IdeaJam(tm) feed for Jack Dausman

LS09 Best Practices Sessions / : Evidence Based Upgrades

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:03:53 +0000

Author: Jack Dausman
Tags: upgrade
Idea:

A frank how-to in winning trust and succeeding amidst budget cutting, organizational uncertainty and downsizing. It's a blend of management and technical techniques. For a few topics, code samples will be included. I'd like this to be run without being taped. The emphasis is on Domino/Sametime/Quickr Platform specifics for AIX, Linux, Windows on servers, Linux/Win/Mac for clients (all are in use). Versions go from Domino 4 through 8.x (yes, we have them all).

After ten years as an IBM/Lotus Business Partner, I left for the challenge of a corporate position. My company is The Washington Post Newspaper, which is part of several different entities under the umbrella of The Washington Post, none of which use Lotus Notes. This uniqueness of Lotus Notes adds a little extra drama. My professional experience is drawn from working with government, non-profit, SMB, and enterprise systems--as well as my current responsibilities.

Messaging and Application upgrades are painful because they interrupt processes, introduce risk, and require justification and budgeting. It is possible to survive the executives who want Exchange, those who are eager to outsource to GoogleMail and win over the techies that think anything with Lotus on it is Grandpa's Buick.

I'm borrowing the "Evidence-Based" terminology from recent medical and management methodologies, because I've found that approach to be extraordinarily effective in building momentum and communicating the upgrade process. My upgrades are preceded by a study and analysis, they are monitored with live stats, and they are followed up with comprehensive summaries.

If your company easily funds IT expenditures, is well-staffed, your systems are one version behind, and everyone follows all the recommended best-practice guidelines, then you won't need this session.

re: Evidence Based Upgrades

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:05:33 +0000

Author: Jack Dausman
Comment: Andrew, hah, I'm not sure what my "position" would be. I did think about begging for access to BP day--I really miss the frank, straight-up give and take.

re: Evidence Based Upgrades

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:24:46 +0000

Author: Bruce Elgort
Comment: Jack - this sounds like a great idea for a BP session and it is a session that I would be interested in attending at LS.

re: Evidence Based Upgrades

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:03:42 +0000

Author: Keith Brooks
Comment: Jack, I liek the idea, similar to what I blog about. Would like to discuss it sometime with you. blog is at { Link }

re: Evidence Based Upgrades

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:46:19 +0000

Author: Andrew Pollack
Comment:
Interesting idea. I almost said it should be at BP day, but as I think about it, its not a BP specific issue. I hope IBM picks this up, but I also hope they put it in the management track. Your position would give that kind of session in that track added creditibility.

re: Evidence Based Upgrades

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:47:38 +0000

Author: wouter aukema
Comment: Hi Jack, I seriously like your suggestion. Last year Daniel Nashed and me presented a similar session.

In 2002 my company developed a solution together with IBM Netherlands for this purpose, and they are resell our DNA service.

Because we process all customer stats centrally in our data warehouse, we now have 10TB of anonimized pre- & post-project evidence from our (mainly global) clients.

Would love to talk to you about this topic.

re: Evidence Based Upgrades

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:52:40 +0000

Author: Jack Dausman
Comment: Thanks for the feedback. Keith, you are always welcome to email me at jack@leadershipbynumbers.com if you are interested in more details. Wouter, I'm hoping that my orientation is not so much a tech how-to, but a management and tech how-to. There is plenty of good IBM documentation on performing upgrades, however prying out the funding or encouraging the adoption of current releases is a constant aspect of every upgrade. Personally, I view upgrades as actually a heading under "maintenance" and I think of it as bridge painting. No one is really finished, you just go back and add the next layer.