Lotus Domino & Notes:
Best Practices for Implementers

by Jim Ford

Arlington, VA, July 23-25, 1997
Chicago, IL, September 24-26, 1997

The Challenges of Deploying Lotus Notes and Domino

Despite all the success and excitement surrounding both Lotus Notes and the web-enabled version of Notes now called Domino, simply making these technologies work, from both a technical and organizational perspective, remains a daunting task.

Planning a Notes/Domino infrastructure is a major undertaking, with an absolute requirement that the architect be aware of the unique elements of these environments such as the replication environment, the domain architecture, and the security system. Notes application developers are faced with an ever-increasing range of development tools and techniques, and the challenge of trying to harness an inherently-decentralized development environment. And even after the technology issues are solved, there is no guarantee that people will actually use Notes to increase collaboration, because many cultural factors can undermine the potential of Notes.

This seminar focuses on these and other issues facing the Notes and Domino planner, implementor and developer as they undertake Notes projects. At the end of the two days, you will understand the critical factors that have determined success or failure with Notes and Domino in other organizations, and you will know what you need to do to ensure your project succeeds.

Seminar Highlights

Notes receives a tremendous amount of attention as the first and leading product in the groupware category. Now enabled as a web server and renamed Domino, the Notes environment continues to generate tremendous interest and excitement for its potential foster new levels of communication and collaboration among individuals and groups throughout an organization.

But contrary to industry hype, success with Notes is not automatic. The infrastructure requirements of the Domino/Notes environment are substantial, the application development environment is not ideal for all applications, and organizational issues can block the intended results.

This seminar is all about the realities of making Notes or Domino work as a collaborative environment in large organizations. We will explore the technical, organizational, and cultural issues that directly impact the success of Notes and Domino, and review the approaches that have been proven in overcoming those issues.

If your company is moving forward with Lotus Domino or Notes, you should be at this seminar. If you are the point person for making Domino or Notes happen, you need to be at this seminar.

Seminar Benefits

Upon completion of this seminar, attendees will:

• Decrease planning problems with a proven approach for planning and managing a Notes/Domino infrastructure

• Maximize your intranet by determining whether the Domino implementation of Notes can meet your requirements

• Create success stories by finding the best application pilots -- and making them work

• Where the Notes/Domino architecture works...and where it doesn't

• Increase security with proven Notes/Domino security processes

• Reduce development time with the right tools for Notes application development projects

• Be a support expert by understanding what it takes to support Notes and Domino

• Connect the enterprise by integrating Notes and Domino with existing database applications

Who Should Attend

• IT Managers and Team Leaders - will leave with an understanding the impact of Notes on the IS organization, the resources required, the typical pitfalls that plague many Notes projects, and the ability to create a viable project plan.

• Business Managers - will leave understanding how to choose the right applications for Notes and Domino and ensure success with the Notes projects underway in their organization.

• Systems Analysts and Developers - will gain an understanding of the limits and options in the Notes development environment, including alternative development tools and middleware strategies.

• Project Teams - who attend as a group will leave with both an understanding of how to move forward effectively with Notes and Domino and an understanding of the necessary roles to do so.

Seminar Outline

1. Before the Technology: Proven Approaches to Organizing Notes and Domino Projects

• A Notes and Domino deployment framework

• Establishing a core team

• Choosing the Pilots

• Critical success factors in Notes and Domino projects

2. Building The Notes/Domino Technical Infrastructure

• A.Introduction to the replication architecture

• B.Server topology models-building a hub architecture

• C.Notes architecture concepts-domains, NABs and ACLs

• D.Planning for Domino and the browser environment

• E.Integrating Notes Mail into your mail infrastructure

3. Architecture and Administration

• Browsers and clients: sorting out your choices

• Supported server environments and network protocols

• Tools for the Notes administrator: Notes View and the rest

• Additional third-party and add-in products for managing the environment

• Support requirements

4. Migration Issues

• What's new in Release 4.5

• Containing the single-copy object store

• The perfect vs. realistic migration plan

• Application migration

5. Best Practices in Notes and Domino Security

• A.IDs, passwords, and administration

• B.Implications of Domino to the Notes security Model

• C.Securing applications

• D.Apparent security: where are the holes?

• E.Problems and pitfalls: what not to do

6. The Basics of Notes and Domino Application Development

• A.Forms, views and macros: the basics of Notes

• B.Notes R4 additions: Navigators, agents and layout regions

• C.Lotus Script

• D.Supporting the changing development model

7. Alternative Development Tools

• A.Capabilities of the Notes API

• B.Third-party tools: ViP, VBXs, Powerbuilder and others

• C.Matching the tool with the need

• D.A review of handy development utilities

• E. LSXs, LSOs and Components

8. Integrating Notes with Other Applications

• A.OLE and Notes F/X

• B.Client-side integration: Merge, import and translation tools

• C.Server-side integration: Middleware for Notes

• D.Server development tools: why?

• E.Notes, Domino and the datawarehouse: Where's the fit?

9. Using Notes and Domino as a Workflow Platform: Proven Solutions

• A.The capabilities of Notes as a workflow platform

• B.Integrating Notes and Domino with mail for notifications, routing, and approvals

• C.Off-the-shelf workflow products: is it for you?

10. A Recommended Development Methodology

• A.Who does Notes and Domino development?

• B.Do you need a methodology, and how much?

• C.Notes data management: an oxymoron?

11. Planning for Support and Training

• A.Support and training requirements

• B.Who supports what: servers, applications and networks

• C.Training options and recommendations

• D.Third-party support services

12. Wrap Up: Avoiding the Usual Pitfalls

• A.The seven deadly sins in implementing Notes and Domino

About Your Instructor

Jim Ford is a consulting associate with Connexus Consulting Group. Mr. Ford is a certified Lotus Notes Consultant and Microsoft Certified Professional with a background in relational technologies. Mr. Ford has assisted many organizations in their Notes and Domino implementations with particular expertise in both designing and developing Notes and Domino applications as well as integrating Notes data with external databases and applications.

Meeting Site and Hotel Information

Washington, DC, July 23-25, 1997
Hyatt Regency Crystal City
(703)418-1234

Chicago, IL, September 24-26, 1997
The Wyndham Hotel
(630)773-4000

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Lotus Domino & Notes: Best Practices for Implementers

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