Copyright © 2013 Mark E. Vogt, Netrix LLC. All rights reserved. ONE SOURCE. INFINITE SOLUTIONS. SharePoint-Powered Project Management Insights & Innovations

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ONE SOURCE. INFINITE SOLUTIONS.

SharePoint-Powered Project Management

Insights & Innovations on Process Modeling

CSUG

eventd o w n t o w n

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About Netrix LLC…

Netrix makes it ALL work together

Netrix provides: Cage-to-Cloud Infrastructure

Desktop-to-Mobile Applications

Carrier-to-Endpoint Communications

Network-to-Application Security

Tailored/Custom Business Solutions

Engineering Expertise to Design, Deploy and Manage ALL of your needs

Why Customers Choose Netrix for SharePoint Solutions: More than 30 cumulative years of hands-on SharePoint experience

More than 70 cumulative years of IT & Business Solutions experience in leadership

Comprehensive capabilities from analysis through implementation & support

Focus on customer satisfaction and service excellence

The Netrix Guarantee

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About the Presenter… Mark E. Vogt

Principal Architect, SharePoint Practice, Netrix LLC.

Engineering (Aerospace, Robotics) background BS Aerospace – U of MN IT

MS (ABT) Mechanical Engineering/Robotics – U of MN IT

MS Computer Science & Applied Mathematics (Control Systems) – IIT

Diverse Career Path Professor

Engineer

Developer/Architect

Manager

Consultant

Inventor

Alternating betwixt consulting & management by fear of boredom

Driven into Project Management by aggravation

Drawn into SharePoint by its revelation, simplicity & power

Inventing & Fly Fishing every other waking minute

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Subliminal Messages Imminent…

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There is NO SharePoint KILLER APP There has never been a SharePoint “KILLER APP”…

There will never be a SharePoint “KILLER APP”…

There ARE SharePoint KILLER PRACTICES1. SharePoint-Powered Project Management – by EVERYONE

2. SharePoint-Powered Process Management – by EVERYONE

3. Distributed & Delegated Solution Development – by EVERYONE

4. SharePoint-Powered Task Management – by EVERYONE

SharePoint is NOT the pet of IT SharePoint IS the workshop of the BUSINESS

Subliminal Messages…

YOU DIDN’T SEE THIS SLIDE…

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Developers

Designers

Power Users

Embrace The Hoard

More Subliminal Messages…

YOU DIDN’T SEE THIS SLIDE EITHER…

Architects

Developers

Designers

Power Users

TEACH them…they become ALLIES!

Official IT… Dark/Rogue/Ninja/Hidden IT…

THINKabout THAT…

(your “hidden” IT resource)

TRIPLE your effective DEV Staff…

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Developers

Designers

Power Users

DISTRIBUTE development

More Subliminal Messages…

TO LOOK AT THIS MEANS DEATH!...

Architects

Developers

Designers

Power Users


THINKabout THAT…

TRIPLE your effective DEV Staff…

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COVER theory… Understand that modeling is different from automating

DIFFERENTIATE Process Automation vs Process Management Automation;

UNDERSTAND a bit about “State Machine” Workflows (smWFs) and their value;

UNDERSTAND various metaphors for modeling business processes;

EXAMINE practices… EXPLORE “composite” State Machine Workflows to automate complex processes;

EXPLORE advantages of modeling process-as-content type;

EXAMINE “the Big Picture” - a complex process modeled using the above innovations;

EXPLORE a workaround for scheduled-workflows via built-in timer jobs;

IN GENERAL… SHARE some insights about deriving ROI from SharePoint;

DISCUSS (and Discuss and Discuss…)

Session Goals…

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Developers

Designers

Power Users

Power Users Designers Developers

Intended Audience…

Architects

Developers

Designers

Power Users


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2012: Contracted to work in a challenging environment:Large telecomm company with own standalone consulting firmMassive Program: - $67 M- 2 years- 987 locations- 100+ concurrent projects at any moment- 75-100 regularly-churning project staff- Each project executing numerous complex, constantly-changing processes- highly-constrained production environment (sandboxed solutions only)

