Danger! Do not implement SharePoint in your Organization!
Guest Author: Fred Yeomans
This column I want to deliver a warning to all of you out there – do not implement SharePoint in your organization! If you ignore this warning, and implement SharePoint anyway, beware. You run the risk of any number of problems, including:
- User dissatisfaction
- Maintainability and support issues
- Data silos, making information hard to find, hard to share, and hard to maintain
- Lots of rework
- General chaos
- Projects that take 10 times longer than you had planned, if they finish at all.
I do a lot of work helping organizations build solutions using SharePoint – is that all a lie?
Not at all. The problem here is the way you think about your projects. If you are consistently talking about “implementing SharePoint” you are going in the wrong direction. If you are talking about implementing any platform, you are setting up for failure. Many of the problems we run into with SharePoint and other platforms arise from focusing on the technologies.
SharePoint is a technology. It is a platform. It is a pretty good platform, in my opinion. Not without its problems, but a pretty good platform.
So what should you be focused on? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? The focus should be on implementing solutions to real business problems, bringing real business value. That was obvious to everyone, wasn’t it? If this is obvious, then why do I still have conversations with potential clients who come to me saying “Help us implement SharePoint”, when they cannot clearly articulate why they want to implement it? Sure, they can spout a lot of vague statements about documents, collaboration, communication, workflow, etc. but where are the clear statements about how this is all going to help their firm?
I think there are a number of reasons this happens. Firstly, maybe I am just talking to the wrong people (too many techies!). However, I have these discussions with many business people as well. Microsoft’s marketing is also a problem (though it is not Microsoft’s fault). People see Microsoft’s SharePoint marketing information, but they typically only pay very superficial attention. They see all these demos of interesting solutions that seem like they must be useful in their world. Then they go to their IT department (or decision makers) and say “Hey we need to implement SharePoint!”
Even worse, they go rogue and implement SharePoint on a small scale within their groups or departments. Then the IT group has to manage all of these emergent SharePoint deployments, so there is a decision to “implement SharePoint” firm wide.
Finally, there are those firms (hopefully very few these days) who really do not understand that they should not be thinking in terms of the technology.
So when is SharePoint not dangerous? Well, that is driven by how you got to “SharePoint” in the first place. I am not going to go into much detail here, because most of this should be pretty well engrained process (if not, call me – I can help ), but here are the big steps:
- Identify clear business objectives/problems to be solved
- Is SharePoint the right technology choice to solve them?
- Don’t try to do everything at once – build a foundation and grow form there
- Pick initial projects with high impact/visibility
- Determine specific ROI goals, success metrics, etc. so that you know if you are meeting your goals
- Make sure to consider the “human” side of things – introducing a platform that touches business processes and how people work requires detailed planning as to how to introduce it.
- Get help! Hire it, rent it, grow it – whatever you have to do, get help. SharePoint is a big platform that does a lot of things, and if you do not know the platform well, you will end up building things that already exist. Also, as with most platforms, there are 6 different ways to do almost anything – some of them are better than others.
The first step, though – change your thinking and your terminology – and stop talking about “implementing SharePoint”!
Originally published at http://www.legalitprofessionals.com/index.php/col/columns-fred
Guest Author: Fred Yeomans, Legal IT Professionals
I have been working in the world of technology for 20-odd years. I am an entrepreneur and consultant, focused on software solutions, social networking, and innovation processes. Currently, I am a Principal Consultant with T4G Limited, specializing in Portal Technologies (including SharePoint), software/systems development, service oriented architectures, and many other things which I will probably not remember until I need to use them.
Fred, great article,
Since 1995, I have been implementing ECM with Documentum and LiveLink. I am not surprise that we still have to repeat the same thing, over and over. Human nature are really, and I mean, really excited to implement technology. They forget that people are looking at a business solutions and not feature. We build product on top of SharePoint, but still there is work to be done.
-Find the Business Requirements
-Transfert it in to functionnal requirements
-Solution Architecture
-Information Architecture
-Build, Deploy, Trainning, etc…
Too many technical people are trying to be everything: developper, information architect, designer, bussiness analyst, product designer, etc.
SharePoint is like any other technology, you must follow a methodology and hire real expert and at least be certified on the technology.
Danny Boulanger, Alcero
I find all to often that software is implemented in business from a very focused approach, usually becoming the solution to a single issue. What is missing from business is the ability to effectively collaborate between the various departments and functions through electronic means. We purchase computers yet we spend most of our time filling out forms and walking to the copier.
Most businesses have no idea of the interaction of their processes, and how those processes should be working together to form the whole. Most I have engaged with, instead spend their time end fighting between departments and functions, all because they do not thoroughly understand their business. Your article is correct in focusing on this subject first but it lacks the proper requirement to seek the root cause related to existing process failures. This is imperative to understand prior to implementation of any corrective solution. I have found through the years of experience that because the understanding of the business is poor and because the focus is allowed to be departmental or compartmental, most business leaders (Executives and Managers) steer the business in the wrong direction, even into disaster.
Business leaders need to lead the entire business (not just a single part), They need to understand the interrelated functions and how one cannot function adequately or efficiently, outside the whole. We have missed this point in the US and jumped instead to implementing software programs which are supposed to cure all ills. The result of this type of action is usually disastrous and very costly for the business.
I agree the approach should be to implement software packages as a result of corrective action. However I would suggest that businesses use structured root cause analysis tools, in order to reach the proper conclusion concerning what is actually needed.
Hi Bobby,
I agree – the SharePoint plan has to fit into the overall IT plan, which needs to support and be aware of the strategic and tactical plans of the business as a whole.
And while you are right, much of the software that is implemented in enterprises lacks this connection with the business itself, I find that it is often worse with SharePoint because it is so easy to do something “quick and dirty” in SharePoint without treating it like a “real” project.
cheers
Fred