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SharePoint-Powered Project Management
A Netrix Case Study about Using OOTB SharePoint
Mark E. Vogt
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About Netrix LLC…
Netrix provides:• Cage-to-Cloud Infrastructure• Desktop-to-Mobile Applications• Carrier-to-Endpoint Communications• Network-to-Application Security• Expert SharePoint Technology Services and Solutions• Tailored Business Solutions
Engineering Expertise to Design, Deploy and Manage ALL of your technology needs – we make it ALL work together
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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Case Study Outline…Background
Description
History
Challenge
Pain
Consequences
Requirements
Solution
Why SharePoint?
Strengths
Weaknesses
Approach
Results/Lessons
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Background… Major International Telecom (150,000 employees)
Operates own (smaller) consulting firm (350 staff)
Same characteristics as many companies small & large: Wide range of project sizes
Microscopic: 1 location with 5 phones
Boil-the-Ocean: 987 locations across USA with 75,000 phones
Wide range of project methodologies employed
Project teams often geographically-dispersed
Project teams often composed of (temporary) contractors
Project involve complex, dynamic (changing) processes
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Challenge…Pain
Staff comprised of contractors skilled in telecom but NOT project methodology
Project teams regularly re-organizing – no familiarity
Project staff continually in a state of ambiguity – actually didn’t know what to do
Project processes evolve/change rapidly – no time to re-train
Time spent training processes to contractors is time wasted – they leave
Management visibility into status (good & bad) difficult at best
No time for traditional update/distill style of reporting
Existing SP2010 site collections constrained to 5 GB by policy
Existing SP2010 policies prohibit custom (VS2012) solutions
Project teams in-the-field often spend all day not connected
Consequences Processes need to be repeated because latest one not followed
Project teams spend excessive amounts of time reporting
Time spent training & re-training is time (cost) wasted
Projects use other less-powerful technologies (Email, file servers) to avoid 5 GB limit
Sub-projects begin to falter; super-projects as a whole begins to suffer
This pain multiplied across hundreds of concurrent projects is serious…
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Requirements…Must-Haves
Single common approach to project management
Process-related intelligence embedded in technology, not people
Make executing complex, dynamic processes as simple as tell-me-what-to-do
Store all content in SharePoint…without exceeding the 5 GB threshold
Enable field staff to work offline for most of day
Make it easy for staff to report exceptions
Make it easy for managers to detect exceptions
Make it easy to know when a sub-project is actually completed
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Approach…
Leverage OOTB components
Offload storage to Enterprise Vault™ as RBS (gaining in popularity)
Model complex project processes as content types
Capture &Track instances of processes in lists (not hidden inside SharePoint)
Employ multiple less-complex WFs to model these complex process
Delegate & Distribute development even with The Client
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Solution…
Why SharePoint? Strengths
Client already owns – just needs to use effectively
Most all functionality required already OOTB (functionality)
Functionality required already integrated (functionality)
Website-based; allows intranet & extranet solutions (accessibility)
Workflows possible… and permissible (functionality)
Enables both event-driven and schedule-driven automation (functionality)
Enables delegated & distributed development model (extensibility)
Possesses robust, feature-filled security (security)
Modular re: roles & services (performance)
Weaknesses Oft-times “idiosyncratic”
SharePoint Designer workflows take care to make debug-able and “inheritable”
UPSHOT: There are precious-few reasons to not use SharePoint…
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Solution… Single SP2010 site collection
Single custom project site template
Custom project management-relevant content types (dovetail into larger parent taxonomy)
Content Types mirror methodology
Key processes as content types
Multiple Workplan extract via MSP-SP feed
Dashboards created via DataView web parts
Versioning enabled, limited to 3 versions
Remote BLOB Storage via Enterprise Vault ™ technology (already in-use)
Daily build-up of content typically ~ 100 MB/day
Nightly archiving offloads content to EV “Vault” DB
Leaves only tiny (50 Byte) links behind in SharePoint
SharePoint thinks it holds the content… but it doesn’t
Key Processes modeled first simple, then more complex
Processes manifested as (visible) list items
Numerous smaller manageable WFs (“robots”) work in symphony
Overall solution is inheritable and extensible
Partial process automation, full process management automation
Projects (PMO Site)
Sales
Operations
HR
Intranet Home (root)
Project 001
Project 002
Project 003
...
