Samson G/mariam
November. 2011
1.
2.
3.
4.
Steps for Tana Belse MIS Development
Web based MIS/M&E Application
Development
Assumptions, Problems and
Recommendations in the use the system
Future Tasks

A management information system (MIS) is an integrated
user-machine system for providing information to support
management and decision making. Simply MIS is a system or
a tool that helps us to provide accurate and timely information
about our time to time activities. It is an important input at
every level in the organization for decision making, planning,
implementing, monitoring and controlling.

The MIS system utilizes computers, manual procedures and a
database. Now a day internet and other application
development environment facilitate the use of MIS in web
based environment, i.e people can enter, update and view their
day to day activity from remote.
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS
There are Seven steps should be followed to develop a sound MIS
1.


Establish management information needs /why we
need the information system?
From the management, monitoring and evaluation point of
view, the Tana Beles MIS system expected to have all the
necessary information in the area of watershed development
activities.
Specifically the system objectives for Tana Beles are:◦ To collect information related to all integrated watershed
activities at community watershed level.
◦ To exchange monthly, quarterly and yearly report from Woreda.
◦ To monitor the status of indicators
◦ To build Capacity at BoA system in the use of Database
application.
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont..
2. List the possible information units for data collection and
processing in different level.

To achieve the intended objectives, the MIS system
should have an information units in different level
throughout the project area. For Tana Beles, four
information/ data processing/ units are identified.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Community Watershed Team
DA or Community Facilitator
Woreda NRM /Woreda Watershed Team/
RPCU
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont..
3. List positions or managers who need information for
decision making. Discuss the type and importance of this
information for those decision makers.
 String committees at different level /National, Regional
and Woreda/ Coordinators and decision makers
 Agriculture office at woreda and zonal level
 Bureau of Agriculture
Implementers
 Bureau of Water Development
 The World Bank
Source of the money and decision makers
 MFA etc.
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont..
4. Develop a general system description of a MIS design.
◦ Why we need the application? To store data about each activity at community watershed
level throughout the project period and beyond and to retrieve an aggregate report for the
woreda and region.
◦ Decide about the type of access for different information units or
stakeholders. There is different password for data manipulation and uniform or no password
for report generation.
◦ Decide the type of database at the back ends. It depend on the size, security level and
◦
budget we have. We used MS Access for stand alone and MySQL for web application.
Decide the software for application development. There are different programming
software for application development here we used Microsoft visual basic 6, MapObject 2 and
Crystal report designer 8 for interface, embedded GIS and reporting format development
respectively
◦ Identify the basic data needed for the database /to be store/. Based on the identified
indicators, 173 possible activities are listed. All the necessary data such as planning and achievement of
activities, project budget needed and used, community contribution in labor and in kind will be stored in
the database
◦ Design the planning and achievement reporting format.
◦ Design Database by following the database design procedures. /identifying
the
basic entities, design the conceptual data model, design the E-R Diagram, design the logical modeling and map
to the physical model/.
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont..
Entity Relationship Diagram(E-R Diagrams)
Indicators
Community Watershed
Pr. Key
Pr. key
Watershed Name
Activity Code
Activity List
Kebele Name
Output
Woreda Name
Outcome
1
Unit
1
M
Activity
Pr. Key
Watershed Name
Pr. Key
Activity Code
Project per. Ph. plan
Project per. Fin. Plan
Project per. com. plan
Etc..
M
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont..
5. Decide how information will be collected, processed and
distributed. /Positions and responsibility will be allocated
for the different information units./




A weekly data will be collected by watershed community team
member
DA/ Community facilitator/ aggregate the weekly data into
monthly and submit to the woreda agricultural office
The woreda expert enter the monthly data into the system and
copy the database to RPCU by CD
RPCU update the regional database by copy and paste
method.
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont..
6. Discuses the relevance and handling of the quality assurance
aspect in the system.
One of the most challenging issue in the process of data
manipulation is poor data quality at different level.

◦
◦
◦
◦

Quality problem in planning phase. Eg. Cost estimate for activities,
high ambition and expectation from the community etc..
Quality problem from the source of information especially at output
level /underestimate or exaggerate the information/
Quality problem in data aggregation from weekly to monthly
Quality problem in data entry stage
Besides preparing Data quality assurance guideline and
awareness raising strategy, continuous follow up and
capacity building should be necessary to alleviate the above
problems
1. Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont..
7. Develop a network showing information flows.
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles
To build web applications, we need the following software:






A web server such as ISS, Apache, etc.. A web server is software
that serves files in response to requests from web browsers.
An application server that runs on web server. It is software that
helps a web server process specially marked web pages. When such
a page is requested, the web server sends the page to the application
server for processing before sending the page to the browser.
A database system
A database driver /ODBC or OLEDB Provider/
Programming /scripting/ software
The choice of application server, database software, web server and
programming software depends on several factors, including the
availability budget,
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
An illustration of the process of storing and querying a database
and returning data to the browser in Web application
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
For Tana Beles project we choose to use an Open source
software for sustainability purpose. Such as
◦
◦
◦
◦


Apache Web server
PHP Application server
MySQL Database
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX software for Programming /scripting
Now we are using Yahoo server by renting
For future we need to migrate from yahoo server to BoA web
server, which is in procurement process.
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..

