Project Management: Leveraging SharePoint

Lessons Learned from Real Projects

Who am I?• Project Management Professional

• Published author

• President/CEO Kiefer Consulting

• Advisory board member – GTC, Governor’s Small Business

Advocacy Group, Powerhouse Science Center steering

committee, and CIO Academy advisory committee

• Teaches Project Management Institute examination preparation

courses

• Participated in the delivery of over 700 software applications

• International speaker – SOA, EA, PM Best Practices, Software

Design Patterns…

Greg Kiefer

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Agenda• SharePoint Project Management Best Practices

• What is a project as it relates to SharePoint?

• Project success factors

• Consequences of poor project management

• What are you trying to accomplish?

• Why use SharePoint?

• SharePoint Implementations

• What happens when you finish the project?

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What is a project?• “A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined

beginning and end, undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value.”

Wikipedia

• Does this definition change when you leverage SharePoint?

• What aspects of the project can be applied to SharePoint?

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Project Success Factors• Senior management commitment• A clear understanding of the scope and key milestones• Clear project requirements and specifications• A comprehensive project plan• Commitments and accountability from all stakeholders• Accurate reporting of the project status• A critical assessment of the risks and issues inherent in

the project• Clear and concise communications• Plans, plans, plans…

Consequences of Poor Project Planning

Marc Hirshfield, MBA, PMP, Vitalize Consulting Solutions

• Organizational priorities are not met • Over budget• Low team morale • Confusion among resources • High resource turnover • Unclear communication • Missed dates

Marc Hirshfield, MBA, PMP, Vitalize Consulting Solutions

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What are you trying to accomplish?• Improve• Communication• Collaboration• Team building• Status reporting• Security• Accountability• Management of information• Exposure of your project• Portfolio management• Your career…

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Why use SharePoint?• SharePoint provides:

• Document management• Workflows• Lists• Alerts• Wikis• Project scheduling• Task management• Dashboards• External data integration• Mysites…

Project Management and Collaboration

Project Samples

Project Home Site

Clearly identify the project objectives.

Who are the key players ?

Make the information easy to

find.

QuestionsWhat is missing from the team site?• Reference documents• Issues & Risk Logs• Key performance indicators (KPIs)

GoalsMake it easy to find information.Accountability, efficiency

Project Home Site

Execute SP Home

SharePoint 2010 allows multiple calendar views

Who are the key contacts for your project?

Project Home Site

Enriching Home

SharePoint allows you to add all the important group information right on the home page for all

members to have quick and easy access.

Best PracticesIs it better to spend time after the project is over to capture the lessons learned? Why not capture them throughout the project?• Create a content type for lessons learned categorization to be used

throughout the project• Create workflows to categorize information• Create workflows to updates meta data (status, SLAs…)• Leverage the list rating system. One to five star• Leverage email (records management) integration so the project

related information stored in your email repository is ported to SharePoint so it becomes an organizational asset.

Document Management

Enriching Collaborations document library

It’s good to use metadata that allows you to filter your document library making things easier to find

Knowing and being able to filter by type will also help findability.

SharePoint allows you to upload one document and have multiple people

working on it, and updates automatically after saving.

Project Communication

Execute SP communication log

Grouping communications by date allows a Project Manager to see when communication has occurred.

Using specific metadata allows the Project Manager to know more about group communication.

SharePoint is more effective at documenting/tracking logs than excel

or word.

Project Plan

Sleepy Snoopies SharePoint Gantt Chart

Use the built in Gantt chart to communicate the high-level deliverables and task assignments

Integration• Leverage Project professional to synchronize your project schedules

with your project team site.• Use team foundation server (TFS) to manage team tasks, software

development, testing by exposing the information in SharePoint via TFS webparts.

Calendar

PMG Schedule

Your

All of your team members can load their calendars in the same place to ease

scheduling processes.

Team Profiles

Execute SP Profile Page

Good to add links to all site pages for ease of

use.

Understand your audience when applying

themes to your site.

Wikis

Execute SP Project Terms

Grouping terms helps usability/findability.

Creating links for each term helps site organization and look and

feel.

Leverage Metadata data throughout the site.

Additional SamplesProject Termshttps://extranet.kieferconsulting.com/sites/csus/tpps/Wiki/Home.aspx

Lessons Learnedhttps://extranet.kieferconsulting.com/sites/csus/tpps/Lessons%20Learned/Home.aspx

Project Schedulehttps://extranet.kieferconsulting.com/sites/csus/tothepoint/Lists/Project%20Plan/gantt.aspx

Issue Loghttps://extranet.kieferconsulting.com/sites/csus/Team_Phoenix/Lists/Issues%20Log/AllItems.aspx

Risk Loghttps://extranet.kieferconsulting.com/sites/csus/Team_Phoenix/Lists/Risk%20Log/AllItems.aspx

https://extranet.kieferconsulting.com/sites/csus/Sacramento6/Lists/Risk%20Log/AllItems.aspx

Team Member Profileshttps://extranet.kieferconsulting.com/sites/csus/tpps/Lessons%20Learned/Home.aspx

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Project Close-out• What do you do with the project artifacts?• When does a project artifact become a record?• How do you leverage your project site for future

projects?• Where do you store lessons learned information?• What should be the overall taxonomy for the site?• Did you leverage workflows to ensure

accountability?

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Conclusion• SharePoint can be used to improve all aspects

of communication for a project.• Remember to train your team and

stakeholders on the technology.• Apply new features to improve

communications, such as, wikis…• Call me anytime

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