- Complex Business (Technical) Processes needed to be modeled & automated:- Simply – no VS solutions- Adaptively – could change/evolve (typically grow more complex) at any time- Intuitively as possible to participating project teams (“just tell me what to do”)- Inheritably by a client-side staff of SharePoint novices

Situation Overview…

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Process Modeling How best to model (metaphor) a given process What process-centric properties & values to include What “helper” properties & values to include

Process Automating How best to automate a given process Types of Workflows to use (sequential vs state machine) Where to use workflows How to use workflows

Fundamentals: Process Automation involves…

Process Modeling is NOT Process Automating…

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Business Process Automation Genuine automation not always possible – at least not 100%

eg: CREATE document, SURVEY location, ORDER equipment, INSTALL equipment, etc

Business Process Management Automation (instructing people what to do) Always possible – even up to 100%

Often manifests as well-defined tasks sent as emails (simple!)

Often completely achievable with SPD (codeless) Workflows!

Workload can be distributed across even client-side resources (see subliminal messages)

Reality: Most organizations don’t want to replace people performing tasks

Most organizations do want people performing tasks…better

Business Process Management Automation can enable this! Reduces Process Ambiguity (who does what, when, how)

Increases Process Efficiency (how fast each step occurs)

INSIGHT: We weren’t automating the processes…

Business Process Management Automation is a powerful enterprise strategy…

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Workflow:A sequence of connected steps where each step follows without delay or gap and ends just before the subsequent step may begin. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person or group.

Understanding Processes vs Workflows…

Workflows are (typically) the building blocks of processes…

Process: A collection of related, structured activities or

tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a

particular customer or customers.

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In general, a state machine is any “device” that stores the status of something at a given time and can operate on input to change the status and/or cause an action or output to take place for any given change.

In practice state machines are used to develop and describe specific program interactions.

To summarize, a state machine is: An initial state of set of states;

A set of possible input events;

A set of new states that result from the input;

A set of actions or output events that result from a new state;

A function that maps states and inputs to states & outputs;(called a state transition function)

Understanding “State Machines”…

Processes & State Machines have a lot in common…

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IMAGINE several smaller “component” Workflows all contribute to become a larger “composite” State Machine model for a key business process:

Simpler for clients (and developers) to understand; Simpler to code;

Often breaks down into lots of “WHEN <event> DO <response>” coding

Surprisingly easy & intuitive for client-side to staff to share in this type of coding !

Sets the stage for progressive automated/manual process management ! Start with very little automated management

Progressively automate more & more of the process management a piece at a time

Re-usable “component” workflows (each involved in NUMEROUS processes)

State Machine-Automated Processes…

The key lies in figuring out an elegant way to model process states…

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Tying the model of the process to a single document isn’t realisticWhat if a given process involves multiple documents? The Process needs to be SEPARATE from any particular DOCUMENT(S)Many WF examples (even intuition) repeatedly reinforce WRONG modelThe DOCUMENT is NOT The PROCESSThe Process is The Process… and merely involves document(s)

So… what IS a better (best?) metaphor for a Process?

INSIGHT: Process-as-Document isn’t realistic…

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Processes are really (often) bundles of properties representing states “Bundle of Properties” is really just saying Content Type Content Types can store these process states as columns

The Process itself becomes an abstraction (template) Instances of processes can be manifested as individual list items

(One does not execute a “process”; one executes an instance of a process)

Each list item (process instance) is always explicitly visible Entire list of items (process instances) becomes (literally) a dashboard Large number of states – modeling complex processes - becomes easy! Each column persists its current state while process is dormant! Can readily intermingle manual & automated “state changes”

(people can manually override state changes when needed )

INSIGHT: Process-as-Content Type is realistic…

process-as-content-type is a superior metaphor for modeling processes…

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INSIGHT: Each process has own content type…System

Item

Title [single line text]

