empower the power user by @kerriabraham and @sharepointwendy

Empower the Power User

SharePoint Saturday Twin CitiesNovember 3, 2012Kerri Abraham and Wendy Neal

Kerri Abraham Retired SharePoint professional, healthcare Regular contributor to NothingButSharePoint.com Contributing author SharePoint 2010 at Work, Tricks, Traps, and

Bold Opinions: ‘Empower the Power User’ chapter Wood-fired pizza oven builder

Wendy Neal SharePoint Architect/Developer for GreatAmerica Financial

Services Regular contributor to NothingButSharePoint.com Blog: www.sharepointwendy.com Twitter: @SharePointWendy Passionate about all things SharePoint: Branding, evangelism,

governance, training, user adoption, user empowerment

IT Cultural DifferencesKerri – Healthcare

Patient Care #1

Wendy – FinancialDealer Success & Employee

Engagement

0 Conservative0 Restrictive0 Secretive0 Minimal Training

0 Dysfunctional? http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/community/SharePoint-Governance-Overhyped-and-Not-Understood Bill English

0 Innovative0 Empowering0 Open Communications0 Learning Organization

0Culture Orientedhttp://www.greatamerica.com/about/about-greatamerica.aspx

This is a True Story

April 2012 in Atlanta

SharePoint Designer Lockdowns

WHY ARE WE STILL

HERE?

Don’t BE

And don’t

encourag

e That

Guy!

Poll on SPYam

https://www.yammer.com/spyam/

Don’t be the SharePoint Nazi at Your Organization!

No SharePoint FOR YOU!

Goals: Move ForwardMitigate Fear

Bridge the Business and IT gap

Maximize Change Management Process

Nurture a Disciplined SharePoint/Developer-minded Workforce

Create Educational Resources

Empower Users

Anatomy of a Power UserNot all users are equally motivated

Power User

Site Owner

End User

I thought I wanted a career; turns out I just wanted pay checks.

0In the same way that not all rectangles are a square, not all site owners are power users.

Ability

InterestTime

Fact. Source: Twitter

Employee LOVES

SharePoint

Employee is Engaged

YES

Innovative Ideas Flow

Employee Loves

Company

Company Benefits

Employee is

Restricted

Employee Hates

Restriction

Employee Leaves

Company

Knowledge and Talent

Lost

Employee writes articles for an International audience re: your company’s

restrictive culture…NO

Empower Employee?

0 Site Creation0 Permissions0 Navigation0 Filtering0 Sorting0 OOTB Workflow0 Alerts0 List and Library

Management0 Metadata Management0 Content Types0 Site Maintenance

Basic Power User

Understanding

Developers First Need to be Power Users

Pick the right tool for the job

Bridge the Business & IT gapBuilding a business platform requires a team effort.

Recognize everyone wins from business success.

OOTB Masters

SharePoint Passionate

Speak

‘End-User’

Cour

ageo

us

Am

biti

ous

Critical Thinkers

Know the Business

Quick Learners

Power Users

Break the IT Bottleneck

Unless

you think

you can

do it ALL

by

yourself?

Why Business Doesn’t Look to IT for Innovation – InformationWeek

Cheers to Improved Process!Real end-user adoption: Users bringing ideas to the table that utilize SharePoint tools to improve their work and the business!

Power users are there to make those improvements reality.

If you are doing it right, SharePoint is

ALL ABOUT CHANGE

The fundamental issue is about giving up control and the potential

that creates for chaos.

And CHANGE IS SCARY!

ITMitigate Fear

The Risks are Two-Fold

Immediate Long Term

0 Crashing/Downtime:0 Server0 Site collection0 Subsite0 Page0 List/Library

0 Loss of Content0 Poor server

performance

0 Knowledge Silos0 Change Management:

0 Solution support0 Future upgrades and

unforeseen platform and/or toolset changes

0 Loss of Knowledge

These risks are

the same no

matter who

develops the

platform!

Bring Down the Farm?

More Common Extremely Unlikely

Site Server

0 SPD Workflow endless loop

0 Modifying master pages

Don’t take advice from this guy…

SharePoint Designer Settings

Web Application Site Collection

0 Settings apply to ALL site collections in the web app

0 Settings ONLY apply to that site collection

There are NO individual site or sub site level settings

Example Site HierarchySite collections

Sites and sub sites

SPD Site Collection Settings

A marriage of project and configuration management disciplines that provide structure and understanding

without being tediously difficult to maintain.

Maximize Change Management

Winning end-user adoption is an endless topic of discussion:

Are we considering the impact of hundreds, if not thousands of business-critical SharePoint solutions?

BUT

User Dependent or Business Critical?

If a user’s job is made easier with SharePoint resources

and/or tools, it is painful when they are offline

for ANY reason!

Does it matter?

Development Should Be Documented Regardless Of Titles!

o Capture Business/Project Requirements

o Provides an Overview and Auditing Processo Integrate with

Workflow for Approval and Review Cycles

o Educational Resourceo Platform Support

Semantics Just Muddy the Waters

de·vel·op con·fig·ure

verb (used with object)1. To bring out the capabilities or possibilities of; bring to a more advanced or effective state.2. To cause to grow or expand.3. To elaborate or expand in detail.4. To bring into being or activity; generate; evolve.

verb (used with object)1. To design or adapt to form a specific configuration or for some specific purpose.2. Computers.

a. To set up (a program) to enable it to run on a particular computer or for a particular application.

Return On Investment (ROI)

PLAIN AND SIMPLE:

The value of a solution is reduced when adequate documentation is not available as support to change management strategy in the future.

Support and Sustainability

0 Do you know every instance of:0 Workflow0 Scripts0 Alert settings0 Content types0 Site columns0 Web part connections0 Lookup columns0 Custom web parts

And the where and why?

