sharepoint governance home truths
DESCRIPTION
Slide deck from my Australian SharePoint Conference keynote and New Zealand SharePoint Conference talksTRANSCRIPT
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N E W ZE A LA N D SHAREPOINT CONFERENCE M A R C H 1 6 + 1 7 2 0 1 1
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ON BEHALF OF AUSTRALIA TO NEW ZEALAND
#SPSQUASH
Better luck next year Hadlee
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SHAREPOINT GOVERNANCE
HOME TRUTHS
Paul Culmsee
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PAUL CULMSEE CISSP, MCSE, MCT, MCTS
• Partner - Seven Sigma Business Solutions (Perth)
• SharePoint architect, trainer, facilitator and agony aunt
• Sense-making practitioner and facilitator for large scale
complex projects (non IT)
• Speaker and author:
• SharePoint Best Practice Conferences, Business Analyst World Conference,
CleverWorkarounds, EndUserSharePoint.com and SharePointMagazine.net
• One of four certified Dialogue Mappers worldwide
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SETTING SOME CONTEXT…
• SharePoint governance and successful delivery is just as much art as science.
• Practitioners need:
• Deep product expertise and technical skill
• Deep understanding of the softer side of SharePoint delivery.
• Guess which one we suck at?
• Many aspects of this talk have been influenced by my non IT work as a sensemaker on complex projects.
• Urban planning, community engagement, infrastructure delivery, strategic planning, team and relationship building, performance management and various other scenarios
http://myextralife.com/56geeks/
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SHAREPOINT PROJECT PAIN…
• “They don‟t know what they want!”
• “The requirements are too vague!”
• “If only they had listened to me”
• “Not another %$%$% meeting!”
• “I was never consulted”
• “This is ridiculous – it won‟t work”
• “How am I supposed to estimate that?“
• “It was in the minutes – did you read it?”
• “Well if everyone actually followed the process…”
• Special Journalist addendum:
“…yes, this conversation is definitely off the record”
Slide 6
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Management f-LAWS: How Organizations Really Work
Russell Ackoff and Herbert Addison
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F-LAWS
“f-Laws are truths about organisations that
we might wish to deny or ignore – simple
and more reliable guides to everyday
behaviour than the complex truths
proposed by scientists, economists,
sociologists, politicians and philosophers”
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THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE
THE DEFINITION OF
“GOVERNANCE” IS, THE LESS IT
WILL BE UNDERSTOOD BY ALL
F-LAW 1
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FACT!
Governance originates from the Latin word
“to steer”.
Latin: gubernatio (“„management, government‟”), Ancient Greek kubernesis, "steering,
pilotage, guiding" < kubernao, “„I steer, drive, guide, pilot‟”).
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KEY TAKEAWAY
Governance is the means to an
end
You do not need to over-define it to understand it
By working to achieve the agreed end in mind
you are governing!
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KEY TAKEAWAY
Do all participants understand what the end in
mind is?
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F-LAW 2
THERE IS NO POINT IN ASKING
USERS WHO DON‟T KNOW WHAT
THEY WANT, TO SAY WHAT THEY
WANT
Corollary: There is even less point in thinking that you already know what they want
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KNOWING VS. LEARNING
Cognexus Institute www.cognexus.org
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KNOWING VS. LEARNING
Cognexus Institute www.cognexus.org
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OPPORTUNITY DRIVEN LEARNING
“The truth about Einstein is he didn't arrive at his famous
equation by complex mathematical reasoning. In fact,
he didn't use mathematical or scientific reasoning at
all!”
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It just came to him...
“Einstein was intrigued by „holes‟ in prevailing theories.
He enjoyed posing „mind riddles‟ to himself, just to see if
present theories could satisfactorily explain them.
Einstein refused to give up until he solved the riddle. He
didn't stay with this riddle for just a week or two, as you
or I might have done. He didn't even quit after a year or
two of racking his brain.
He stuck with the riddle for...
