My presentation at SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach on Jan 8th, 2011

1. The Shift from Centralized to DecentralizedChristian Buckleycbuck@axceler.com@buckleyPLANET SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach January 8th, 2011

3. Microsoft Managed Services (now BPOS-Dedicated)

4. Advertising Operations, ad platform API program

5. Prior to Microsoft, was a senior consultant, working in the software, supply chain, and grid technology spaces focusing on collaboration

6. Co-founded and sold a collaboration software company to Rational Software. Also co-authored 3 books on software configuration management and defect tracking for Rational and IBM

7. At another startup (E2open), helped design, build, and deploy a SharePoint-like collaboration platform (Collaboration Manager), managing deployment teams to onboard numerous high-tech manufacturing companies, including Hitachi, Matsushita, Seagate, Nortel, Sony, and Cisco

9. How do people use SharePoint today? Limited only by the controls put in place Short-term, ad hoc collaboration Structured, procedural activities Glorified file share Workflow, dashboards, productivity solutions SharePoint is like a goldfish – it will only grow as big as the tank you put it in.

10. Definitions

11. This is your SharePoint deployment

12. Centralized Ad Hoc Organized Decentralized Based roughly on the idea of a Gartner “Magic Quadrant” diagram, but these data points are completely made up

13. Top level portal Tier 1 site collections based on business units or product areas Tier 2 sites that follow specific structure

14. One Side of the Scale - Centralized Benefits of a centralized SharePoint environment: Consistent use of content types and workflows Reduced metadata duplication Documented customizations that make system updates and platform upgrades much easier Easier for supporting and training end users, Managing business processes, Controlling information policies, and Providing metrics and key performance indicators. Downsides to this model: Takes a lot of design and planning Requires more upfront work and maintenance Requires an increased reliance on governance and formal change control boards Has difficulty managing across site collections and portals

15. Top level portal Some structured sites Sub Sites, My Sites, or other detached sites/farms

16. The Other Side of the Scale - Decentralized Advantages of a decentralized environment : Little up front planning (but more later around how to connect / enable) Very little up front effort to deploy Low time/cost to train end users Decreased emphasis on taxonomy and business process management Most decentralized systems work across site collections and portals Mirror the consumer-based collaboration platforms users are accustomed to using, such as social networks and microblogging sites Downsides to this model: They decrease consistency Increase metadata duplication Make taxonomy management complex Hard to update, Support and train on, Manage information policies with, and Difficult to upgrade/migrate

17. Portal Model vs. SharePoint Portals have traditionally been locked down, centrally managed resources Controlled Structured Built for specific business uses/processes SharePoint as a platform supports the portal model, but offers ad hoc collaborative functions out of the box, allowing much more diverse application Platform Centralized management, but distributed application Supports ad hoc

18. [Demo] of a centralized environment

19. The 4 Organizational Shifts from Centralized to Decentralized

20. 1. The Environmental Shift 2. The Cultural Shift 3. The Governance Shift 4. The Social Informatics Shift

21. 1. The Environmental Shift

22. Environmental Considerations Your SharePoint architecture has little to do with whether your environment strategy is centralized or decentralized Moving from multiple farms to a single 2010 farm Expanding from a single-server install to a more stable configuration Expanding your content databases Adding additional servers to support plans around additional SharePoint services The key is to review your architecture, optimize for your model and for scalability

23. Site administration Roles, Site Permissions, and Security Trimming Environmental Considerations

24. Environmental Considerations http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.06.insidesharepoint.aspx?pr=blog

25. Site administration Roles, Site Permissions, and Security Trimming Content Databases Additional Services Environmental Considerations

26. 2. The Cultural Shift

27. Why is change so difficult? It means letting go, giving up control Recognition that there is a gap between the philosophical idea of allowing people to manage their own stuff, and reality Collaboration itself is a hard thing for people to embrace. It takes times, and can be counterintuitive to the way that many businesses are run

