Make the most of your TeamStudio investment
If you just buy the TeamStudio suite of products, you can find that they're useful tools for helping you solve some of the problems you might have. I love TeamStudio Configurator, for example, and was able to make the most of it right out of the box because it allows you to do global search and replace on design elements and documents. There's nothing else like this product out there and it pays for itself very quickly. However, I was not as quick to use the other powerful TeamStudio products like Librarian or CIAO! until I took the LifeCycle course.

One of the things I liked most about the course was how it teaches where and when to use the different TeamStudio products. I definitely believe I started using the TeamStudio products more often and more effectively after having gone through the class.

Included with the LifeCycle course is a fantastic opportunity to get a ten-day license to use the entire suite of TeamStudio products. If you haven't used TeamStudio's products before, this is a great way to be able to try them all at once. If you already have some of their products, this'll give you a chance to try those that you haven't yet used.

The BASIS for your future development efforts
The fact sheet for the LifeCycle course says, "LifeCycle is centered on the TeamStudio Design System and Tactica's BASIS for Lotus Notes, a structured methodology for Lotus Notes and Domino development." As I mentioned earlier in this article, it is this synergy between the TeamStudio products and Tactica's BASIS for Lotus Notes that really make this a unique and valuable course.

As part of Tactica's BASIS, you'll receive a copy of their CDE (Common Design Elements) database, their GDK (Global Databases & Keywords) and a LifeCycle Manager database that'll help you manage your databases from the planning to the maintaining stage. Here's a quick run-down of each of the three databases.

CDE (Common Design Elements)
The CDE database includes tested design elements like forms, subforms, and agents you can use in your applications. Even if you don't necessarily agree with which design elements are included or how these design elements are constructed, it'll definitely get you thinking about what design elements you want to modify or add to the database in order to create your own customized CDE database. I do hope that in the future Tactica will continue to beef up this database with a few more useful design elements in addition to those they already have.

GDK (Global Databases & Keywords)
I found this to be one of the most compelling elements of the BASIS system. Imagine having a central control center you can use to define and control not only databases but keywords as well. I absolutely love the idea of keeping and maintaining keywords in a central location and am definitely going to implement this on all my projects from now on.

LifeCycle Manager
This database includes all the documentation about the databases you're managing through the six stages of development. It has such things as application summaries, functional requirements, validation requests, and deployment checklists. My first thought when I saw the 30-point application deployment checklist was that it's worth its weight in gold.