Mark Schneider's SharePoint Taxonomy and Governance Blog

How to Implement Governance and Taxonomy™ Planning in SharePoint

Download How to Deploy Governance and Taxonomy Planning Functions in SharePoint

Q: Once I establish my Verb Taxonomy™, how do I use SharePoint to incorporate the Governance Team™ policy decisions into our SharePoint environment?

 

A: The simplest approach to establishing Federated Governance Control over your SharePoint environment is as follows:

1.     Establish a top-level site collection for each of the major taxonomy categories you created during the Governance and Taxonomy Workshop™.  Note that a systems architect, depending on information volume and security requirements for each might elect to create separate Web Apps for one or more of these according to SharePoint Design and Architecture Best Practices. 

 

2.     Create a prototype environment that your governance team can get to and work with on the network. 

 

3.     Establish a Governance Team site below the Governance Site Collection top-level Site

a.     Build a Team site for your governance Team.  At this point you don’t need to worry about where the site is.  You can always save it as a template including content and then redeploy it elsewhere.

b.     Configure the Document Library

c.      Configure the Document Library

                                                              i.      Turn on version control

                                                            ii.      Turn on publication approval and make the governance team chair the owner

                                                          iii.      Create a view that shows the folders

                                                         iv.      Create a view that ignores or suppresses the folders

                                                           v.      Set up notifications for the members of the governance team

d.     Create a folder in the documents library and label it Project Planning

                                                              i.      Save the documents from the Governance and Taxonomy Workshop™ in this folder

                                                            ii.      Save any additional planning and requirements documents in this folder

e.     Create a folder in the documents library and label it Design and Architecture

                                                              i.      Save the documents from the Governance and Taxonomy Workshop™ in this folder

                                                            ii.      Save any other technical documents, scans of licenses etc in this folder

f.       Create a folder in the documents library and label it Deployment and Configuration

                                                              i.      Save the documents from the system administrator’s planning sessions in this folder

g.     Create a folder in the documents library and label it Branding and “look and feel.”

                                                              i.      Place branding information and documents that you accumulated during your branding planning session in this folder

h.     Configure the Team Calendar

                                                              i.      Establish a schedule for your governance team         

                                                            ii.      Configure notifications

                                                          iii.      Consider using meeting workspaces for each meeting

i.       Configure the Team Discussion List

j.       Create an Issues Log and name it “Agenda Items”

k.     Create an approval workflow that requires the agreement of a majority of the members of the team

4.     Hold Regular Governance Team Meetings

a.     Have your Governance Team Kickoff Meeting

                                                              i.      Review the short Governance and Taxonomy presentation included with your deliverables package from the Governance and Taxonomy Workshop™

                                                           ii.      Review the deliverables from the Governance and Taxonomy Workshop™

                                                          iii.      Provide the team with a hands-on orientation of the team site

                                                         iv.      Demonstrate how to use the approval workflow

                                                           v.      Show how to integrate the calendar, tasks, contacts, and folders with Outlook

                                                         vi.      Provide a shortcut on each member’s desktop to the document library

                                                      vii.      Make sure each member of the governance team knows which of the taxonomy buckets is assigned to them

                                                    viii.      Review the taxonomy bucket that will be the focus of the pilot project

 

b.     Establish MySites, set quotas and train the constituents on their use as private non-taxonomy workspaces (known as trashcan taxons in the taxonomy world)

 

c.      Have each site-collection / business domain owner decide on the structure and policies for each site-collection.  Each Site collection represents a logical business domain and has a business domain “owner” whose job is to meet with the stakeholders for that logical collection of information.  These owners were assigned during the workshop.  These owners need to be coached by IT and collaboratively by other stakeholders.  They need to work with their stakeholders and determine:

                                                              i.      Sub-site structure - The next tier of sub-sites using the same best practices and process used during the workshop, such as limiting the number of sub-sites to seven.

                                                            ii.      Scope of Customization within the domain - Which templates, themes, master pages and web parts will be allowed within that collection (with the help of IT)

                                                          iii.      Roles and Rights within the domain - Which individuals will have access to information in each site and what role they will have.

                                                         iv.      Approvals - Which approvals will be required to move information to a larger audience from the site collection

                                                           v.      Workflows – Work with the stakeholders to establish standard workflows for use within the site collection / business domain.

