SharePoint GovernanceStop talking about features, features, features in your SharePoint Governance

Patrick Sledz

@patman2520http://www.officeandbusiness.be

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Patrick Sledz

GSM: +32 (0)475 330.003Email: Patrick@officeandbusiness.beTwitter: @patman2520Blog: www.officeandbusiness.be

Quick Poll

Raise your hand if you are :• A developer• An IT PRO • Project Manager• None of the above

Agenda

• SharePain• A different approach to SharePoint

Governance

• Hashtag: #comdaybe

Acknowledgements

Why SharePoint

SharePain: The 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…”SharePain

A different view on governance

ContextNeeded skills for SharePoint governance:• Deep product knowledge and technical skills• Deep understanding of the softer,

more human facets of SharePoint delivery

Guess which one do we suck at?

(SharePoint) Project pain…

• “They don’t know what they want!”• “The requirements are too vague!”• “If only they had listened to me”• “Not another f#@%$ 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…”

SharePoint is cool

Why does it look like this?

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”

F-Law 1

• THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE THE DEFINITION OF “GOVERNANCE” IS, THE LESS IT WILL BE UNDERSTOOD

BY ALL

Governance = to steer

Steer where?

Aspirational future state

Present state

Steer where?

Steer where?

Steer where?

MSFTand others

Steer where?

MSFTand others

This session

Takeaways f-Law 1

• Governance is the means to an end• Begin with the end in mind and try to achieve

this. This is governing• Don’t over-define it to understand it

F-Law 2

• THERE IS NO POINT IN ASKING USERS WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY

WANT, TO SAY WHAT THEY WANT

PS. There is even less point in thinking that you already know what they want

Knowing versus Learning

Knowing versus Learning

Knowing versus Learning

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!”

• “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

E=MC²

1895 1905

10 full years!

Takeaways

• Expect fluid requirements• Expect scope changes• Involve stakeholders! • Expect resistance and pullback• Plan for prototyping• Be adaptable

• Do not penalise people for their learning

F-Law 3

THE PROBABILITY OF PROJECT SUCCESS IS INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL

TO THE TIME TAKEN TO COME UP WITH A MEASURABLE KPI

What project is this?

What project is this?

What project is this?

Takeaways

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?

F-Law 4

MOST STATED GOVERNANCE OBJECTIVES ARE PLATITUDES – THEY SAY NOTHING BUT HIDE

BEHIND WORDS

PS. Most governance platitudes simply reflect the broader project platitude

Governance objectives

A gold medal winner platitude

“The Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence"

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

SharePoint platitudes

“Collaboration will be encouraged”

“To provide an effective collaborative experience for our users”

“Deliver a best-practice collaboration platform”

“We are striving for operational excellence”

“It’s a SharePoint project”

Disneyland for Platitudes

Disneyland for Platitudes

Disneyland for Platitudes

Disneyland for Platitudes

Disneyland for Platitudes

Divergence – Multiple Future states

Platitude tests

“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. Yep, that Enron

Platitude tests

“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."

(former) Apple mission statement

non platitudes

We are proving that through better information management, we can improve our customer relationship and trust building without over-burdening our staff”

It can be measured

non platitudes

“We grow the organization while reducing email volumes and centralizing document storage”

It can be measured

non platitudes

“By building communities of practice, we prove that we can reduce information overload and allow our users to find the right expertise”

It can be measured

non platitudes

“By building communities of practice, we prove that we can reduce information overload and allow our users to find the right expertise”

It can be measured

F-Law 5

Confidence is the feeling you have until you understand the problem

Divergence & convergence

Chaos zone

SharePoint projects

Time

SharePoint Guy (YOU)

BusinessNo shared understa

nding

I(T) don’t see a tech problem

Functional fixedness

Different views. What is the subject of this

picture? Or SHOULD be the subject?

Why do (SharePoint) projects #FAIL?

• Lack of user input• Incomplete requirements & specifications• Changing requirements and assumptions• Lack of executive support• Technology incompetence• Lack or resources• Unrealistic expectations• Unclear objectives• Unrealistic timeframes• New technology

Lack of shared understanding of the problem

They make an ASS out of U and ME

Remember legacy, not scope (or cost)

1957-> 7 MIO Delivery : 1963

Completed 1973 cost $102 MIO

One “best practice” to rule them all

• Ensure a Share understanding of the problem among ALL participant

SharePoint pitfalls

• Pursuing boiling the ocean – Learning project versus knowing project

• Jump to the “how” before the “what”– Technical implementation versus business value– Fixed Action Pattern

• Paint with the same brush– Generation Y think everyone want web 2.0– Engineers think everybody needs wiki’s– Record managers hate wiki’s and think everything needs to be

classified– Marketing thinks everybody will use it if it looks sexy and sparkles– Some will never break the folder habit

SharePoint pitfalls

• Adaptive challenge– People tend to see what they loose over what

they gain– Y:\ represents whatever dysfunction exist now– People love status quo.

Issue mapping

demoISSUE MAPPING

Benefits 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

Summing up

• SharePoint governance is a means to an end• Achieving Shared understanding is mandatory– Watch out for platitudes– Don’t penalize people for their learning

• IBIS & Dialogue mapping are complimentary tools– Help you to facilitate groups achieving shared

understanding with much less pain– Great tool to deal with divergent stakeholders views

Feedbackhttp://bit.ly/BetterPatman

Thank you