What is all this Governance stuff about and how does it affect me (Part 2)
How the IT Landscape Has Changed (The Need for IT Governance):
In the past, applications developed in-house were generally self-contained applications developed over many months or even years. Applications were expected to have a life span of 10 to 15 years before they would need replacement.
Development teams usually worked together in the same physical location, and built applications using simple tools. With the introduction of ITIL, COBIT and other IT frameworks, the methodologies have evolved giving organizations clear guidelines on how to manage and support all of IT, including applications. The tools have also evolved to include modern Integrated Development Environments such as Eclipse. And finally architectures have evolved from simple client-server setups to models such as Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) allowing for easier application and data integration.
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In the past, applications developed in-house were generally self-contained applications developed over many months or even years. Applications were expected to have a life span of 10 to 15 years before they would need replacement.
Development teams usually worked together in the same physical location, and built applications using simple tools. With the introduction of ITIL, COBIT and other IT frameworks, the methodologies have evolved giving organizations clear guidelines on how to manage and support all of IT, including applications. The tools have also evolved to include modern Integrated Development Environments such as Eclipse. And finally architectures have evolved from simple client-server setups to models such as Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) allowing for easier application and data integration.
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These new methodologies, architectures and tools will dramatically shorten application life spans from years to months. With the addition of the compliance landscape, the majority of Lotus Notes applications are no longer departmental, stand-alone applications invisible to IT. Instead, they are being brought under IT control to better support the business, and to make sure all applications are being developed and maintained with the same rigor as all technologies.
IT good practice requires that all of IT be seen as a service. Not just applications, but all hardware, process, controls and people. When IT is seen as a service to a customer, we move to a much tighter alignment with business objectives almost overnight.
Organizations invested in the Lotus Notes platform may have serious challenges dealing with these issues because of Notes’ informal development processes. This development process includes little or no controls, “power users” instead of professional developers, and the Rapid Application Development (RAD) philosophy.
Lotus Notes and the Trend toward IT Governance from the Wild West to Business Critical:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. From the beginning, Lotus Notes was marketed as being really easy. It was effective software for email, calendaring, group scheduling and managing data.
Not only was Notes an excellent Groupware application, but it was also a rapid application development (RAD) platform for simple to sophisticated applications. Notes users could build business applications on a fully-fledged development platform. The platform included development features for discussion databases, dashboards and people-driven applications such as CRM, Help Desk or Supply Chain Management.
The good news, and the bad news, is that an individual with sufficient aptitude can build applications. And because the developer tools were included free with the Lotus client until Release 5, many power users did just that. Over time, the robust nature of the product allowed applications to evolve into business-critical applications. However, the proliferation of these applications has gone unchecked, thus creating massive challenges for Lotus Notes Administrators.
Critical applications were built using questionable processes, with little or no application lifecycle process in place. There was a total lack of effective governance and control.
Given this long history with Notes-based applications, it is not feasible to rewrite them or replace them. The only sensible approach is to bring control to this environment taking an IT Governance approach.
In my next post I shall cover “Bringing Notes Development under IT Governance”.
IT good practice requires that all of IT be seen as a service. Not just applications, but all hardware, process, controls and people. When IT is seen as a service to a customer, we move to a much tighter alignment with business objectives almost overnight.
Organizations invested in the Lotus Notes platform may have serious challenges dealing with these issues because of Notes’ informal development processes. This development process includes little or no controls, “power users” instead of professional developers, and the Rapid Application Development (RAD) philosophy.
Lotus Notes and the Trend toward IT Governance from the Wild West to Business Critical:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. From the beginning, Lotus Notes was marketed as being really easy. It was effective software for email, calendaring, group scheduling and managing data.
Not only was Notes an excellent Groupware application, but it was also a rapid application development (RAD) platform for simple to sophisticated applications. Notes users could build business applications on a fully-fledged development platform. The platform included development features for discussion databases, dashboards and people-driven applications such as CRM, Help Desk or Supply Chain Management.
The good news, and the bad news, is that an individual with sufficient aptitude can build applications. And because the developer tools were included free with the Lotus client until Release 5, many power users did just that. Over time, the robust nature of the product allowed applications to evolve into business-critical applications. However, the proliferation of these applications has gone unchecked, thus creating massive challenges for Lotus Notes Administrators.
Critical applications were built using questionable processes, with little or no application lifecycle process in place. There was a total lack of effective governance and control.
Given this long history with Notes-based applications, it is not feasible to rewrite them or replace them. The only sensible approach is to bring control to this environment taking an IT Governance approach.
In my next post I shall cover “Bringing Notes Development under IT Governance”.
Category Lotus Notes IT Governance IT Trends
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