Agile. The flexible and dynamic approach to success.

Why is an Agile approach even to be considered in the context of migration of one or more Domino / Lotus Notes application migrations and transformations? 

To respond to this let’s start with the basic premise about how Agile came about. The simplest explanation for an Agile approach in developing software solutions is.....

The history of Software development has been plagued by failure. Before Agile, a Waterfall oriented approach was used in the mid 90's it was calculated that only about 25% of software projects were classified as successful. 

Today thanks to Agile that number has risen above 50%. You may say 'well that is not really an earth shattering improvement', and that is true. However, unfortunately adopting Agile is not as easy as executing a series of steps. Agile more than a process, it's a philosophy,  a way of being and a mind-set that needs to permeate throughout an organisation. 

For those organizations where this is indeed the case,  the success rates reported are very close to %100. In fact, in most cases where a true Agile mindset is in place not only are project success rates extremely high but team productivity is as much as 400% higher and employee retention is also close to %100 as well. 

Notes e-mail Migrations are in generally successful and have been proven over time. These are facilitated by mail standards that allow for easy automation. However many businesses have developed very complex, bespoke applications over periods of years, with functions are not easily migrated by any automated tooling. There are many horror stories how these migrations can easily be underestimated and fall short of the expectations of users and clients. 

1. Lack of user engagement. We have seen many instances where the final product falls short of user expectations and companies opt to stay with the original Notes solution, even when the product is out of support and the applications are inadequately supported. And even when companies have invested seven figure sums in an effort to transform Lotus Notes.
2. Unrealistic work effort Estimations. Many horror stories recount how applications that were estimated to be delivered in a few weeks are not delivered in months or years even. This failure is principally caused by the lack of clearly defined requirements, a key factor in software projects in general. 
3. Lack of planning poor risk management. Overall the approach is to migrate and / or transform the current application and to sunset the original one. This approach has proven to be inadequate for more complex applications, especially when there are challenging issues to contend with such as interdependent applications. This issue is also compounded by attempting to migrate and transform Domino / Lotus Notes without sufficient expertise and know-how. 

Many organisations have experienced Domino / Lotus Notes migration and transformation failures, invested heavily in these efforts and have often put at risk the productivity of their organisation as a result of these efforts. 

MIGR8IT provide a no-risk approach for our clients. We can do this because of lessons learned from prior project engagements, because we have a deep understanding of the technology from decades of experience and we have the tooling and insight to understand your Lotus Notes landscape.

Our co-existence approach assures that there will be no impact to your business throughout the application migration and transformation process. Under our watch, your Lotus Notes Jenga tower is not in danger of collapse if you pull a block out! 

We pride ourselves on having a true Agile mindset based on over 10 years of professional experience that allows for cross-functional and truly self-managed Agile teaming. 

Our Agile approach directly addresses the shortcomings of most Lotus Notes application migration and transformation projects, such as:

• Lack of user involvement and engagement
• Inaccurate work effort estimations
• Lack of planning and poor risk analysis.

By implementing a cross-business Scrum team with 15 minute daily stand-ups, frequent delivery of functionality for every sprint, retrospectives our teams have accrued a track record of successful delivery and high level of customer satisfaction. 

We create dashboards that allow our clients to keep abreast of overall project updates at any given moment. So you always know where you are in your journey.

Our co-existence delivery approach with frequent feedback loops assure risk-free delivery that meets or exceeds client expectations. 

Our leading pro-code and low-code partners are integrated into our scrum teams and most frequently delivery functionality that goes on what our clients imagined possible. 

Our Agile approach is not recipe based, it is customer-centric. We are not just contractors, we make it our business to truly understand the customer needs and we care, meaning we deliver what's expected and more. Given the limitations of the Lotus Notes platform and the power of newer technologies that is not an impossible task. 

We provide modernisation partner of high calibre, including UX design, Big Data and more. But the enabler for successful projects is our Agile approach. 

A core concept that describes a path towards high performance. 

Technical personnel take pride in their work, are driven by continuous learning and enjoyment from engaging with others. These are the characteristics of a strong scrum team member. 

At MIGR8IT, we let team members passion and drive fuel delivery and inspire other team members. In technology, bumps in the road always occur they can paralyse development but with an Agile Mindset and a strong cross functional team, things are resolved rapidly ideas are exchanged and continuous improvements are made through active communications and strong retrospective discipline. It’s not just App Migration its Agile App Migration. 

• Start with Why (Simon Sinek)
• SCRUM - The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time (Jeff Sutherland)
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - A Leadership Fable (J-B Lencioni Series)