                                                         vi.      Content Types - Identify any enterprise content-types that will be used to propagate information within the site collections domain, but that may be housed outside the site collection.  As an example, financial information, policies and records may be kept and/or administered within the “Financial” site collection, but there are financial documents that may reside in project management, human resources and elsewhere.  The financial “

 

d.     The community of business domain stakeholders then

                                                              i.      Provides a review and consensus function for the domain sub-site structure created by each domain owner before it is deployed.

                                                            ii.      Provides a review and consensus on scope of customization within each domain

                                                          iii.      Provides a review and consensus on roles and rights within each domain

                                                         iv.      Provides a review and consensus on approvals within each domain

                                                           v.      Provides a review and consensus on workflows within each domain

                                                         vi.      Provides a review and consensus on content types within each domain

                                                       vii.      Evaluates a-f above for each domain and identifies candidates for enterprise-wide deployment

 

e.     The community of stakeholders then supports and advises on the actual build, deployment and rollout of the pilot project site collection and its advancement through the above processes (start with only one site collection to work through this process as the “alpha” iteration of the process.  You chose Governance as the domain for your pilot project)

f.       Next focus is placed on another domain and so on until all the domains have been deployed.

g.     The site collection /business domain owner then walks the sub-site owner in the domain through the process of establishing and configuring sites in the third tier.

h.     The Governance Team as a whole then works with IT to coordinate the design, implementation and use of content-types that were identified during the Alpha iteration of the governance  process.

i.        The Governance Team then works with IT to identify candidates for Business Data Catalog integration.

j.       Periodically (once a month or once a quarter) the work of the Governance Team is reviewed by senior business leadership

 

This governance model provides for

·        Collaborative governance for the taxonomy of business domains managed by individual domain owners, and provides for collaborative standardization and approval processes. 

·        The establishment of site-collection content types to standardize policy, approvals, and metadata gathering for critical information types across the site collection. 

·        Candidate content types for promotion as enterprise-wide content types to allow business domain owners to provide management continuity for information types inside of peer business domains.

 

 

©Copyright Mark Ragar Schneider, 2009 All Rights Reserved

 

Yes, I'm Actually Going to Show You How to Implement Taxonomies

This blog has been up and running since July of 2008, and during that time I've worked to raise awareness of the taxonomy issue.  Although I still intend to discuss some of the concepts and theories behind the use and usefullness of taxonomies, it is time to move the blog in a new direction.  So, I'm still going to tell the odd joke and write the odd anecdote, but the focus of the blog is now going to turn toward practical implementation.

I'm going to begin exploring practical taxonomy application.  My efforts will include, but not be limited to:

1. Evaluating taxonomy tools provided by various vendors in the world right now.  What do these tools actually do?  Are they useful?  What is the scope of their taxonomy service and application?
2. Evaluating vendors of "canned" taxonomy lists and files.
3. Providing insight into the benchmarks and standards that guide taxonomy providers.
4. Listing potenitial taxonomy consulting and contracting firms (in case you need to hire a small army of librarians to come in and help you develop a unique taxonomy)
5. Discussion of methods for integrating taxonomy management into your governance planning.
6. Tips on building taxonomy and governance management into your project planning processes.
7. Project initiation methods for taxonomy-dependent projects.

I've also received a great deal of encouragement lately to write and publish a simple and straightforward cookbook for planning, building and implementing taxonomy-related technologies and projects.  In other words, a book with sample taxonomies for different types of organizations, organizational change methods, project management methods, sample governance plans and strategies and so on.

I will do the book by hook or by crook.  Please note that the taxonomy and governance planning I'm talking about is frankly not the same governance and taxonomy planning everyone else is talking about.  Historically governance planning in IT has meant configuration information, deployment, recovery, lifecycle planning and a host of other topics knit together into a coherent plan.  The governance planning I'm talking about has more to do with organizational and business strategy.  I pose the question, "if you really could bake your business policies and strategies into the DNA of every single superfolder (library) in your computing environment, what would you want those policies and strategies (behaviors) to look like?"

In other words, how do you turn SharePoint from a pseudo 'network drive' into an efficient strategic resource for your corporation?  This is the question my blog seeks to solve.