ABCItem

ABCProjectItem

Project Name [single line text]

Client [single line text]

Practice Area [single line text]

ABCProjectSummary

ABCProjectGoal

ABCProjectProcess

Description [multi-line; brief description of specific instance of process…]

Priority [A B C]

OverallCondition [Green, Yellow, Red]

OverallState [Started, Pending, Completed, Deferred, Cancelled]

Overall%Complete [0% - 100% in 10% increments]

Notes [multi-line; ongoing journal of changes, etc in specific instance of process…]

ABCProjectProcess001

Criteria 001.01 State [Unmet, Met]

Criteria 001.02 State [Unsatisfied, Satisfied]

Deliverable 001.01 State [Started, Pending, Completed, Deferred, Cancelled]


Milestone 001.01 State [Unreached, Reached]



ABCProjectProcess002

Criteria 002.01 State [Unmet, Met]



…

Processes then are sets of properties each of which has a final or “done” state…

LEGEND: Content TypeColumn NameColumn Value

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• DON’T model process-as-document (or document-as-process) - often leads to constraints!

• DO model process-as-content type derived from Item – not Document

• Can have multiple statuses representing stages, conditions, etc for completion

• Can have multiple documents associated with a given process instance

• Can include multiple criteria, component statuses, milestones – whatever defines the process!

• Multiple events all over site collection trigger multiple (small) WFs but update single process instance

(This is essentially a (composite) State Machine Workflow – the grail thought not possible in SPD!)

• Information about each process instance is explicit & visible rather than hidden inside SharePoint

• Processes list literally becomes a dashboard into the overall status of the processes

• DO create MULTIPLE Process content types – one for every process required by a project!

MORE INSIGHTS: Process-as-Content Type…

Let’s apply all this to a real-life complex process…

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Many of the project processes involving preparing & updating individual portions/sections of many types of deliverable documents as shown here…

Some of these documents (spreadsheets) easily contained 15-50 MB of data!...

Many documents had their own set of individual preparation workflows, with document-specific statuses representing “phase gates” for that workflow…

… but the overall “migration” process wasn’t complete until ALL the documents were completed and reviewed and accepted!...

THAT is The Process…

Real-Life: single process – numerous documents…

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OBSERVATION: Modeling status columns as choice-type or lookup-type doesn’t really matter for overall process modeling & automation…

Real-life: Numerous types of statuses…

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Real-Life: Migration process instances in a list…

…with a bit of simple jQuery for styling = DASHBOARD !!!

<!– DEFINE new styles to append to selected table cells…--><style media="screen" type="text/css">.cellRed { background-color: Red;}.cellYellow { background-color: Yellow;}.cellGreen { background-color: Lime;}</style>

<!– REFERENCE jQuery library, either on-premises or via CDN…--><script type="text/javascript" src=“{URL to CDN}/jquery-1.10.1.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { // SELECT all table cells with specific CSS class unique to list items… $('.ms-cellstyle.ms-vb2').each(function() { var colText = $(this).text(); // TEST actual value in cell, and append colorizing CSS as appropriate… if (colText == 'Green') {$(this).addClass("cellGreen"); } else if (colText == 'Yellow') {$(this).addClass("cellYellow"); } else if (colText == 'Red') {$(this).addClass("cellRed"); } }); });</script>

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INSIGHTS: Modeling (real) Business Processes…Envision your larger processes as being comprised of multiple individual

workflows which – for this process – happen to all work in symphony to execute an instance of that process.

Think in terms of smaller, simpler (easier to code & inherit) WorkflowsThink in terms of automating the management of the process

Think “tell the right people what to do, how and when” Think in terms of DEFINING & ASSIGNING TASKS Make things as simple as sending emailed instructions (from task lists)

Examples:

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Workers can get lost in the weeds of individual deliverables and the workflow surrounding them that they LOSE sight of the larger, over-arching process itself.

SPEND time actually DEFINING The OVERALL Process

DIFFERENTIATE the individual composite WFs from The Process !!!