Joseph W. Graham
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... TEN FULL YEARS!
1895 1905
E=MC2
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KEY TAKEAWAY
For a problem that is novel or requires learning
for participants, they will examine potential
solutions just to explain the problem
Each instance of examining the solution will
impact the understanding of the problem
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KEY TAKEAWAY
• Expect fluid requirements
• Expect scope changes
• Involve stakeholders!
• Expect resistance and pullback
• Plan for prototyping
• Be adaptable
• Do not penalise people for their learning
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THE PROBABILITY OF PROJECT
SUCCESS IS INVERSELY
PROPORTIONAL TO THE TIME
TAKEN TO COME UP WITH A
MEASURABLE KPI
F-LAW 3
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WHAT PROJECT IS THIS?
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WHAT PROJECT IS THIS?
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DIVERGENCE – MULTIPLE FUTURE STATES
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KEY TAKEAWAY
If you cannot tell me the difference made
by implementing SharePoint, how can
anyone else know the difference?
Even if you can, how do you know that
everybody else sees it the same way as
you?
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F-LAW 4
MOST STATED GOVERNANCE
OBJECTIVES ARE PLATITUDES –
THEY SAY NOTHING BUT HIDE
BEHIND WORDS
Corollary: Most governance platitudes simply
reflect the broader project platitude
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AN OLYMPIC CLASS PLATITUDE…
“The Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in
the Field of Excellence"
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GUESS WHO?
“Our mission is to conduct all of our
businesses, both energy and financial related,
with four key values in mind: respect, integrity,
communication and excellence. All business
dealings must be conducted in an environment
that is open and fair”.
Enron mission statement (yeah – that Enron)
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THE PLATITUDE INDICATOR
If you cannot reasonably disagree
with an objective, or measure it, then it is
a platitude
“Most corporate mission statements are worthless. They
often formulate necessities as objectives; for example, "to
achieve sufficient profit." This is like a person saying his
mission is to breathe sufficiently.”
Russell Ackoff
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FOR EXAMPLE...
“Collaboration will be encouraged”
“A best-practice collaboration platform”
“To provide an effective collaborative experience for our users”
“We are striving for operational excellence”
“It’s a SharePoint project”
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A BUFFET OF PLATITUDES...
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A BUFFET OF PLATITUDES...
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A BUFFET OF PLATITUDES...
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A BUFFET OF PLATITUDES...
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A BUFFET OF PLATITUDES...
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A BUFFET OF PLATITUDES...
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DIVERGENCE - MULTIPLE FUTURE STATES!
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A NON PLATITUDE EXAMPLE
“To produce high-quality, low cost, easy to use
products that incorporate high technology for
the individual. We are proving that high
technology does not have to be intimidating for
noncomputer experts."
Apple Mission Statement
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SHAREPOINT NON PLATITUDES
We are proving that through better information
management, we can improve our customer
relationship and trust building without over-burdening
our staff”
“We are proving that we can grow the organisation
while reducing email volumes and centralising
document storage”
“By building communities of practice, we prove that we
can reduce information overload and allow our users to
find the right expertise”
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
• A platitude is like a mirage. It looks like a
goal, but in reality it is nothing
• Platitudes delude us into thinking that we
have an end in mind when we actually do
not
• Don‟t confuse the means with the end.
Always ask what difference the means will
make, rather than trying to come up with a
universal definition for it (f-law 1)
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CONFIDENCE IS THE FEELING
YOU HAVE UNTIL YOU
UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
F-LAW 5
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BACK TO DIVERGENCE...
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DIVERGENCE AND CONVERGENCE
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DIVERGENCE AND CONVERGENCE
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SHAREPOINT PROJECTS
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LEFT BRAINED PEOPLE
Left brained people tend to think about the
HOW to help them understand the WHAT.
Left brain people are more comfortable with “how”. They are
uncomfortable with undefined problems (what), so they often
substitute the “how” for the “what”
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RIGHT BRAINED PEOPLE
Right brained people tend to think about the
WHAT to help them understand the HOW.