 

 ©Copyright Mark Ragar Schneider, 2009 All Rights Reserved

Things to Consider Before You Deploy SharePoint

I'm planning on running a blog article or two on deployment planning.  The articles will focus not only on the nuts and bolts of deployment planning, but also on the business integration portion--the Policy Taxonomy or Verb Taxonomy I've been blogging about.

By the way, even though I advise against having developer-types develop and plan your SharePoint implementation, I want to make it clear that I LOVE developers!  I used to be a developer!  My youngest son shows signs of developerism!  But again, whatever you do don't let someone who focuses mostly on development be the one to design your installation and deployment plan.  It isn't what they are good at usually.  I also wouldn't suggest that you have a system administrator develop your code either.  Neither is better than the other, but they have clearly defined roles.  Administrators are all about creating a firm and stable foundation for your computing environment.  Developers are all about safely pushing the envelope and making intelligent changes.  Developers aren't bad, it is just that it is best to build a really firm foundation before anyone starts developing cool changes to the environment.  So, let the administrator-types build the foundation.

Anyway, when it comes to installation and deployment planning, it is VITALLY important that you first figure out exactly why you intend to implement SharePoint!  SharePoint needs to be installed, configured and deployed according to the mission you have chosen for it.  If you can't articulate the mission then there is no possible way you can expect your SharePoint team to magically know how to install and deploy.

So first things first-- articulate exactly why you are putting SharePoint into your production environment.

Also, please remember that there are many different kinds of taxonomies... There are template taxonomies, site taxonomies, role taxonomies and so on.  The critical taxonomy that I'm advocating in this blog is not any of those.  Those are very simple taxonomies to understand and implement.  I can blog about it, but those are fairly "cut and dried" taxonomies.  The "verb" taxonomy I'm talking about has to do with the policies you want to implement to govern information in the context of SharePoint and even outside of SharePoint.  It isn't actually hard to do, but it is very different.

To be honest, "taxonomy" has become quite the buzzword--just like governance.  There are many different levels and layers of taxonomy in a virtualized environment, and there are correspondingly different levels and layers of governance.  This doesn't mean that other blogs on taxonomy and governance are wrong, quite the opposite.  Pay close attention to the various governance blogs out there, but also keep in mind that there needs to be a foundational governance and taxonomy plan that spells out how SharePoint will be aligned with the strategic directives of the organization.

Noun Taxonomies and Verb Taxonomies Give Rise to Use Cases

If you spend any time Googling about taxonomies, you will find that there is healthy debate about the usefulness of taxonomies in actual practice.  The problem is that taxonomies can become over structured, confining, and can cripple the information worker's ability to act tactically.

Taxonomies have always referred to nouns.  Taxonomies are classification systems that use a hierarchy of increasingly specific nouns to describe, classify, categorize and organize a series of concepts.  So we have the plant and animal kingdoms.  We have the Periodic Table of the Elements.  We have first, middle and last names.  We have addresses that go from the general (nation) to the specific (street number).

Here is an important thing to remember as you read my blog--I'm driving the creation of a new kind of taxonomy, one that works in the context of automated information management systems.  The taxonomy concepts that I put forth in this blog are (and this is vitally important) VERBS not NOUNS!  My mission is to help organizations define a simple but profound taxonomy of verbs/policies/actions/behaviors that govern how information is put into action.  There is still a need for a NOUN taxonomy, but its purpose is to identify sites, documents, workflows, teams, individuals, audiences, etc. so that they can invoke one of the VERB taxonomy categories.

I call this VERB taxonomy a POLICY taxonomy for wont of a better term.  The marriage of a verb taxonomy with a noun taxonomy describes the organization's culture and business model very neatly.  This means that it is a tool that supports strategic planning, and the application of strategic planning, at every level in the organization.

SharePoint has my attention right now because I have wanted to bring about this shift in thinking about documents, workflows and other elements of organizational models, but there has never been a definitive tool until now.  SharePoint is still in its adolescence, but it is the closest toolset I have ever found.

I unveiled my methodology for using noun and verb taxonomies to create a framework for software development use-cases during the SharePoint Best Practices Conference this past week.  I'll be blogging on the topic next week, if not sooner.  All this talk about taxonomy concepts only matters if it actually helps you manage your data more effectively, faster, and more cheaply than ever before.  I believe the new concept of verb taxonomies is working well amongst my customers.  Now for the biggest stretch of my career. 