LISTS: Project Metrics Project Announcements Project Events (Calendar) Project Goals Project Risks Project Issues Project Processes Project Decisions
LIBRARIES: Project Documents Project Manager Documents
Project Questions Project Snippets Project Stories Project Needs Project Requirements Project Tasks Project Tests Project Defects Practice Discussions
LISTS: PMO Announcements PMO Events (Calendar) Projects Metrics Dashboard Projects Issues Dashboard Projects Processes PMO Tasks PMO Discussions
LIBRARIES: PMO Documents PMO Private Documents
LISTS: Operations Announcements Operations Events Operations Processes Operations Issues Operations Tasks Operations Discussions
LIBRARIES: Operations Documents
LISTS: HR Announcements HR Events HR Processes HR Tasks HR Discussions
LIBRARIES: HR Documents
LISTS: HR Announcements HR Events
LIBRARIES: HR Documents
A blend of manual & automated elements is often The Elegant Solution…
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Solution: Landing Page…
• Project Overview/Status• Project Announcements• Project Calendar• Project Goals• Project Issues• Project Risks• Project Decisions • Project Questions• Project Snippets• Business Needs (or User Stories)• Solution Requirements• Project Tasks• Project Tests• Project Defects• Project Documents
Seemingly vast Landing Pages swiftly become invaluable to busy project
members seeking information…
DISPLAY only lists relevant to current project phase…
ORDER lists to reflect methodology…
DISPLAY “Landing Page View” of each list…
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Solution: Processes-as-Items…
•Process-as-item metaphor enables “State Machine” Workflow•Projects involving repeated, complex processes can be readily tracked•Complex processes can be automated in smaller, re-usable WFs•Complex processes can be partially automated, but the overall management fully automated•Numerous people can “feed” these items (unlike MPP files)•Numerous documents (deliverables) can be involved in a single process•Numerous stages can be readily tracked•Numerous criteria for completion can be readily & intuitively tracked•The website contains (retains) the process – freeing the workers to work!
Manifesting Key Project Processes as content types in lists sets the stage for “embedding” methodology – freeing workers to work…
Task Workflows
Library Workflows
Process Workflow(s)
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Solution: Workflows…Approach:Daily numerous smaller, manageable WFs monitored key processes, And emailed out explicit instructions to each project member – even clients.
Results: • Ambiguity virtually eliminated• Workers perfected only 2 “plays”:
1. PROCESS email 2. WORK the site
• Client could “inherit” solution• Client could “evolve” solution
PM
DE
CLIENTFE
PE
Process Management automation can be just as useful as process automation…
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Solution: Workflows…Challenge: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… …but Custom timer jobs were NOT permitted, due to organization development capability
Useful Workaround:Leverage the nightly timer jobs(2) already built-into the Information Management Feature!
Created a retention stage which repeated a selected “Nightly Item Inspection” WF daily, startingimmediately after creation …
With both event-triggered and scheduled WFs, much is possible…
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Solution: Content Types… System
Item
ABCItem
ABCProjectItem
ABCProject
ABCProjectGoal
ABCProjectRisk
ABCProjectIssue
ABCBusinessNeed
ABCSolutionRequirement
ABCSolutionStory
ABCProjectProcess1
ABCProjectTask
ABCSolutionTest
ABCSolutionDefect
ABCSolutionEnhancement
…
Document
ABCDocument
ABCProjectDocument Just a few content types can be very effective for project management…
NOTES:• NEVER (ever) modified SharePoint’s built-in content types!• USED content types instead of “item” in lists• DEFINED site content types at the site collection level• DIDN’T over-solve needs• PLANNED for future via placeholder/abstract content types• SUBCLASSED document content types only when needed!
o Item• Title [single line text]o ABCItem
• Description [multi-line text]• Priority [A, B, C]• Condition [Green, Yellow, Red]• Notes [multi-line text]
o ABCTask• %Complete [number, 0-1, %]• %CompleteBar [Calculated; = REPT(“*”, 10*(%Complete) )]• Status [Queued, Started, Pending, Completed, Deferred, Cancelled ]o ABCProjectTask
• Client [lookup OR managed metadata]• Program [lookup OR managed metadata]• Project [lookup OR managed metadata]
USEFUL!
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Solution: Project Dashboard…
Managers used dashboard to detect & resolve exceptions
Lesson: dashboards needn’t be fancy to be effective…
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Solution: Check-out with local draft…
Sometimes the simplest of techniques end up being The Elegant Solution…
Project staff who knew they were going off-site would simply check-out a document in local draft mode…
This would allow them to carry and work on a document while offline, continually saving to this local copy…
When next connected, SharePoint would synchronize these changes back into the associated SharePoint library!
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Results…
Project member had only 2 simple, unchanging “plays” to learn: 1. PROCESS Inbox daily
2. WORK the site
Project members received explicit emails telling them what to do daily Project Ambiguity greatly minimized Project teams could re-organize with minimal loss of productivity Processes could evolve/change daily with minimal impact Project members easily fed process statuses into natural, intuitive lists List WFs immediately informed PMs and other members of issues List WFs fed PM dashboards for improved exception detection & response Email usage (content sharing) reduced significantly File Server usage reduced significantly Project staff could work disconnected effectively Production environment constraints were respected (played by the rules)
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Lessons... Project Management is all about Collaboration
SharePoint was built for Collaboration
Collaboration is only partly “communicating”
Collaboration is only partly “sharing”
Collaboration is mostly “tasking”
Success does not require perfection
Complete process automation is not always achievable – but process management automation is
Process Management automation can be just as valuable as automating the process itself
Seek solutions which distribute & delegate development
Seek solutions which are intuitive & inheritable for clients
SharePoint-powered project management can be very effective…(you simply need to be working with people who can show you how)
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Discussion…
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Netrix’s Team SharePoint…
Kirk Fallbacher – Director, Software GroupDave Durbin – Manager, SharePoint PracticeTeam SharePoint
Netrix LLC
2801 Lakeside Drive
Bannockburn, IL 60015 USA