28. Creating Passionate Users, Kathy Sierra

29. Cultural Considerations Business Focus / Productivity Security Lack of Visibility / Transparency Support Issues

30. Cultural Benefits Innovation Flexibility (let teams work on their own terms) Organic growth (supports both structured and unstructured growth) Process and content efficiencies (learn from various implementations, making the system better/stronger)

31. Business may want to get more value out of their SharePoint investment Keep hearing about all these great features, but don’t see them deployed/in use Recognize the lack of collaboration outside of certain teams Current platform seen as “too hard to use” What is Driving this Cultural Change?

32. There is no such thing as a homogenous SharePoint deployment I don’t know what changes your organization is prepared to accept Work with stakeholders to identify vision and priorities Overlay this vision with your cultural reality – know your limits, and baby step new features Involve your end users Capture their feedback through multiple feedback mechanisms Have them help in the creation of key documentation Get their help in prioritizing features within the future-state environment Have them help you define the success metrics Preparing for Change

33. 3. The Governance Shift

34. Push responsibility to the site administrators (even though they may do strange things) Understand what can be delegated Clarify roles and responsibilities Farm Admins responsible for farms Site Collection Admins responsible for site collections And so forth Understand skill levels, and company climate GovernanceConsiderations

35. Have a plan Create a governance site Create an internal SharePoint user group Enlist your portals users and content authors Clearly define roles and responsibilities Outline your taxonomy, communicate it, refine it (and then rinse, repeat) GovernanceConsiderations

36. Outline your search strategy Outline your social media strategy Understand any regulatory or compliance concerns Migrate your data, leveraging your metadata Go slow (or fast). Just be careful Learn and evolve GovernanceConsiderations

37. Governance is a series ofguidelines to live by, not rules to die by

38. 4. The Social Informatics Shift

39. Social Informatics is the study of information and communication tools in cultural and institutional contexts It is a cross-disciplinary focus on usage patterns. It is a blend of sociology, anthropology, psychology, technology and business perspectives, examining the changing way in which we do business. (Wikipedia)

41. Metadata is the lifeblood of SharePoint Taxonomy and metadata drive the tools and processes that make the world go round Metadata powers search, it powers social media, and it powers SharePoint The Role of Metadata

42. The Role of Metadata Scott Singleton, Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010 http://www.slideshare.net/scottsingleton/managed-metadata-insharepoint2010

43. SharePoint 2010 offers many services OOTB Search Excel Services BCS Project Server Web Analytics Access Performance Point Visio Word Office Web Apps People These centrally managed services allow for greater control across the enterprise Have your cake and eat it through centrally managed services The Role of Services

44. Managed Metadata Service Scott Singleton, Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010 http://www.slideshare.net/scottsingleton/managed-metadata-insharepoint2010

45. Service Hierarchy Service Application Instance Term Group Term Set Term Scott Singleton, Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010 http://www.slideshare.net/scottsingleton/managed-metadata-insharepoint2010

46. [Demo] of social media tools in 2010

47. Search still critical to the business, but how you access it will be embedded into the tools you use Social computing tools are just additional enablers and consumers of search The Role of Social Media

48. It’s All About “the app” Btw, the word “app” was just made “word of the year” 2011

49. Wrap Up

50. Change is hard Look before you leap Let governance be your guide Ask a 5th grader for advice (often)

51. Some thoughts… Centrally managed Team Sites + ad hoc My Sites

52. Portal for external-facing + Team Sites internal

53. Website + My Sites w/ strong (FAST) search

54. Common Questions Q: Do these models impact search performance differently? Q: Do you have any guidance on migrating existing metadata from decentralized to centralized (managed) metadata? Q: What are the best practices for starting a governance model? Q: Do most companies use MySites?

55. All great questions! Unfortunately, we’re out of time.

56. For more information Contact me at Christian Buckley cbuck@axceler.com 425-246-2823 @buckleyplanet