The framework that I spoke on at the Torrey Pines made use of a noun and verb taxonomy to map out use-case "regions" and approval/workflow boundaries.  On the one hand you don't want to lock down approvals and workflows--it is important to grant information workers as much tactical freedom as possible.  On the other hand you need to be able structure and manage how workflows and approvals work together to build a coherent knowledge management environment for your organization.

I believe my framework offers just such a tool, and best of all it is very simple to use.  It isn't software, it is a simple paper and pen diagram that can be used to frame use-case and workflow definitions.

Stay tuned....

©Copyright Mark Ragar Schneider, 2009 All Rights Reserved

Justify My Taxonomy and Governance Workshop in One Lawsuit

Well organized and managed data can reduce the impact of a lawsuit.  Open-ended discovery is very, very expensive to support!  So, how does one justify my workshop?  It only takes one lawsuit, win or lose.  But by then it may be too late!

A Project Framework Tuned for SharePoint Implementation Projects...

The VitalSkill cheat sheet (speedyproject) for understanding SharePoint project planning.  Note that this diagram shows where governance and taxonomy fit into the grand scheme of things, and what role they play in the SharePoint implementation and operations project.

Over the years I've managed a great many projects and programs.  The fundamental principles and best practices remain the same (see www.pmi.org) whether you are building a software system or a building a new bridge over the Mississippi river. 

However, having said that there is a need occasionally for fine-tuning project methodologies for a particular technology or task.  Not only do I have technology management experience with project budgets up to several hundred million dollars, I am also a fundamentally lazy man.  I believe in finding the simplest and most concise method for solving any problem.  I was also the lead architect for a $500,000,000 IT outsourcing project, so I have a decent handle on technology planning in general.  I also believe that laziness is a virtue in architecture, in that it encourages simplicity and elegance of design. 

Anyway, here is my project framework for SharePoint implementation projects.  When I developed this framework I had coffee with John Zachman on a couple of occasions and asked him how he created the Zachman framework.  for those of you who don't know, John Zachman is the grandfather of computer architects everywhere.  Way back in the day he created a simplified framework that would make it much easier to plan and organize technologies in an IT context.  He is something of a hero of mine, along with Grace Hopper who invented COBOL.  I ran into John Zachman a few times at architecture conferences and we seemed to get along pretty well.  For the price of a coffee in the morning, or a beer in the afternoon, he was more than happy to talk about clear thinking, technology planning, and dumb luck (all of which are necessary in developing a meaningful career in technology).

Well, I took John's principles to heart and added them to my own.  My goal was to come up with a simple reference tool that would make it much easier to organize a technology project.  I also wanted to make it easier for non-project managers to be able to sort through all the jargon and standards to understand what exactly is going on with their projects.  it is, in short, something of a cheat sheet on project management.

Here it is.  This is my standard project cheat sheet (which I lamely call speedyproject) adapted for use with SharePoint.  This little chart will help you organize your thinking with regard to SharePoint planning and implementation.  You can still use your favorite methodology.  This is not a methodology but a definition of concepts and how they relate-- in other words it is a taxonomy matrix for major project phases and activities.

Here is my matrix.  It also shows you how my Governance and Taxonomy Workshop fit into the project management cycle.  The Workshop gets your project initiated and moving forward in the context of SharePoint.

   

©Copyright Mark Ragar Schneider, 2009 All Rights Reserved

Support the Government but Wash Your Hands, a Parable...

A few years ago I was watching a presidential press conference.  At the time the press had been working hard to 'raise awareness' about potential biological warfare attacks.  One reporter asked the president what his administration was doing to protect the American People from pandemic.  Are there enough vaccines, is there a sufficiently robust contingency plan?

According to a few public health studies I've read over the years, over half the members of the press corps do not wash their hands after using the toilet.  Americans in general do not generally wash their hands after using a public restroom, and those that do wash their hands do not use good practice.

So, the most effective deterrent against pandemic would seem to be for the press corps to wash their own hands in an effective and purposeful manner.  What do they want the president to do, deploy the National Guard to enforce good bathroom procedures?

