Sigmah - a computerised system for managing humanitarian projects
2010 - 2011

Key word: The Quality of Aid /

Groupe URD and its partners have begun the development of ‘Sigmah’, a free software programme for project management. The software aims to improve practices and, in time, will be available to the humanitarian community as a whole.

Table of contents

Do you get submerged under all the Excel and Word documents which are exchanged within your organization and with your partners?

Do you struggle to keep a clear and up-to-date picture of the situation on all your organisation’s projects?

Do you often find yourself trying to track down information which is scattered between too many different sources and which is difficult to find in its most up-to-date version?

Do you find it difficult to keep on top of everything that needs to be done because of the number and variety of projects which need to be followed up?

Do you regret not being able to use all the information that has been gathered more easily in order to learn lessons from the past?

Do you want to adopt a Quality approach?

You are not alone …

Better information management

In response to these needs, the Sigmah software aims to make humanitarian project management easier by improving certain key functionalities:

Keeping track of project progress and funding;
Defining and monitoring indicators at different levels (project, country, region, organisation);
Centralising project documents;
Improving schedule management and anticipation using a warning system;
Implementing a quality assurance approach, by defining criteria and critical points linked to projects.

This project was launched in response to a collective request from a group of NGOs. During 2009, Groupe URD assessed their needs in terms of information management. This highlighted that they all wanted to improve these priority functionalities.

For an animated presentation of these functionalities, you can consult: http://www.sigmah.org/concepts-illustration/

Free software which will benefit the humanitarian sector as a whole

The fact that the software is free and open source means that it can be shared and it can evolve, and will be available to the humanitarian community as a whole. Developed using public funds (ECHO, ACCD), it will be available free on the internet.

A unique combination of competencies

The project is being led by a group of 11 NGOs who have been working on it together for a year: Action Contre la Faim, Comité d’Aide Médicale, Comité de Secours Internationaux, the French Red Cross, the Groupe URD, Handicap International, Médecins du Monde, Première Urgence - Aide Médicale Internationale, Islamic Relief France, Solidarités International and Triangle Génération Humanitaire.

Groupe URD is in charge of the overall coordination of this collective and is the general coordinator of the project. The project will thus benefit from the lessons learned during the development of the Dynamic COMPAS software, which will also be integrated into Sigmah.

The ActivityInfo software, a system for monitoring indicators developed for UNICEF and its NGO partners in Congo, has been integrated into the project.

IT companies (including Bedatadriven, creator of ActivityInfo), universities and engineers’ schools, ergonomists, graphic designers and other specialists are also involved, bringing their expert knowledge to the project.

‘Agile’ software development to respond to users’ needs more effectively

This software is being developed using what are known as ‘agile’ methods, which are pragmatic methods based on close collaboration between the development team and the users. Frequent exchange means that users are able to give developers feedback allowing the project to evolve step by step, based on better understanding of real needs.