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AVM

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My Skills & Work History

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I was privileged to be a participant in the pilot seminars for the introduction of the Lotus AVM. One of the first to learn this method for performing "groupware" projects, it has been a part of my way of doing things ever since.

AVM = The Lotus Accelerated Value Method

Lotus Consulting produced a program for Lotus Business Partners called the Lotus Accelerated Value Method Program. The program is comprised of a series of seminars to introduce and teach the Lotus Accelerated Value Method, a methodology developed by Lotus Consulting specifically for the rapid development and deployment of solutions using Lotus Notes and associated team-based technologies.

The AVM is a structured framework for the delivery of consulting services, with a focus on workgroup computing. It contains consistent approaches and techniques that enable the provision of rapid, value-rich solutions to clients.

There are six seminar modules, a one day introductory Overview module and five two day workshop seminars. These seminars cover the five key elements of the Accelerated Value Method - Process Innovation, Collaborative Development, Enterprise Deployment, Transformation Management and Engagement Management.

The Accelerated Value Method is flexible - a set of tools that can be used for any client engagement, large or small. It:
- captures workgroup computing "best practises" from industry leaders
- focuses on the rapid realisation of business value
- supports the provision of a full spectrum of services, from opportunity identification through to solution delivery
- addresses management of the organisational change required for the successful implementation of new technologies.

Process Innovation
This module tackles business process reengineering in the context of team computing solutions. Lotus defines PI as "rethinking and redesigning business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements with enabling technology". It includes topics such as:

Collaborative Development
CD is defined as "jointly creating business solutions with clients". The seminar includes concepts such as combined project teams, structured evolutionary development, and "managing risk through the ValueFrame".
Objectives include:

The concept of "structured iterative prototyping" is presented (presenting 80% of a solution early has more business value than 100% six months later).
The seminar topics include:

Enterprise Deployment
This module describes a process to "establish a scaleable technical infrastructure to support the implementation of business solutions". This AVM component uses Lotus knowledge to present experience-based metrics for deployment planning.
Key concepts presented here include "Think big, start small"; synchronised deployment; sustainable operation and support structure.
Objectives of an effective Notes deployment should be:

The seminar addresses topics relating to planning issues, architectural issues, operations and support considerations. It provides tools to enable up-front planning in each technical focus area, enable alignment with business needs analysis, and gives examples of deployment guidebook deliverables.
Quote: "If you do it right, you'll save money. Start wrong and there'll be expensive fixes needed."

Transformation Management
This seminar aims at "enabling the rapid, effective, and positive implementation of change". The intention is to enable the acceptance and success of new business systems, by managing the people aspects of change. Concepts presented include a constant focus on "people issues", and skills transfer at all levels. Key messages are that change must be planned and facilitated; people issues must be actively managed; client management must be helped to understand that they have a specific role to perform - you can't just let change happen.
Typical groupware transformation issues are discussed:

Other aspects covered include measurements and incentives; selection of (client) team members;
The following critical success factors are emphasised:

The TM module topics include:

Engagement Management
This module is not a project management methodology. Engagement management can be stated as "making money, or going out of business" by managing the inherent conflicts of time and money.
Objectives of this module are:

The module focuses on deliverables, joint empowered project teams, the science (e.g. cost containment; the 80/20 and Zero-Sum rules) and the art (leadership versus management; consult to agreement; listen).
Notes DB tools are demonstrated with the emphasis that they should be shared with the customer. They include:

The EM module topics include:

The Wrap-up
Lotus Consulting define the benefits of AVM authorisation as:

The Lotus Accelerated Value Method
Why a new method?
by Cindy Hilyard

You've probably heard of expensive, complex consulting methods available from the usual, big-name organizations. With a plethora of methods on the market, why would Lotus want to introduce yet another method? Traditional methods, involving data flow and entity relationship diagrams, were primarily designed for an information systems audience. Foist these tools on an end-user audience and the result is at best impatience. Since Notes is embraced so readily by end-users, it is important to have a method that both end-users and technical staff can understand. You may have noticed that we use the word "method" and not "methodology." AVM is not meant to be a prescriptive, cookie-cutter approach to consulting; instead, it is a repository of best practices and tools developed from successful consulting engagements around the world. AVM is, above all, business and results oriented.