Don't get me wrong, it is very important for any modern government to have a well-thought-out plan for worst case scenarios, including engineered pandemics.  But as always, effective government begins and ends with personal responsibility.  You simply can't transfer the responsibility for your own actions to a central government.

This is a great analogy for collaborative vs. "top down" technical and business governance.  You need centralized strategic governance and policy management, but you also need to provide and support tactical freedom amongst the information workers you support. 

©Copyright Mark Ragar Schneider, 2009 All Rights Reserved

Testimonial from the Ontario Service Safety Alliance

Kind words from my new friends at the Ontario Service Safety Alliance..

“Again thank you for an amazing workshop. I have heard nothing but good things from participants who not only liked the work / outcomes but also your personal style and delivery.”

Mel Simon
Manager Information Services

Ontario Service Safety Alliance

http://www.ossa.com

©Copyright Mark Ragar Schneider, 2009 All Rights Reserved

A Big Hello to My New Friends at the Ontario Service Safety Alliance

It was an honor to work this week with my new friends at the Ontario Service Safety Alliance in Mississauga Ontario, and work through the Governance and Taxonomy Workshop with them.  If I lived in Canada I would absolutely hire the OSSA to guide me into a culture of safety and service.  They are dedicated, intelligent and very professional, and they laughed at most of my jokes.

©Copyright Mark Ragar Schneider, 2009 All Rights Reserved

Workshop Deliverables

Many people have asked me to provide a list of the specific deliverables that are produced during my two-day Goverance and Taxonomy Workshop.  Here are the basic deliverables.  Please note that I work with the client to taylor the deliverables and processes to best fit their unique objectives.  So, some clients will develop all of these deliverables through the two day workshop, and others will elect to focus their time and energy on a subset.

Governance and Taxonomy

Workshop Deliverables

MODULE 1: SharePoint Overview 

DELIVERABLE

a. A presentation to use in orienting the rest of the organization in the purpose and use of SharePoint 2007.

MODULE 2: Taxonomy Definition and Plan.

DELIVERABLES

a. List of Existing Taxonomies

b. List of products and services that need to be supported by the taxonomy plan

c. List of Regulatory Constraints that the taxonomy plan must address

d. List of “Line Of Business” systems and a high-level understanding of how the taxonomy will unify information across the various LOB systems.

e. List of Major Corporate Initiatives and high-level view of how the taxonomy supports each initiative

f. List of Major Distribution Channels and high-level view of how the taxonomy supports each channel

g. List of Major Governance Groups and high-level view of how these support and integrate with SharePoint collaborative governance

h. Top-Level Process Taxonomy

i. Validation Process to test the Top-Level Process Taxonomy

j. Secondary taxonomies and rubrics relating them to the Top-Level Process Taxonomy

MODULE 3: Governance Definition and Plan

DELIVERABLES

a. Federated Governance Model

b. Governance Goals and Best Practices Document

c. Governance Escalation Model

d. List of Governance Stakeholders and Their Goals

e. List of Federated Governance Teams

f. Org Chart for Governance Team

g. IT Governance Org Chart

h. Top-Level Site Administration Governance Team Org Chart

i. Site-Collection Administrators Governance Team Org Chart

j. Site

k. Site Owners Governance Team Org Chart

MODULE 4: Pilot Project Plan

DELIVERABLES

a. Project Framework

b. Priority Success Factors for A SharePoint Implementation Project

c. Risk Assessment Model

d. Project Information Worksheet

e. Project Design Worksheet (High-Level)

f. ROM Milestones and Schedule Worksheet

g. Core Project Team Roster and Roles

h. ROM Budget Worksheet

i. Risks and Risk Mitigation Worksheet

j. Project Constraints Worksheet

k. Project Assumptions Worksheet

5. MODULE 5: SharePoint Requirements Management

DELIVERABLES

a. Requirements Definition Model

b. Requirements Model for Collaborative Governance

c. Requirements Traceability Matrix (High-Level)

6. MODULE 6: Next Day Action Plan

DELIVERABLES

a. Specific Task Assignments, Metrics and Deadlines for Immediate Action

b. Short-Term Accomplishments Lists, Assignments and Deadlines

C. Elevator Speech

 © 2009, Mark Ragar Schneider, All Rights Reserved