Right brain people are more comfortable with “what”. They enjoy
exploring the what, but get uncomfortable in the detail (how) so they
often substitute the “what” for the “how”
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THIS WILL FEEL GOOD FOR SOME…
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…BUT ONLY IN THE SHORT TERM
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GOVERNING BY FORCE...
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...IS A NON STARTER
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WHAT AND HOW NEED EACH OTHER
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PEOPLE REMEMBER LEGACY, NOT SCOPE
The Opera House was formally completed in 1973, having cost $102 million.
The original cost estimate in 1957 was $7 million. The original completion date
set by the government was 1963. Thus, the project was completed ten years late
and over-budget by more than fourteen times.
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ONE “BEST PRACTICE” TO RULE THEM ALL
Ensure a shared understanding of the problem among all participants
“The „Holy Grail‟ of effective collaboration is creating shared understanding, which is a precursor to shared commitment”
Jeff Conklin
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KEY TAKEAWAY
The only way to converge to a solution is to
achieve a shared commitment among
participants
The only way to achieve shared commitment is
a shared understanding of the problem among
participants
This is the essence of governance
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AN INTERLUDE…
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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ISSUE MAPPING
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WILL THIS REACH SHARED UNDERSTANDING?
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BENEFITS OF ISSUE MAPPING
Simple, intuitive, adds clarity to discussion
Limited short term memory means exploration of a complex problem unaided
is confusing and error prone
All participants have an organised point of reference
We have captured decision rationale and organisational memory!
Democratic - Acknowledges all contributions
Disarms “truth by repetition”
Disarms “grenade lobbing” (topic shift)
Takes the interpersonal “sting” out of supporting or objecting to an idea
Faster - allows a group to develop shared understanding with much less
pain
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ISSUE MAPPING WITH OTHER FRAMEWORKS
Maintain your other standards or frameworks
IM emphasis at the problem/requirements definition phase
Easy for participants – no new “dance moves” to learn
Complimentary to any methodology or practice (Prince2, Scrum)
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LEVERAGE IM AND SHAREPOINT
Use Issue Mapping to understand the problem
• Allows for understanding to emerge through dialogue
• Capture decision rationale for the future
Use SharePoint to manage and track the solution
• Documents and reports still need managing
• Data needs to be managed, tracked and distributed
• Issue maps need to be stored, classified and indexed!
Holy Grail - Present issue maps within SharePoint sites
• SharePoint project sites containing the latest *thinking* via an integrated issue map
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COMING SOON TO SHAREPOINT…
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SUMMING UP
• SharePoint Governance is a means to an end
– Governance is informed by end in mind
• Achieving shared understanding among participants is *paramount*
– Later best practices can be undone by failure to achieve this goal
– Watch for platitudes masquerading as an objective or goal
– Do not penalise people for their learning
• IBIS and Issue Mapping are a key complimentary tool
– Designed *specifically* to help facilitate groups achieve shared unerstanding with much less pain
– Great tool to deal with divergent stakeholder views
• When used to their strengths, Issue Mapping and SharePoint can be a very potent combination
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MORE INFORMATION
• SharePoint Governance and Information Architecture Master Class
• 2 day class chock full of Paul’s dogma :-)
• Register your interest with myself, Debbie, Chan or Mark to run a class in New
Zealand
• Seven Sigma Business Solutions (www.sevensigma.com.au)
• SharePoint Information Architecture and Governance Training
• Issue and Dialogue Mapping Training
• CleverWorkarounds Blog (www.cleverworkarounds.com)
• SharePoint Project Management, Strategy and Governance
• “The one best practice to rule them all” - 5 part series
• “Why do SharePoint projects fail” - 6 part series
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QUESTIONS
How to contact me…
Paul Culmsee
@paulculmsee
+61 410 533 585
(very partial to beer)
Slide 85
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