According to Susan Johnson, director of the Accelerated Value Method program at Lotus, "We had two reasons for developing the Accelerated Value Method. First, we needed to consolidate our best practices for Notes projects for our own consulting staff. Second, we knew that we could never directly service all of the clients needing Notes consulting. Consequently, we developed AVM with our business partner community in mind." Ian Richmond, vice president of Lotus Consulting, elaborates, saying, "We strongly believe that for Notes to be successful, we must help build consulting capacity much more quickly. Experimental learning just isn't fast enough. Clients are attempting much more sophisticated projects with Notes, and they need help today." Johnson adds, "Many organizations wait until a disastrous project before investing in methods. Others are more proactive, recognizing that AVM is the first method available for managing solutions based on a groupware product like Notes."

Lotus defines AVM as, "a structured framework for the delivery of consulting services, with a focus on workgroup computing in a client/server environment. It contains consistent approaches and techniques that enable skilled consultants to provide value-rich solutions rapidly to clients." Why the emphasis on structure? The structure provides assurance that AVM is repeatable, that it indeed reduces a client's risk. The focus on workgroup computing underscores the presence of tools and techniques specific to Notes projects. The insistence on requiring skilled consultants means that time is not spent on consulting or project management basics but on how to provide business value more rapidly using Notes and related products. Put in plainer terms, AVM is designed to deliver both quick benefits and the foundation for long-term success.

The crux of AVM is a tool called the Lotus Value Frame^TM. Using the Value Frame, consultants are able to manage change and minimize risk by delivering value in small, time-bounded cycles. The key to this approach is an iterative process known as business prototyping, an activity that constantly maps technology gains to evolving business process goals.

Primarily targeted at the legion of Lotus Business Partners seeking to enhance their Notes practices, AVM became available globally July in the form of two-day courses. "It's very simple, "says Robert Anderson, Managing Director, Major Accounts in Lotus Consulting. "If our business partners are successful with their Notes projects, it's a win-win situation all around. Judging from the early results, it looks like we're moving in the right direction."

The creators of AVM knew from the beginning what they wanted: a constantly-evolving best practices repository. What they didn't want was to reinvent what was already on the market. According to Richmond, one of the original sponsors of AVM, "There was a lot of heated debate in the early days about whether we were large enough to invest in a method. We came to the conclusion that we needed to make the investment for internal purposes, even though it meant pulling billable consultants out of projects to devote time to developing the seminars." Richmond adds, "The combination of the systems nature of Notes and the dramatic impact Notes can have on critical business processes translates into complexity. AVM was designed to help consultants understand and therefore manage the complexity and risk inherent in major Notes projects."

Lotus emphasizes that AVM is meant to be an open, inclusive methodology that benefits by taking from, and loaning to, other consulting approaches.

Major AVM Components

Lotus believes that successful consulting around workgroup computing solutions requires the integration of activities across five disciplines. Consequently, AVM is comprised of five consulting modules -- Process Innovation, Collaborative Development, Enterprise Deployment, Transformation Management, and Engagement Management -- which when woven together ensure project implementation and success are defined not just by technology, but also by team dynamics and business imperatives.

Explicit in documenting AVM was the concept of transferring skills to Lotus' customers and large business partner community. Consequently, Lotus Consulting is offering an AVM seminar program, which includes a one-day Overview and two-day core module seminars. Participants in the seminars contrast AVM with the rigid nature of traditional, waterfall models of development. These rigid approaches were designed for IT audiences in mainframe environments and are not easily scalable to the more flexible, dynamic demands of client/server computing.

According to Ross Hall, Senior Consultant at Computasoft Limited, "Developing software applications used to be a one-sided affair. The analysts came in, the techies wrote the software, and one day a user got to see it. AVM incorporates joint application design and rapid application development principles, which not only compress time but also involve users early in the process." Computasoft is a Lotus Premium Partner with about 100 employees in the U.K. and the U.S.