What Happened to Us: Design Document Tab1 (there were 26) as process… INCOMPLETE & UNnatural

Design Document itself as process… INCOMPLETE & UNnatural

Deliverable XYZ as process… INCOMPLETE & UNnatural

LocationABCMigration (20+ docs plus actual work) as process… COMPLETE & natural

Design Document Prep as WF of Migration Processs… natural & intuitive

Deliverable XYZ Prep as WF of Migration Process… natural & intuitive

…

Actual Equipment Work as WF of Migration Process…natural & intuitive

… and all the while every key milestone/critiera/condition is visible in the Process Dashboard

INSIGHT: Sometimes The Process gets missed…

IDENTIFY The (actual) Process… and everything starts to come together…

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Each “swim lane” represents a separate event-driven Workflow

Columns represents different changes (in value) of several process property states (Submittal Status, Deliverable Status, Review Status, Archive Status)

EXAMPLE: A Real-Life Business Process

Let’s see how to tackle modeling & automating this with our new insights…

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Each sub-process becomes its own instruction-sending workflow (simple!)

Each component workflow regularly updates a property in the larger process

INSIGHT: Divide & Conquer…1 2

3 45

6 7

8

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The Big Picture…

• Process-as-item metaphor enables “Composite State Machine” Workflow• Projects involving repeated, complex processes can be readily tracked• Complex processes can be automated in smaller, re-usable WFs• Management of complex processes can be partially or fully automated• Human intervention (“override” of process values) is possible, even natural & trivial !• Numerous people can “feed” these items (unlike MPP files) concurrently• Numerous documents (deliverables) can be involved in a single complex (realistic) process• Numerous stages can be readily tracked• Numerous criteria for completion can be readily & intuitively tracked

Process-as-Content Types looks complex, but is surprisingly INHERITABLE!

Task Workflows

Document Workflows

Process Workflow(s)

Emailed Instructions

Emailed Instructions

1

23

45

6

78

EVENT-driven WF

SCHEDULED WF

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Workaround: Scheduled WFs via built-in Timer Jobs…Process Management Automation typically requires 2 types of workflows:

1. Event-Triggered – WFs triggered by events occurring on a single item/document:• Item or Document Created• Item or Document (properties or content) Changed

2. Scheduled – WFs triggered regardless of an event occurred (scheduled tasks)

Typically SPD Workflows (Declarative) can only be triggered when an item is created and/or changed. Triggering SPD Workflows to run on a scheduled basis requires a custom timer job

CHALLENGE: Sometimes custom timer jobs are NOT always possible• Organization doesn’t have development capability• Organization policy prohibits deployment of custom timer jobs into PROD farm

Useful Workaround:Leverage the nightly timer job already built-into the Information Management Feature!Create a Retention Stage which repeats a selected WF daily, startingimmediately after creation …

With both event-triggered and scheduled WFs, much is possible…

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Seek IMPROVEMENTS in overall efficienciesSeek EXCELLENCE – this is achievableDEFINE “Excellent” in terms of SLA metrics on a processEXPECT BPMA to always be a MIXTURE of manual & automation

STARTS as more manual process… EVOLVES toward more & more automation…

When you arrive at “Excellent” – STOP – and move on to next process!

INSIGHT: STOP Seeking Perfection…

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To schedule this free presentation at your company…Mark E. Vogt, Principal Architectbusiness email: [email protected] email: [email protected] cell: (630)781-9978blog: markvogt.vogtland.ws

WATCH for 2 new books by Mark Vogt: SharePoint-Powered Project Management: A BluePrint & Playbook (available on Amazon.com Summer 2013)

Sayings of The Wise Consultant (available on Amazon.com Summer 2013)

Discussion…

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…and lastly... GO BLACKHAWKS !!!

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Copyright © 2013 Mark E. Vogt, Netrix LLC. All rights reserved. ONE SOURCE. INFINITE SOLUTIONS. SharePoint-Powered Project Management Insights & Innovations