Modernizing A Notes App With XPages (MANA-X) Part 1 – Introduction

A few weeks ago, I started a new position. For this position, I was hired specifically to lead the transition of a key Lotus Notes client application into the XPages world, where modern capabilities and UI can be merged together to create a great user experience and better support the business processes going forward.

Actually, this application is more than just a “key” application. It is THE application. Well, technically, it is several applications, or modules, all tied together under one umbrella, which have supported just about every aspect of a business that has tripled in size in the last 10-15 years.

While there is an urge to jump right in and start coding, there are many things to consider ahead of time:

• Technical – Which framework(s) to use? Getting the development team up to speed on source control for better code management. Developing for IE9/IE11.
• Cultural – How to introduce users to a modern web application when they are used to working in the Lotus Notes client?
• Infrastructure – Keeping users productive with high availability. Making sure remote users do not have performance issues.

This is in no way intended to be a comprehensive list; These are just a few of the issues we’ve started to discuss as a team in the early stages of project planning.

Over the course of the coming months (years?), I’m hoping to share our experiences of moving this massive application to XPages and all of the successes and challenges that come with that (as much as I can, anyway).

Disclaimer: Any opinions and views expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my company. This series is intended as one company’s experience of moving an application to XPages and not a definitive guide on how to migrate an application to XPages.