Kathy Kushinsky, Project Manager at Lotus Consulting agrees, noting that, "With traditional methods, the focus is on building a business case, which drives requirements, and then moving on to development." Kushinsky adds, "When using traditional methods, the concept of revisiting the business case is foreign. After spending two weeks defining the business case and milestones for success, the last thing desired is to revisit the business case and adjust all the old milestones." The AVM philosophy, in contrast to traditional methods, emphasizes that requirements changes are not only inevitable but also inherently good. During a typical AVM project, users go through a discovery process, with common exclamations of "Oh, now I really understand how we can use this technology." Without this discovery process during development, systems would continue to be designed to yesterday's needs within yesterday's technology frameworks.

Process Innovation
Process Innovation involves rethinking and redesigning business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements with "technology-enabled design." Technology-enabled design means technologies - today ranging from workflow automation and electronic forms to imaging video conferencing, and voice recognition in addition to Notes and ancillary products, such as Phone Notes -- are evaluated as tools that can enable an organization to "break the rules."

Process Innovation can bring about radical change by using a structured approach, which includes setting the business context, assessing current processes, designing new processes, and developing a case for action. The goal here is to include representatives from all departments and have them participate in a series of focused workshops that can lead to productive pilots after only four or five days. Radical change issuing from these workshops typically is not associated with the draconian downsizing associated with business process reengineering.

Larry Jacobs, Director of Technology, Universal Data Consultants, (Norcross, GA), took one of the pilot Process Innovation courses and came away using words like "excellent" and "outstanding." Jacobs, whose 130-employee company is a Lotus Premium Business Partner, says Process Innovation students are broken down into teams and told to innovate in a typical, if hypothetical, application development environment. Big productivity gains were realized when the students in Jacobs' class were told to develop "stretch goals" that required them to do something in 48 hours instead of three weeks. This led to several innovative technology approaches that would not have otherwise surfaced.

"The course content is excellent, but actually attacking the problem--it's like turning on a lightbulb," Jacobs says, "All the teams came up with some truly revolutionary ideas that were still grounded in reality. What you're talking about is tied directly to the business goals."

In the interest of fairness, Jacobs also points out that it is possible to make progress a lot faster when working for a hypothetical company that does not impose any political obstacles on the path to success, rather than an actual company that has to deal with political problems on a day-to-day basis. This reality is covered in the Transformation Management seminar.

Collaborative Development
The idea behind Collaborative Development is to jointly create business solutions with clients and partners. Key concepts include combined project teams, evolutionary development, and managing risk through the Value Frame.

These concepts are effective whether or not they are applied in a Notes environment. "It's not a Notes course per se," says Barbara Gingrande, Project Manager at Lotus Consulting. "We are not trying to duplicate any materials currently in the Notes Application Development series. Instead, we evaluate business goals, address architectures, and design applications using a more object-oriented approach."

The Value Frame concept is based on that notion that risk can be minimized and significant gains in value can be realized by persistently moving ahead within pre-defined, short-term time periods. Employing iterative prototyping -- constantly planning, designing, coding, testing and training -- developers put themselves in a loop that provides a steady flow of feedback as they move ever forward. In this manner, pilots are able to evolve into production applications unhampered by the "analysis paralysis" that dogs more traditional development approaches.

In the end, successful Collaborative Development requires integration of iterative Process Innovation work and ongoing Enterprise Deployment work. As redesigned business processes are created, application requirements must be considered with respect to the architectures being designed.

According to Ron Beck, Senior Director of Synetics (Wakefield, MA), a 500-employee Lotus Premium Business Partner, "The real value from the AVM approach comes from bringing stakeholders into the process. You can get a lot of value really quickly if people thoughtfully consider each step cooperatively."

Beck is enthusiastic about AVM, but also acknowledges that there are some gaps from a methods perspective. Beck notes, "The biggest gap is the absence of a tool that documents the results of a facilitated workshop or supports code generation." While Beck concedes that there are no perfect tools on the market today, he cites products like Team Flow from .... and Revelation Technologies' Open Insight for Notes as examples of tools that are useful in a Notes environment. Lotus' Richmond agrees, saying, "We have looked at and used a variety of tools. While we don't want to endorse any one set of tools, we believe that a big benefit of our AVM seminars involves the discussions among partners, including topics such as which tools are being are used, which ones work the best, and why."