Develop database called WME_Databse on MySQL
The Database has 9 tables
The table structure /Schema is developed for all tables based on
their purpose /objectives. All the necessary data is populated for
most of the tables
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..

For simplicity we tried to use almost uniform interface with the previous
stand alone MIS application. This will help the Woreda experts to easily
cache the system.
Main window for Stand alone
program. Here we have one
Password to access data for
manipulation
Main window for Web Application.
Here we have Password to each data
entry and update pages for data
manipulation. For the report pages
there is no password.
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
Stand Alone MIS
Web Based MIS
Planning Data Entry Format
Achievement Data Entry Format
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
Updating Achievements
in Stand alone
Updating Achievements
in Web application
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
Planning Report Format
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
Achievement Report Format
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
The system is open to add new community watersheds and activities. i.e. it is
not project specific.
2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con..
The main purpose of MIS system is to provide timely and complete data
for decision makers, here we tried to link this system with the output
indicators. Output indicators are a direct result of activities in the MIS
system.
Schema /structure for output indicator
table. By populating the selected
activities and target for each activity
we can create a relationship with the
activity table
Retrieved Information of Output
indicators. Most of the outcome,
object and Goal level information
will filled by conducting assessment
/status survey/ on specific time.
Assumptions, Problems and recommendations
Assumptions

1.
The system will be very simple and user friendly for woreda experts. /no need
of special skill / both the stand alone and Web based has similar interfaces.
2. There will be a continues training in different level on the issue of data
collection, data management and quality and reporting .
3. Continues assessment on the implementation and functionality of the system.
4. There will be updated version of the system as needed.
5. There will be compatible web server at BoA
6. IT counter part to take over the task. especially to maintain security and
database.
7. There will be an Internet connection at woreda level through CDMA apparatus
or through Woreda Net.
8. Dedicated /committed/ person for data manipulation at Woreda level.
9. Less staff turnover
10. There will be full participation of DA in data collection by help of GPS
11. Continuous training for woreda and kebele level in the use of the system, GPS
use and GIS application.
Assumptions, Problems and recommendations cont..

Problems
1. Less attention or commitment both from kebele and woreda level
in collecting timely data.
2. There is a tendency to continue in old way of reporting
3. There is a problem in reporting on output level, used project
budget.
4. Problem in data quality /exaggerated figure, missing some
achieved data etc..
5. High staff turnover both at kebele and woreda level
6. A computer virus during CD exchanges
7. Lengthy procurement procedure eg. GPS, CDMA etc…
Assumptions, Problems and recommendations cont..
Solutions and Recommendations
1.
Continuous follow up and capacity building both at kebele and woreda
level in area of data collection, processing and quality issues.
On job training and assessment on the use MIS system for woreda
experts.
To work on the use of GPS for data collection. It will minimize data
quality problems
To recruit dedicated project coordinator at woreda level to look after the
quality of the data, to coordinate kebele experts for timely data collection
and to build capacity at woreda and kebele level.
To shift from stand alone application to web based database application.
This is helpful especially:-
2.
3.
4.
5.





For central data administration and security problem
To speed up data exchange
To reduce the computer virus
To discourage the traditional way of report exchange and
To address all stakeholders timely information needs
Future Tasks to sustain the system
Future task will be focus on Institutionalization and capacity
building. Specifically it focuses on:◦ Finalizing the web-based monitoring development
◦ Prepare user manual for web-based monitoring
◦ Give continuous training for woreda, zoneal and regional experts on the use of
MIS and web-based monitoring
◦ Continuous training on data collection and quality aspect
◦ Revise list of activities in the system
◦ Migrate all web data from yahoo server to BoA server /Based on the availability
of the server/
◦ Training on Web based monitoring for data/ Server/ administrator at regional
level
◦ Extensive training on GIS and Geodatabase development for woreda, zone and
region experts
◦ Geodatabase development at woreda level
◦ Update the system to incorporate comment form different stockholders
◦ BoA support on implementation and IT equipment maintenance
◦ To scale up the system to other projects etc…
Thank You