Business Process Changes Platform Upgrades

Patch Level Maintenance Server configuration

adjustments General Clean-Up

Example: SharePoint 2013 Loss of Design View

Data View Web Part

0 Conditional Formatting0 Connecting information

from multiple sources

0 Upgrading Existing?

The Rudder

The steering mechanism for all

SharePoint development.

Actions Speak

Louder Than

Words

Honestly, Have you Never Asked Yourself:

0 “Who made this and what business requirement was it meant to solve?”

0 “What on earth was I testing and why did I get distracted from finishing it? If only I had some notes, this looks cool!”

0 “When was this thing created, is it still valid?”

0 “Where is that [insert any customization] located in this site collection?”

0  “How did I ever manage to build that?”

I know, me too!

Documentation not a NovelDocument those items that might snag up the next user who has

to support what has been built.

Make it quick and to the point, both to capture and absorb!

Don’t Make this Harder than It Needs to Be!

ScriptsUse of client-side scripts is a privilege and applying

them in the environment means adopting a responsible attitude toward documentation.

Combat Script Stupidity Vow:

I will test all scripts I use on my site outside of the production environment. To the best of my abilities I will make every attempt to understand the code in the script and what it is doing before I test it. There will be documentation surrounding the use of the script, why it is needed, the origins of where I copied it from, and any and all edits I make will be included in this comprehensive documentation. I will educate myself on best practices, attempt to follow them at all times, and share that advice with those in my environment that may use this library. While my goal may be third tier, I will fully recognize that I probably should stick to client-side manipulation until I have a better development background. I will promise to follow the approval process for use of new scripts in my environment as outlined by my SharePoint administrator/architect.

Because clearly I am NOT a developer!

Script Library

Demo – Create a Script Library

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2JCSjnajnI

Demo - Add a Script to our Site

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axcwZF9SGZQ

The Five “W”s of Documentation

Go-Live or any other

dates relating to

the project

When

Pertains to current

process and ties

directly to ROI:

Is SharePoi

nt the best fit for this

solution?

Why

Location where it

lives on the platform

and related site

security

Where

Unique qualities

and/or tools used

to create it:

What is important to know for future support?

What

People, group, or

team needing

this solution

Who

OneNote for Documentation

Demo - OneNote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMxkHhBMPWw

The Standard Business ModelIT supports new technologies with the intent of bringing about change and alleviating

business problems.

IT Support and System Maintenance

SharePoint is All About ChangeChange + Empowerment + Unknown = Fear

IT Support and System Maintenance

SHAREPOINT

Solution?

SharePoint SolutionsAll discussions begin with some basic information gathering.

IT Support and System Maintenance

SHAREPOINT

Solution?Business

Requirements: Planning and Resources:

Who What Why Where When

Shared ResponsibilityIT and business share the responsibility of training.

IT Support and System Maintenance

SHAREPOINT

SolutionBusiness Requirements:

Planning and Resources: Who What Why Where When

End User Training

Regardless of Title

IT Support and System Maintenance

Routine Maintenance

Audits

Lifecycle Management

It is the burden of the developer to document their solutions.

SHAREPOINT

SolutionBusiness Requirements: Planning and Resources:

Who What Why Where When

End User Training

ROI

Configuration Management

Governance

IT Support and System Maintenance

Routine Maintenance

Audits

Lifecycle Management

Configuration management is disciplined maintenance.

SHAREPOINT GOVERNANCE

SolutionBusiness Requirements: Planning and Resources:

Who What Why Where When

End User Training

ROI

Configuration Management

Nurture a Disciplined SharePoint/Developer-

Minded WorkforceBuild an empowered team not just individuals.

Developmental SkillsWhat is this? A Person with

ClothesA Person

Empowerment Without Responsibility is Chaos!

The exchange of configuration documentation as a concession for empowerment is an advantageous arrangement for both sides.

Don’t let the mistakes of the past mandate the policies of the future.

Trust

Respect

Engagement

Motivation

Innovation

Creativity

The Psychology of Empowerment

Supporting studies: Empowered Workers Are Better, More Productive Workers

Linking Empowering Leadership And EmployeeCreativity: The Influence Of PsychologicalEmpowerment, Intrinsic Motivation, and Creative

Process Engagement

The Problem with One

Only I know what I’ve created

Only one here with this

knowledge

Taught myself everything I know

I’m leaving!See ya!

Good luck!

I’ve learned a million & one tricks!

Moving On

Create Educational ResourcesShare the knowledge!

Encourage How-ToCreate a continuous learning environment:

0 Encourages a competitive spirit0 Highlight best practices0 Rejoice in achievements0 Troubleshoot frustrations0 Build presentation skills

And When NONE of that Works

Move Forward on Your Own

SharePoint Designer is FREE!

INVEST IN YOURSELF!

0 Get your own SharePoint site.0 Use it as a portfolio to

showcase what you know

0 Document the development

0 Participate in the online community

While formal training may accelerate the learning process, it is possible to

learn Designer with a bit of ingenuity and some time investment. The

greater SharePoint community has

contributed hundreds of articles to this end!

Governance policy: All users with access to

SharePoint Designer will be taught and expected to use documentation

techniques.A

SharePoint Rudder

Library is created.

Upon Initiation of every project

the 5 Ws are captured.

Users are provided a test environment.

Capable users are granted

access to Designer.

Initiation notes are combined with documentation related to the solution being developed.

Workflow is initiated for review and

approval.

Once approved the solution is moved to production.

Users share the solution and the knowledge at a

monthly Power User meeting.

At 18-months a workflow initiates a review process to

ensure solution validity.

2

3

4

57

8

9

10

10 Steps to Empowered Utopia

1

6

Thank You!

Questions?