Gap Analysis: eLMIS Tanzania & Zambia and OpenLMIS 3.x

Created by Tenly Snow (Unlicensed)

Goals/Scope

The purpose of the gap analysis is to identify the gaps between the current features (and roadmap) of eLMIS in Tanzania and Zambia and the feature roadmap for OpenLMIS 3.x. Based on the outcomes of this activity, an informed decision can be made on the need to add these “gap features” to the OpenLMIS roadmap and whether a migration path makes sense, and if so, the priority of such an undertaking. 

Background

The version of eLMIS in Tanzania (mainland and Zanzibar) and Zambia is built on a previous OpenLMIS code base which was subsequently developed further by a JSI-led development team.  In 2015, work began on a re-architectured version (3.x) of OpenLMIS which is designed in an extensible, micro-services based architecture, with work led by VillageReach.

Migrating to OpenLMIS 3.x would have advantages for Tanzania and Zambia as they would benefit from new features developed for this global public good.  However in order to consider the case for migration, Tanzanian and Zambia users and stakeholders require that OpenLMIS 3.x include the useful features developed in their own versions of eLMIS so that they don’t lose any functionality in migrating.

This has led to this gap analysis work, which aims to document features which are needed in OpenLMIS 3.x in order to ensure it provides at least the same level of functionality to Tanzanian and Zambian stakeholders as their current eLMIS does.  This document is focused specifically on the Tanzanian mainland gap analysis.

Additional background:

The original monolithic architecture of OpenLMIS and eLMIS does not easily support the re-use of features from country to country. At the OpenLMIS Stakeholder Conference in September 2015, the OpenLMIS community identified this barrier to “shared investment, shared benefit” as the greatest barrier to long term success and adoptability of OpenLMIS as an LMIS standard in LMICs. For this reason, the community undertook a re-architecture effort to re-create the system on an extensible, micro-services based architecture dubbed version 3.0. The initial 3.0 release is schedule for February 2017.

However, since Tanzania and Zambia are both on the older, monolithic version of OpenLMIS, they will not be able to take advantage of any features developed with the new architecture. To ameliorate this, the OpenLMIS Community has undertaken a “gap analysis” to identify the complexity of re-creating features from the existing Tanzania and Zambia implementations of eLMIS to the OpenLMIS 3.x code line.   

Project Information

In the summer of 2017, a team from PATH and JSI conducted an assessment of the eLMIS features and compared them to the OpenLMIS 3.x version with the support of VillageReach. The output of the team's efforts include a list of features which should be added to OpenLMIS 3.x to reach feature parity and provide additional value to Tanzania and Zambia.  

USAID via Digital Square, has funded the feature development of the identified features. See the Gap Analysis Development Project for more details about the software development scope, timeline, teams and meeting notes.

Features

Documents

Prioritized features are here.

Requirement gathering and assessment Documents are here in Google Docs to request access, please contact Amanda BenDor (Unlicensed) 

  • Tanzania Gap Analysis Document: here. Each feature will be documented in confluence for the OpenLMIS community to review. See the sub-pages for details.

From 2016