Just Enough Governance for Notes (Paperback)

~ Craig Schumann (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This bridges the gap between the Wild, Wild WestA" environment so often seen in Notes shops, and the approval- and documentation-heavy processes you see in other IT areas. Even better, it introduces the topic of governance in such a way that most Notes developers can relate to and accept. . I would highly recommend getting a copy of Just Enough Governance for Lotus Notes to make sure you're not exposing yourself and your company to unnecessary dangers. Thomas Duff, Lotus Notes Developer

Product Description

In today's regulatory climate, companies cannot afford to have applications developed, or data housed, outside the boundaries of corporate oversight. Application failures lead to business process interruptions and lost revenue, and Lotus Notes applications address real needs. Their usefulness is reflected in the fact that many Fortune 500 companies have a significant investment in Lotus Notes and Notes applications. The trick is to tame Lotus Notes development, but not to break its spirit - to provide Just Enough IT Governance to protect the company, without discouraging Lotus Notes development altogether. This book provides a set of policies and procedures designed to strike this balance, to provide Just Enough Governance for Lotus Notes. Firstly, it presents an IT governance philosophy for Lotus Notes that can protect the company without stifling developer initiative. Secondly, it gives IT staff and Notes developers a blueprint to implement IT governance processes and principles in the Lotus Notes environment. And finally, it takes a clear-sighted look at the future evolution of Notes and of IT governance.With the best practices presented here, you can create a governance process as agile as Notes itself, so that your business and Notes applications will prosper together for many years to come. This book is written by Craig Schumann who is Senior Vice President of R&D for Teamstudio. He has almost 12 years of experience with Lotus Notes and Domino(R), and has worked with Notes going back to R4. Before Teamstudio, he worked at IBM/Lotus.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: IT Governance Ltd (November 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905356595
• ISBN-13: 978-1905356591
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,013,590 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for every Lotus Notes developer..., November 21, 2008

By	Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Just Enough Governance for Lotus Notes by Craig Schumann bridges the gap between the "Wild, Wild West" environment so often seen in Notes shops, and the approval- and documentation-heavy processes you see in other IT areas. Even better, it introduces the topic of governance in such a way that most Notes developers can relate to and accept.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Lotus Notes and the trend towards IT governance
2. Just Enough Governance for Lotus Notes
3. Getting Started
4. Requirements
5. Design
6. Development
7. Test
8. Production
9. Convergence, IT governance and the future of Lotus Notes
Acronyms
ITG Resources

Because Lotus Notes makes so much power available to the power user, it's likely that you've run across Notes applications that have been developed outside of the normal IT structure. In fact, you may have gotten *your* start in Notes development that way. But unfortunately, those power-user applications have a way of becoming mission-critical applications that have no oversight or structure to govern their maintenance and support. That has led to much of the stigma Notes has as not fitting into the normal IT processes. But in Just Enough Governance for Lotus Notes, Craig Schumann lays out a governance process that meets the requirements for IT oversight without destroying the Rapid Application Development (RAD) aspect of the Notes platform.

The book starts out with a history of Notes and how it has found itself in this particular situation. Departments can get powerful applications built without being held up by IT processes. Conversely, these power users normally have no knowledge of external regulations that may affect the information they use, such as Sarbanes-Oxley or HIPAA laws. They are also outside of the normal IT support infrastructure, which means that environment changes could occur that break the application and adversely impact the business. This is *really* not a situation you want to find yourself in. By implementing a form of process control that is adaptable to the Notes environment, these drawbacks can be eliminated. While many formal developers are very familiar with the structure surrounding requirements, design, development, test, and production, you may be in an organization where Notes has grown in a more "grass roots" fashion. The boundaries between a test and production environment may be fuzzy (or non-existent). By following the processes put forth in Just Enough Governance, you can build a solid and controllable Notes environment without handicapping the speed and flexibility associated with Notes development.

There's one aspect of the book that stood out for me, and it's something you may not notice. Schumann works for TeamStudio, a well-known Notes business partner. They have a number of tools that address various parts of the Notes development and governance cycle. In far too many cases, books written by vendors serve primarily as a multi-page sales brochure for their products. As such, it's difficult to separate hype from reality. Not so in this book. Outside of the bio of the author, you'll see the company name mentioned exactly twice. This makes a huge difference in my mind, in that it means that the author has stuck to the subject without sacrificing objectivity.

In today's business environment, the risks and penalties associated with lax process and oversight are expensive. I would highly recommend getting a copy of Just Enough Governance for Lotus Notes to make sure you're not exposing yourself and your company to unnecessary dangers. Along the way, you may just convince your IT leadership that Notes can be governed just like every other platform.