The document advertises an online conference on June 17-18, 2015 about 7 Waves of SharePoint Governance. It introduces the speaker, Ant Clay, who will discuss how most current SharePoint governance thinking is flawed and will present a model of 7 Waves of SharePoint Governance, including business alignment, IT assurance, project governance, information governance, change management and adoption, social business, and continuous improvement (Kaizen). Ant will also discuss three key ways to embed SharePoint governance in an organization: establishing a governance structure, creating a center of excellence, and appointing "Tummelers" to drive governance.
2. WWW.SPBIZCONF.COM
Ant Clay
Soulsailor Consulting Ltd
Ant@SoulsailorConsulting.com
www. SoulsailorConsulting.com
@Soulsailor
uk.linkedin.com/in/antonyclay
Ant is Founder & CEO of Soulsailor Consulting Ltd, a
micro-consultancy enabling organisational value by
positively disrupting your technology projects.
Ant is currently working as the SharePoint Information
Governance Product Owner for Zurich Insurance & is a
Combined Knowledge Trainer (Requirements &
Governance courses).
Ant spends his time consulting, writing and speaking on a
range of topics including SharePoint, Office365, Yammer,
Collaboration, Requirements Facilitation, Governance,
Change Management and User Adoption.
We’ll explore why so many Governance initiatives aren’t very effective.We’ll talk about the seven areas you need to cover for a holistic approach to SharePoint Governance.Finally we will discuss look at the 3 primary ways of applying Governance in your organization
SharePoint rocks, you can achieve amazing results with the platform…
Project failure – is not that you haven’t delivered your tech project, hit the targets on the Gannt chart – its that you’ve not delivered the expected outcomes of the business:
User Experience isn’t what they wantNot delivering business valuePoor user adoption
Lack of ROI
What are we trying to deliver and why?
As we said at the start, Governance is key to delivering SharePoint well and we need a new view to inspire people to change the way they work.
REAL SharePoint Governance is the key to solving this dilemma.
But what most of us do at the moment is very myopic; we need a different view, a wider view…
Lets think about a couple of specific things I think warrant getting right and being clear about
Technology Governance isn’t the answer for keeping SharePoint projects on track and delivering value.
Rules, processes and threats arent the answer either
Why do we need disruptive SharePoint Governance.
Historically Governance is very much focussed on technology, with some small areas of Information also being included more recently.
We need a significant shift in thinking and practice to put this right
SPGovManifesto Thesis 5 – “Look at the banks, look at your SharePoint project… Take this book seriously”
‘SharePoint Governance’ means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and for the most part they are all just a little bit wrong!
First some context and background…
Community views
Lots and lots of buzz about Governance in Blog Posts, Tools, Microsoft’s view etc are all very biased:
The thinking is all extremely divergent and the conversations and tools are primarily Technology First
Some movement towards Information being considered within Governance which is a welcome sight but a long way from being “perfect”
Let’s get a little more philosophical!
Shu – Beginners Mind. Follow instructions and do as you are told – The Microsoft Way
Ha – Practitioners Mind. Proficiently practice the art of Governance – The 7 Waves of Governance Way
Ri – Become the Master, evolve change, remix – Your awesome way!
Back before the time of intranets and collaboration and social, Governance wasn’t really Governance is was Assurance. Making sure stuff worked reliably and effectively.
That’s still the case, but things have evolved further. Now we are in the realm of the true meaning of Governance.
Go through the “sailing” / “steering” analogy
Let’s go through the 7 waves of SharePoint Governance
Before we discuss the waves, does the organisation size or type or sector mean we need different Governance?
How should Governance differ between a small organisation, public sector or a large global corporate?
Discuss what Business Alignment is and what happens if you ignore it:
What is Business Alignment?
This is aligning your project, the technology platform and your requirements with organisational goals (not individual, team or dept.) . Key is to define measurable business outcomes and this will facilitate progress towards your organisation vision and strategy by having a shared understanding and commitment. Ask yourself whether what you are doing is adding measurable positive value to the organisation, if not then you should consider removing it from scope.
Systems Thinking
What if we don’t pursue Business Alignment?
You will have delivered a technology project, nothing more. It is likely that it will achieve a negative ROI and you will be spending time on requirements, activities, projects, programmes even that aren’t adding value.
That is fundamentally waste and that I’m sure you’ll agree isn’t what any of us wants.
