Fellowship Capstone Projects

Owned by Jennifer Antilla
Last updated: Nov 18, 2022 by Nikesh Balami
3 min read

Why capstone projects?

The capstone project aims

  • To provide the fellows an opportunity to apply their knowledge, expertise, and learning in real-life projects.
  • To give organizations a space to collaborate on a specific project and extend the use of OpenMRS products, frameworks, and more.
  • To provide everyone an opportunity to propose the capstone projects and provide mentorship.
  • To identify the high-value projects and activities that will benefit the OpenMRS community.
  • To connect organizations, mentors, and fellows in the same phase during the time of fellowship.
  • To act as a matrix to understand the fellow's work and achievements.

What are capstone projects?

Capstone projects are the time bounded tasks and activities which can be achieved by the fellows with certain skillset within the timeframe of 5 - 6 months. Fellows will work on the capstone project under the guidance of the mentors and community.

Capstone projects can be of any type; like building new modules, fixing the bug, improving documentation, organizing community events, finding requirements, coordinating the squads, and more.

Anyone can submit the project ideas using the Fellowship Capstone Project application form for it to be considered but the project must meet the basic criteria for it to be prioritized.

How are capstone project ideas curated?

OpenMRS seeks to support projects that are high impact and have high value for the OpenMRS community and maximize the use of resources.

Basic Criteria

Projects added to our Capstone Project Idea listing

  1. Meet our community’s definition of a project
  2. Receive “thumbs up” endorsements from the community
  3. Clearly align with one or more of our community’s strategic goals

Prioritization Criteria

Projects meeting the above criteria will be prioritized using the following criteria:

Innovation 

Catalytic ideas

  • Is the project transformative? 
  • What about the project is innovative?
  • Does it introduce new thinking, technology, or approaches?

Consequences of inertia

  • What will happen if this project is not implemented or its implementation is delayed or incomplete?
  • How does this project counteract inertia?

Impact

Value to Health Equity

  • How will this project lead to improvements in health status?

Patient Safety impact

  • What impact will this project have on patient safety?

Quality of Care impact

  • What impact will this project have on the quality of care?

Sustainability

Longevity

  • Is there a plan for sustaining this project once this initial funding comes to an end?

Engagement   

  • What steps will be taken to engage others in the community? With other organizations? Users?
  • Does the project include implementations or community members as a part of the project team? How does the project consult community members/implementations at different stages of the project?

Collaboration

  • What steps have been taken to maximize the use of resources?
  • What other community services will be used to achieve this project’s objectives?
  • Have matching funds been identified and/or secured?

Dissemination

  • How will the project be documented and shared with the community? With implementations?

Community Driven

High Community Priority

  • To what extent does the project address the strategic priority needs of the OpenMRS community?
  • What priority needs within the community have the potential to be met through this project? How?

Who benefits

  • How will the community-at-large benefit from the project, once completed?
  • Are there specific implementations or countries that will benefit from this project? Which ones?     
  • How will this project benefit user?   

How are capstone project ideas curated?

Organizations, mentors, and community members can submit the capstone project idea for fellows. Please complete the Fellowship Capstone Project application form to submit the project idea of the listing.

For more information about the capstone project, please contact Jennifer Antilla and Nikesh Balami.

Capstone Project Idea List

Project Name

Name and link to the project proposal

Project Goal

What does this project aim to achieve?

User & Community Story 

Who are the users who will benefit from this project? How will this benefit the OpenMRS community or implementers?

Required Skills

What skills will this project draw on and hone?

Fellow

Who is working on this project?