Mifos® – Pilot and Rollout Plan
TECHNOLOGY FOR MICROFINANCE
Introduction
This document covers the pilot and rollout of Mifos for the __________ Microfinance institution. The
Pilot will cover rolling Mifos out to ___ branches over ___ weeks/months. Upon successful completion
of the pilot the rollout will cover ____ branches within ____ weeks/months.
Roles & Responsibilities
The following individuals are involved with the rollout
 Please indicate if individuals are involved with just the pilot, rollout or both
 Branch participants are identified later in this document.
 Rollouts should include a representative from each of the major departments affected by the
rollout (Generally IT, Operations and Accounting)
PILOT AND ROLLOUT LEADS
Name
(sample) John Doe
Title
MFI IT Manager
Role & Responsibilities
Oversee project, run data
migrations, provide head office
support
Pilot/Rollout
Participation
Pilot & Rollout
TEAM MEMBERS
Name
Title
Role & Responsibilities
Pilot/Rollout
Participation
Schedule
This is a general overview of the schedule. Detailed schedule should be built in another program like MS
Project. Please review sample schedule for more ideas.
PILOT
Task
Rollout to xxx
Rollout to Group #1
Rollout to Group #2
Owner(s)
Participants
Branch 1-4
Branch 1, Branch 2
Branch 3, Branch 4
Start Date
12-27-09
1-15-10
2-1-10
End Date
12-29-09
1-30-10
2-15-10
Mifos® – Pilot and Rollout Plan
TECHNOLOGY FOR MICROFINANCE
Post rollout evaluation1
n/a
ROLLOUT
Task
Train Remaining Branch Staff
before rollout
Rollout to Group 1
Rollout to Group 2
Rollout to Group 3
Rollout to Group 4
Owner(s)
???
???
???
???
???
Participants
[Need Trainers and
participating branches]
[List Branches]
[List Branches]
[List Branches]
[List Branches]
Start Date
Feb-08
End Date
Feb-10
Mar-29
Apr-05
Apr-12
Apr-02
Apr-09
Apr-16
Rollout Process
When rolling out to a selected set of branches, the following steps are taken (below is a sample, please
change to your own process).
DEPLOYMENT PROCESS
Task
Run Data Migration script for
selected branches
Enter Collections and other MIS
tasks
Assist branch staff on-site
Monitor and Validate Reports at
Branch
Monitor and Validate Reports at
HO
Determine Success of rollout
period
1
Owner
Scheduling
IT Department – John Doe
Weekend before rollout begins
Branch Staff
Week of rollout
Rollout Team – Support Member
Branch Manager
Mon and Tues of rollout week
Week of rollout
Operations Manager, IT
Manager, Accounting Manager
Rollout team
Week of Rollout
Friday, last day of rollout
Post Rollout Evaluation involves reviewing the lessons learned during the rollout period and updating business
processes, rollout procedures, fixing data migration issues, fixing reporting issues, etc before beginning next step in
rollout. It is advised to schedule in an extended period after a live test and pilot for this step. During the actual
rollout it is expected this is ongoing and does not need an extended period as it is expected most major issues
would have been identified and resolved beforehand.
Mifos® – Pilot and Rollout Plan
TECHNOLOGY FOR MICROFINANCE
ROLLBACK PROCESS
Task
Owner
Scheduling
Risks
Risk
Mitigation
Supporting Documents
Document/Tool
Production Server
Description
Location
https://
Results
The following sections are here for demonstrative purposes. It is recommended that you use the google
doc templates for collaborative purposes or excel templates if offline editing is preferred/necessary.
Upon submitting this document for review, you can export the results from google docs into excel
format.
ISSUES
List all comments, bugs and issues found during the pilot and rollout. The same document should be
used for the live test, pilot and rollout.
Google Doc Template
Mifos® – Pilot and Rollout Plan
TECHNOLOGY FOR MICROFINANCE
link:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmKV049R8sT0dFFhRjZIMmdrTGpZcjVmNFRXRTFHbEE&hl=
en
Form Sample:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/grameenfoundation.org/viewform?formkey=dFFhRjZIMmdrTGpZcjV
mNFRXRTFHbEE6MA
Submission:
When staff are submitting issues, they need to provide the following (required marked in *):
 Date and time issue was found * (automatically added in google doc format)
 Reporter Name *
 URL (if applicable)
 Account ID (Client or System ID where the issue can be looked at)
 Description *
Tracking Details:
These details are used for managing and resolving those issues found
 Severity – How bad is the problem
 Priority – How important is it to resolve the issue
 Owner – Who is resolving the issue
 Status – Status of the resolution
 Bug ID - Used to link the issue to a bug if one is filed
 Resolution – Notes on how the issue was resolved, if at all
 Notes
VALIDATION
During rollout it is important to validate that it was successful. Create an excel template to use as a
checklist to track the validation for each branch. You may want to create multiple checklists covering
validation from the headquarters or different roles at the participating branch.
The checklist should cover things like



Business Processes
Reports
Data Validation between current MIS and Mifos
Review sample for further insight.
Note: During training it is important to stress with all participating staff what will be expected of them
during the pilot and rollout. Key is indicating that they will be doing operations in parallel with your
current MIS and Mifos.
Mifos® – Pilot and Rollout Plan
TECHNOLOGY FOR MICROFINANCE
ROLLOUT PROGRESS
TBD
FAQ
See <insert link> for commonly asked questions about planning and executing a rollout.