Tangible results based on Collaborative Development may be seen within days, and over a longer period of time, a project that may have normally taken eight weeks may be done in six. The Value Frame dictates that consultants always project return on additional efforts. Projects that have 80 - 90% of the functionality originally envisioned may be considered complete, given business goals that emphasize speed. Again, the idea is to provide value today rather than design to specifications that may be out of date once delivered.

"The Value Frame takes into account the fact that projects reach a point of diminishing returns," says Jacobs. "You may determine that the last 5% isn't worth it, which I think is tremendously important." In conclusion, he notes, "The Value Frame and business prototyping really force us as business partners to say to customers, we want to deliver some business value at each step of the way rather than postponing it all to the end."

Enterprise Deployment
The theme for Enterprise Deployment is "plan big, start small." A major Notes project, by definition, involves a diverse set of considerations, ranging from replication and domain strategies to backup procedures and support plans. In AVM, establishing a scalable technical infrastructure is important, but only in the context of supporting business solutions. For this to happen, there must be close collaboration among the deployment team, application developers, and end-users. The link back to Process Innovation and Collaborative Development work must be explicit, with regular communication to ensure evolving changes to the business process and application demands are accounted for when planning the architecture.

According to Matt Potrawski, Business Specialist at Precision Systems Concepts, "One of our projects started strictly at the division level. It has now gone international. The exercises we did in the Enterprise Deployment seminar really helped structure our approach to this project as the business requirements shifted." Precision Systems Concepts is a Lotus Business Partner in Chicago, Illinois.

In contrast to the AVM approach, business and technical strategies often are formed with complete disregard for each other, by departments that have little, if any, substantive interaction. For these strategies to come together, both sides must understand the importance of their own individual tasks and how they fit into the overall business picture. James Hogbin, Senior Consultant at Lotus Consulting, emphasizes, "The Enterprise Deployment seminar is not about the nuts and bolts of a deployment; instead, it offers a pattern for analysing needs and approaching a solution."

There are many critical elements of Enterprise Deployment. One, the custom guidebook, contains all aspects of a Notes deployment, including server network topologies, administrative policies and procedures, and organization models. AVM emphasizes the need to update the guidebook continuously. Another involves a well-planned testbed strategy, which requires a scaled-down mirror image of the project to test all variations. Hardware standards, procurement plans, help desk organization, and risk assessments are yet other elements covered in Enterprise Deployment. Finally, because Notes is so readily adopted by business users, who freely begin to create their own databases and put up their own servers, AVM focuses on helping the IT organization transform itself from controlling technology to facilitating more effective use of technology. This involves organizational change at many levels and links to Transformation Management activities.

Joe Baxter, Systems Consultant at Synetics, lauds Enterprise Deployment for providing structure. Baxter says, "I really appreciated the framework for working with the Collaborative Development team during rollout. It reinforced the need for structure as we guide clients through the rollout process."

Transformation Management
Transformation Management enables the rapid, effective, and positive implementation of change by constantly focusing on people issues, including existing culture, skills, and incentives for change. While training is often equated with transformation management, other issues such as reporting structures, compensation plans, and consistent communication activities are also crucial to transforming an organization. Unfortunately, resolving these issues often seem like common sense, making Transformation Management one of the most overlooked elements of many technical projects.

According to Joe King, President of Crossroad Partners, a Lotus Premium Partner located in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, "Many partners have done at least a few really great pilots that never reached production. I found the Transformation Management seminar a real eye-opener in this respect." King was originally ambivalent about how the large-scale focus of AVM would help Crossroad Partners, which focuses on smaller projects. King comments, "What I recognized was that although we are involved in smaller projects, we have a great deal of repeat business in Fortune 500 accounts. I will be in a better position to help my clients after attending the Transformation Management seminar."