Discuss what IT Assurance is and what happens if you ignore it
What is IT Assurance?
At the basic level it is about ensuring your technology platform can support your organisations business outcomes. It is defined as “assurance” as there is a lack of flexibility with this element, it is either achieved or not. When using a platform such as SharePoint, IT Assurance is both about the technology features that you can deploy as well as the servers and infrastructure considerations.
What if we don’t apply IT Assurance?
Then we have a technology platform that isn’t fit for purpose, users struggle with poor performance, lost information, downtime and above all, failure to meet business outcomes or work towards our Vision.
Discuss what Project Governance is and what happens if you ignore it
What is Project Governance?
Project governance is focussed on ensuring that we utilise an appropriate project methodology for what we are implementing i.e. an agile approach (Scrum, Kanban etc.). We also need to ensure that both the project and all its activities and tasks are aligned to the business vision we have for the project and the organisations overall strategy; this “goal alignment” is critical for the delivery of a successful solution.
What if we don’t Project Governance?
If we do not focus adequately on this area then we will have confusion, mixed priorities, we can’t measure progress. Also as things change (direction, finances, stakeholders may change, time etc.) they have devastating effects on the project as we don’t have the ability to work with them and be steered appropriately.
Discuss what Information Governance is and what happens if you ignore it
What is Information Governance?
Information Governance combines both Information Architecture (IA) and Information Management (IM):
IA – metadata, taxonomy, content types etc.
IM – Process, workflow, security
We need to ensure alignment of all the information that is in or impacted by your solution to your business goals.
What if we don’t apply Information Governance?
Employees can’t find information, data, knowledge etc. Context is lost. We don’t deliver our anticipated business outcomes, we have disgruntled solution users and people will revert back to using email.
Discuss what Change Management is and what happens if you ignore it
Why include this?? SharePoint projects are people Projects… SharePoint and businesses are Complex.
What is Change Management and Adoption?
This area of governance refers to the activities and initiatives required to embed change and enable technical solutions within an organisation. This is much more than training and change champions; this is about implementing a change programme and even community management that supports and amplifies the changes in behaviour we require to meet our vision.
That said, if we do all the other waves effectively, this doesn’t have to be a huge tasks because people will understand what we are trying to deliver and how.
What if we don’t apply Change Management and Adoption?
Build it and they will come people sometimes say, however with technology solutions that address business, social and collaborative challenges this approach never succeeds. If we ignore Change Management and Adoption in our on going governance planning, we will not deliver on our vision and adoption of the solution and the change will dwindle rapidly.
Discuss what Social Business is and what happens if you ignore it
What is Social Business in Governance?
Including “social business” within your governance is important whatever the focus of the project as implementing a social or collaborative platforms changes the way people work. People work in a social way not a purely mechanistic or analytic one, therefore we need to consider social, culture, complexity theory, change and ways of working throughout the platforms lifetime.
We need to consider social features, but also the shift within many businesses of operating with a more social dynamic.
What if we don’t apply Social Business to Governance?
Adoption will be negatively impacted, solutions will not be able to adapt to the changing workforce, evolving working patterns and business changes and the solution will not deliver it’s true potential long term.
Lastly, but by no means least. Discuss what Kaizen is and what happens if you ignore it
What is Kaizen in Governance?
Kaizen means continuous improvement and is a key aspect of governance in its own right and that should permeate through into all the other waves. This is what facilitates us being aligned with business change delivering small, agile projects, that produce measurable business outcomes and make a clear difference at an organisational level. Kaizen helps us to build what Ronald Heifitz calles “adaptive capacity” into the organisation and instils the expectation of change and co-creation etc.
What if we don’t pursue Kaizen in Governance?
Users feel ignored as they and the business changes and the systems haven’t. Users get used to old habits and adoption becomes a significant challenge with the platform becoming pickled and not seen as a strategic platform capable of supporting business change.
What is the best way to make all these elements “stick” and be sustainable in your organisation?
The Answer is a mixture of things continuously applied.
Governance Content
Governance Boards / Structures
In-Line Governance
All with a common vision
Content is a necessary evil
Visuals and words for different learning styles
Wiki is very effective
Target at audiences
3 boards:
Strategic
Operational
Day 2 Day
This is the day-2-day ‘stuff’ that the end user can engage with and utilise to steer them to their Vision.