The document discusses a different approach to SharePoint governance that focuses on achieving shared understanding among stakeholders rather than technical features. It advocates using issue mapping techniques to help groups develop a shared understanding of problems and potential solutions with less conflict. Key points include recognizing that requirements will change as understanding increases, avoiding platitudes in objectives that cannot be measured, and ensuring all voices are heard to prevent technical biases from dominating discussions.
Report
Share
Report
Share
1 of 72
More Related Content
SharePoint Governance. Stop features thinking,
1. SharePoint Governance
Stop talking about features,
features, features in your
SharePoint Governance
Patrick Sledz
@patman2520
http://www.officeandbusiness.be
2. Register today and save $500 before
August 1st
Save the date: watch live stream, join
local events by MSDN Belux
Win a ticket today at Communiday Day!
• Take a picture wearing the BUILD t-shirt.
• Tweet or blog the picture, link to www.buildwindows.com,
use tag #bldwin and #comdaybe
• Wear the t-shirt and be there for the closing prize draw
http://www.buildwindows.com/
8. SharePain: The SharePoint project pain
• “They don’t know what they want!”
• “The requirements are too vague!”
• “If only they had listened to me”
• “Not another %$%$% meeting!”
• “I was never consulted”
• “This is ridiculous – it won’t work”
• “How am I supposed to estimate that?“
• “It was in the minutes – did you read it?”
• “Well if everyone actually followed the process…”
SharePain
10. Context
Needed skills for SharePoint governance:
• Deep product knowledge and technical skills
• Deep understanding of the softer,
more human facets of SharePoint delivery
Guess which one do we suck at?
11. (SharePoint) Project pain…
• “They don’t know what they want!”
• “The requirements are too vague!”
• “If only they had listened to me”
• “Not another f#@%$ 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…”
14. 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”
15. F-Law 1
• THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE THE
DEFINITION OF “GOVERNANCE” IS,
THE LESS IT WILL BE UNDERSTOOD
BY ALL
22. 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
23. 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
28. 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!”
29. • “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
31. 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
33. F-Law 3
THE PROBABILITY OF PROJECT
SUCCESS IS INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL
TO THE TIME TAKEN TO COME UP
WITH A MEASURABLE KPI
37. 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?
39. 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
41. A gold medal winner platitude
“The Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding
Achievement in the Field of Excellence"
42. 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
43. 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”
50. 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
51. 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
52. 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
53. non platitudes
“We grow the organization while reducing email
volumes and centralizing document storage”
It can be measured
54. 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
55. 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
63. Why do (SharePoint) projects #FAIL?
• Lack of user input
• Incomplete requirements & specifications
• Changing requirements and assumptions
• Lack of executive support
•
•
ASS
Technology incompetence of
They make an
Lack or resources
out U ME
and
• Unrealistic expectations
• Unclear objectives
• Unrealistic timeframes
• New technology
65. One “best practice” to rule them all
• Ensure a Share understanding of the problem
among ALL participant
66. 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
67. 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.
70. 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
71. 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
72. Feedbac
http://bit.ly/BetterPatman
k
Thank you
Editor's Notes
Enough about me, let’s talk about you.Enough about you lets talk about sunshine
SP governance + successful delivery = as much art as sciencePractioners need Deep product expertise and technical skill Deep understanding of the softer side of SP delivery , the more HUMAN facets
Really nice features, nice interface, we (as IT people love it)
Like on a ship, you need to know where you are heading for. BUT… everybody is working individually, there is no focus on the destination.People navigate, people clean the deck, people prepare food, ..It is to technical……..Latin: gubernatio (“‘management, government’”), Ancient Greek kubernesis, "steering, pilotage, guiding" < kubernao, “‘I steer, drive, guide, pilot’”).If your read the definition of SP governance and you need to take an extra breath, then it’s TOO long
Confusing means with the end. Governance = word in green star that should provide the meant to an end.Define governance: 3 – 4 paragraph definition that covers everything-> confuse problems tend to be slipperyDeep explanation (fundemental) Invent other wordPut a painpont in the star, definition doesn’t matterWhat is present stateMany Future states, why this one
PS Stop FAP (Fixed Action Pattern)A user is explaining his business case, and you just start interfering his talk and explain your idea because you think understand the need. While of course, listening is GOLD
Who recognizes this diagram?
Project handling like this would work in case of Project is upgrade Exchange server. Or upgrade SQL serveranybody did a thesis? first 25% library next 25% reading + thinking then anayses then write it?
Suggest potential problem to understand the solution better
Understand the problem Brain surgery for headache?
THE PROBABILITY OF PROJECT SUCCESS IS INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO THE TIME TAKEN TO COME UP WITH A MEASURABLE KPI
Big project
How can you be sure that you (as IT) are providing the right enabler for his?YOU CAN’TIf you ask stakeholders their opinions, chances are that they vary. Examples of “improved collab” would be : Adoption of a social networking technology in the enterpriseBeing able to track telastes status of a projectBeing able to find a person with a specific expertise to help you solve a particular problemDealing with multiple future states is not only a SharePoint Governance challenge, it is the key challenge to ANY successful project
You can invert it, and if it makes no logical sense (Platitude is like a mirage. It looks like a goal, but in reality it is nothingOperational
Do the inversion test
If you’d have it, what would it look like.
Project across time.Y=uncertainty. Projects and teams usually go through a cycle of divergent thinking, followed by a period of convergent thinking as the team becomes more aligned with and the problem is better understood.The point where divergence ends and convergence starts is never clear, but what is clear is that the peak of is usually a time where project “chaos “ is at its peak
Certain projects tend to diverge sharply and significantly and convergence seems almost impossible. (SP projects)They are a result of varied implicit assumptions that stakeholders have about the difference SP would bring into organization
Front ends are upSQL is tunedLoad balancer is working perfectlyLatest Service packs are installled
a candle, some thumbtacks, a book of matchsticks + cork wallFind out if anyone has ever heard of the candle problem and if so, politely ask them to keep quiet at this stage.task is to fix the candle to the wall and light it so that the wax doesn’t drip onto the table or floor below.
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.
“The ‘Holy Grail’ of effective collaboration is creating shared understanding, which is a precursor to shared commitment”