AVM explicitly focuses on change-related problems that are particular to groupware environments, including the fear of sharing data (knowledge often is equated to power), the advent of cultural clashes, and resistance by newly empowered individuals to learning to find and retrieve their own data. Fears and resistance can be overcome by showing people the "what's in it for me" benefits of using groupware. Benefits may be as simple as a Notes-enabled corporate research function, whereby users can search for their own information -- even after hours -- rather than queue up behind many other requests.

With AVM, transformation management activities begin early in a client relationship and extend beyond the project in the form of follow-up checks for value achieved. Using AVM, consultants consider cultural readiness and stakeholder needs, conduct knowledge-sharing risk assessments and performance measurements analyses, and identify education and training programs to ensure transition to a new knowledge-sharing culture. One of the exercises used in the Transformation Management seminar is called "The Risk of Sharing Knowledge." In this exercise, participants evaluate the legal, contractual, geographic, and organizational risks of sharing knowledge. All Transformation Management activities are done in the context of the organization's vision and the case for action identified during Process Innovation.

Once assessments are completed and plans are in place, the challenging job of implementing change begins. In the wake of change wrought by AVM, people may find themselves reassigned to new, unfamiliar positions that they find undesirable. It is necessary to convince them of their value in these new positions by carefully explaining to them how their efforts enhance the overall business structure.

"Usually, I am negative about 'soft' content courses, but there is real substance in the Transformation Management seminar. I am 100% pleased with the two days I spent in this training," says Maurice Champagne, vice president of Universal Networks (Elmhurst, IL), a Lotus Business Partner and Lotus Authorized Education Center. Universal Networks is a systems integrator with 50 employees. A comment overheard in one of the seminars was along the lines of, "A major client, in providing feedback, told us that we created solutions really fast, sometimes too fast. I was proud of my staff's technical expertise, but within the context of Transformation Management, I realize that we need to ensure we're in synch with each client's readiness for change."

Engagement Management
Part art and part science, Engagement Management is key to overall project success. overall project success. Many hear the term "engagement management" and immediately think of project management, with its associated management of staff, project deliverables, time, and cost. In the AVM context, Engagement Management means not only project management, but also relationship management. Managing projects in a much faster-paced and dynamic environment, compared to traditional systems development, involves always includes staying close to the client team. That means apprising client teams of every step taken from beginning to end. It also means understanding the client's evolving Value Map and tailoring the project approach accordingly.

In comparison, traditional project management approaches can result in substantial administrative overhead and delays. This doesn't mean that planning, organizing, and control are ignored; instead, it means that these activities must be adapted to each situation. Johnson emphasizes, "After all, business results are the primary measure of project success, not detailed plans or status reports." Instead of a rigid activity list, AVM identifies the typical deliverables for each major component of the project and then provides a set of tools and techniques for use in producing these deliverables. Johnson adds, "The engagement manager works with the client to determine which are appropriate given a particular Value Frame."

As Lotus' Bob Anderson puts it, "You must look not at what you're giving, but at what clients think they're getting." That requires providing continuous value -- and making sure the client agrees on what is being provided. The challenge of doing this is amplified by highly distributed teams, multiple stakeholder communities, and AVM's focus on providing value -- the right business value -- really quickly.

With that in mind, the next step calls for tailoring the workplan to the project. This requires a detailed understanding of the current conditions, the strategy for change and the desired outcome. Upon completing one of the case study-oriented exercises, Richard Backhouse, Director of Training & Consultancy for New Information Paradigms (Berkshire, U.K.) exclaimed, "This is remarkable. Each of the three teams came up with a different but equally valid solution based on our interpretation of the situation. This really drives home the importance of understanding sound engagement management practices when delivering workgroup computing solutions." New Information Paradigms is a Lotus Premium Partner with 14 employees almost completely dedicated to Notes assignments.

Deliverables are highly valued by clients because they signify proof, not promises, of progress. They also give clients something concrete to show to their managers, who may be waiting for measurable results. In the end, they demonstrate that the project is on course and headed toward a positive outcome.

