled profitable microloans to millions of people.● Nobel Peace Price 2006Nobel Peace Price 2006

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Lending to women

● Typically ~ 98% loan repayment (recovery) rate.

● Microcredit customers are mostly women

Gro p / Solidarit Lending is common creating a bond among a gro p● Group / Solidarity Lending is common, creating a bond among a group of clients.

Often only Loans not Deposit (Savings) accounts (hesitancy among● Often only Loans, not Deposit (Savings) accounts (hesitancy among regulators)

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Mifos – open source banking software

● To reach 2 billion people, you need web-based, scalable software

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Basic Stats● http://sourceforge.net/projects/mifos/ registered 2004-11-19● Initial release (and some early publicity) in 2006

● Winner of JavaOne 2009 Duke's Choice Awardfor Best Java Technology for the Open Source Community

● Google Summer of Code (2009 & 2010) student programs

Today● Today● About 214 database tables

according to SchemaSpy job on http://ci.mifos.org/schema/head/latest/

● About 120'000 Lines of Code (NCSS, Non Commenting Source Statements) according to Sonar report on http://ci.mifos.org:9000/project/index/1

● Very active mailing list, bug tracker, and IRC channel

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team/tools/code – late 2007● team

● development in fits and spurts● no activity on IRC● no activity on IRC● unsearchable, unmirrored mailing lists

● tools● clunky ci server, manual backups, haphazard system monitoringclunky ci server, manual backups, haphazard system monitoring● subversion outages & performance issues (java.net svn)● parallel tracking/planning systems (Mingle + Issuezilla)

● code● cumbersome, unmaintainable build w/Ant (unknown jar versions!)● didn't know what version of our code our largest customer is using● monolithic codebase● Mifos only ran in JBoss and was only usable from Internet Explorer● insanely slow & cumbersome compile/edit/fix cycle

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team/tools/code – Today!● team

● scrum with daily standups, iterations, burndown● this slideshow is a remix of one given by a volunteer● awesome IRC channel● searchable, multi-mirrored mailing lists

● tools● Hudson CI server, tested backups, awesome monitoring via OpenNMS● distributed version control (sf.net git)● single, powerful issue tracker and planner (JIRA Studio)

● code● predictable, modular build w/Maven (proper dependency management!)● codebase divided into modules, API and plugins● Mifos runs in any servlet container and is usable from any browser● much improved compile/edit/fix cycle (Eclipse WTP)● customers running known, tested versions of our code

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Distributed, Agile, Awesome● documentation on FlossManuals.net (crowdsourced barnraisicalized synergy!)

● http://en.flossmanuals.net/Mifos/Welcomedi t ib t d d i i ki● distributed decision-making● http://www.mifos.org/developers/wiki/DeciderViaEmail

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Communication BandwidthAs an open source team, how can we we communicate most efficiently?● The usual suspects:

M ili Li t Wiki P j t T ki T l (B ill Ji ) IRC● Mailing List, Wiki, Project Tracking Tools (Bugzilla, Jira), IRC● Higher communication bandwidth alternatives:

● Audio, Video, In Person

Higher communication bandwidth has reduced time to convey ideas, reach decisions build team cohesion (USA India Ireland Australiareach decisions, build team cohesion (USA, India, Ireland, Australia, Ghana-Africa)

Free tools that ork for sFree tools that work for us● Audio – skype● Video – tokbox

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Team = Product

● Great communication = great team

● Great team = great product

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Mifos Technology RoadmapLegacy micro-finance web application → financial services platform for offering

Legacy code was monolithic and used:• Hibernate, Struts, JSP

Integrated BIRT reporting• Integrated BIRT reporting

Lots of custom code:• Transactions• I18n• SecuritySecurity

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Mifos Technology Roadmap (Target)

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Get Involved!● Join the global collaborative Mifos community and united effort to build and

extend this platform that fuels innovation from the bottom up and empowers the poor to ascend out of poverty There are many ways to get involved:poor to ascend out of poverty. There are many ways to get involved:● Build acceptance tests● Find & fix bugs (look around JIRA for open issues you could have a go at)

Ans er q estions on mailing lists participate on IRC● Answer questions on mailing lists, participate on IRC● Guide implementations on-site● Write new or complete existing documentation● Translate Mifos UI or documentation● Localize by building local region-specific reports

● Get on the mailing and/or IRC and say Hello!People will point you to how and where you can contribute.

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Based on a presentation by Mifos volunteerMichael Vorburger

htt // b hhttp://vorburger.ch

Links● http://www.mifos.org● http://www.mifos.org/developers - Developer start page● http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0OGeRdluyU – Mifos Intro. Video● http://www.gfspl.in - Grameen Koota, Bangalore/India – MFI using Mifos● http://www.mifos.org/developers/wiki/MifosVolunteerProjects - Mifos volunteer

projects page● http://www.mifos.org/developers/wiki/TestServers - try Mifos● https://ci.mifos.org/hudson - continuous integration● http://ci.mifos.org/schema - schema diagrams● http://www.mifos.org/developers/wiki/MifosVersionControlGuide - source code● http://link.mifos.org/listserv - mailing listsp g g● #mifos on irc.freenode.net & http://www.mifos.org/developers/listserv/irc-mifos/irc-logs

● http://twitter.com/mifos (@mifos)

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