According to Brian MacDonald, Client Services Director at Lotus Consulting, "The use of the Value Frame is central to effective engagement management. It is a great way to get the whole team -- client, partners, and consultants -- to think in goal-oriented terms." MacDonald adds, "Fixed price contracts can institutionalize conflict between consultant and client. Time and materials contracts are not well bounded and can result in the 'endless project.'" The Value Frame is used to focus all team members on developing and implementing the project plan -- collaboratively. What will be delivered when and with what resources are all jointly agreed upon based on business objectives, whether these include reduced cycle times or improved service levels. In all cases, it is the job of the engagement manager to ensure that projects maintain focus on business objectives.

Potential Audience and Benefits
When asked about the benefits of AVM seminars, a few themes emerge, including: the value of instruction by practising consultants with "war stories" of their own, the value of interactive workshop environment where partners do exercises and learn together, and the value of creating a common language, upon which partnering arrangements can be based. One thing is clear from early feedback: both large and small partners are interested in exploring AVM.

Lotus Business Partner Peter Stanford is Managing Director of Atlas Consulting Group (Sydney, Australia), a Lotus Business Partner with only eight employees. According to him, all Lotus Business Partners will benefit from AVM, "but they will have to invest time and money to do it." Bob Leffler, Senior Consultant with Management Consulting Services at EDS, offers the perspective of a very large company that is interested in AVM. "We are currently sending staff through AVM training and working with Bob Anderson of Lotus to see how AVM can complement EDS methods, Systems Life Cycle and Right Step^SM."

Anderson notes, "We are currently working with a number of large companies to customize AVM offerings or to help integrate AVM modules into existing methods. We see this as a growing demand, particularly among our clients." Richmond adds, "We are not licensing AVM because we believe partners should be able to take what they need from AVM, integrating with other methods as appropriate. The goal is to make best practices more widely available and to ensure success for Notes projects."

So what's in AVM for other Lotus Business Partners and eventually, Notes developers and project managers at end-user sites? Precision Systems Concepts' Potrawski states that, "I like the concept of going through some of the other seminars with clients. The interactive nature of the seminars provides a rich environment to explore issues and learn to speak the same language."

According to Stanford, his small but growing firm can team with Lotus Consulting, thereby working with accounts he wouldn't otherwise reach. "Because we only have eight people, we're too busy to prospect for large accounts," he explains. The enterprising Stanford, who has secured AT&T Global Information Solutions in the U.S. as a client, says that he can have the best of consulting methodologies, for example, specializing in AVM for the Notes piece of an Andersen Method One project. Citing the consistency of AVM's approach, he says, "AVM can go right across the channel." How will it ultimately help his company? "AVM will strengthen our position as a truly independent consulting company, which is what we want to be."

New Information Paradigms' Backhouse comments, "Initially, AVM looked like a general interest offering, especially for a Premium Partner. After attending the Engagement Management seminar, I realized one of the most valuable elements was the interaction with other solutions providers." Potrawski agrees, saying, "I have already received three business partnering opportunities based on contacts I made at AVM seminars. I think the interactive nature of these seminars makes them great places to network."

Beck appraises AVM's impact on his company by saying, "If you're looking for Lotus leadership in Notes deployment, AVM lets us say we employ the method Lotus recommends. AVM provides the framework and structure required to make sure we haven't overlooked any key issues in rolling out Notes to an enterprise." Computasoft's Hall projects, "With the commitment Lotus have put in to AVM and with their willingness to learn from the business partner community, AVM should mature into a powerful method with a great future ahead of it."

Asked how he believes end-user sites will gain from AVM, Beck replies, "AVM ensures clients are being offered a comprehensive approach, one that helps them focus on their true business goals and one that attends to both the technical and human needs of implementing Notes-based systems." When it comes to the future of AVM, Lotus' Johnson says, "In effect, we're rolling out Version 1.0 of AVM. We will continue to update our modules based on collaborative interactions with clients and Lotus' large business partner community around the world."

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Cindy Hilyard is the Marketing Manager for Lotus Consulting. Prior to entering the Notes industry in 1992, she was a Total Quality Management facilitator. Her interest in Notes arose from having facilitated teams in off-site environments and seeing these teams, for lack of enabling technology, revert to "business as usual" when back in the office.