Gary Vaughan's Collaboration Times

ECM Helps Control the Information Explosion

Survey data indicates that a majority of organizations are unhappy with their information systems, yet, ironically some 90% consider managing online information as critical to their future!  With the present explosion of social media and other forms of online information, generation of data is outpacing our capability to manage it.  Hence the value of an analytical framework such as Enterprise Content Management (ECM) to help both clients and consultants get this situation more under control. 

Last April I attended a one-day AIIM ECM Practitioner workshop in Washington D.C., and thought that the course's collection of methodologies and examples was very useful in my SharePoint program management and user adoption work in the public sector.  I found that the ECM approach put SharePoint into a broader and logical framework of user expectations, competing/complementary tools, and integration strategies.  Steve Weissman was an experienced and insightful instructor, and he had a light and entertaining way of teaching the AIIM course which made the day go fast.  See also Steve’s blog at:  http://blog.hollygroup.com/

AIIM provides the following definition of ECM:  "strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to key organization processes.”    In applying ECM to business needs, it may be helpful to use Marchand’s Strategic Information Alignment Framework (see diagram), with end goals of reducing costs, adding value, minimizing risks and reacting a new reality.

Key ECM technologies and functionality consist of the following:  document management, electronic records management, workflow, imaging, collaboration, web content management, content security, search and browsing.  The information-sharing and access benefits in applying a sound ECM strategy include both financial and otherwise quantifiable benefits, as well as non-quantifiable or intangible benefits.  Specific examples here include fewer lost documents, enhanced findability of documents, better management of content processes, and general job enrichment.  Information management benefits include disaster recovery and backup, and improved security.

AIIM offers four principles to help guide ECM strategies for the future:  "embrace the asset revolution; build my work my way; deliver peer-to-peer value; and develop extreme leaders."  For further information on AIIM and its course offerings, see www.aiim.org.

 

"Driving SharePoint Adoption"

My thanks to Portal Solutions CEO Daniel Cohen-Dumani and Marketing Director Joan Muschamp for today's excellent "Collaboration TechTalk" discussion on this topic.  If you missed the live show, you can catch the BlogTalkRadio recording on the web at this link.

Key points during the program included the difference between data and useful information, the utility of "knowledge optimization", and technical and business challenges to user adoption.  The discussion also addressed what factors, given this user adoption perspective, make for a successful SharePoint implementation.  The program closed with announcement of Portal Solution's UX/Usability webinars on April 20 and May 11, and their in-person program on May 18 to discuss the impact that search can have on knowledge management.  For further information on these topics and programs, go to:   http://www.portalsolutions.net

Please join us for the next "Collaboration TechTalk" Show on Friday, May 6 at 8:00 A.M. EST as I interview  guest experts from Syntergy on the topic of network performance and SharePoint.

 

Knowledge Work as "Beyond Management"

Is traditional management dead?  Is measurement a “hangover from the industrial era”?  Does knowledge work require a more flexible and “touchy feely” paradigm for organizational effectiveness? 

These are some of the questions that Dr. Mark Addleson, Associate Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University posed in his opening presentation at the Knowledge Management Institute’s KM Café in Arlington, Virginia last February 16 (it has taken me that long to post this fascinating talk!).  These are also some of the themes he will be exploring in a forthcoming book.

Definitions and Context: 

Dr. Addleson contrasted factory work (repetitive, mindless…based on the old Frederick Taylor “scientific” management models) with knowledge work which resists strict organization.  In essence, knowledge work and management “don’t mix” – hence, knowledge workers need to organize themselves.  In the early 1990s, KM tended to focus on harnessing tacit knowledge, and early champions such as Peter Drucker viewed KM as a management approach.  Such a management focus is characterized by the “5 D’s:  data, deadlines, deliverables, dollars and directives.”  Yet this KM view is too confining since “knowledge work can’t be managed…it is not compatible with structures, rules, systems.”  Today’s KM approaches tend to be “little K and big M”, with too much of a focus on outcomes and deliverables (as in international development), and a consequent  tendency to be dysfunctional.

In Addleson’s view, we need to focus not on the “doughnut” of typical management elements, but on the “hole” of people, relationships and insight…i.e. how KM work gets done in practice.  While traditional management is a “view from the top”, the key KM question is not “what” but “where” is knowledge work done.  It is  “what people do when they interact, talk to one another, and share knowledge to accomplish something together.”  It involves “give and take…and people making meaning together…and making sense of uncertain situations.”

From this more dynamic perspective,  work is “creative, emergent, messy” and it depends on “attitudes, emotions, feeling, values, beliefs and relationships’ (hence its  touchy-feely character!).  Knowledge worker skills consist of varied “stakeholders “ negotiating, meaning, and organizing to determine roles, responsibilities, places, dates, etc.  One good example of this KM approach is the flexible  Agile Software Development Manifesto.  Another example is how Wikipedia (or Facebook) came into being and has thrived.

Questions and Issues?

While a provocative and fresh look at whither KM, especially in the midst of the rapidly evolving social media scene, I was intrigued by the following questions… (some of which were discussed with attendees at the KMI KM Café):

 

1. Given Dr. Addleson’s KM prescription, is traditional project management dead?  Belying my own PMP background, I think not.  Rather the new fluid tools and workspaces often seem to cry out at some point for more formal structure, deliverables, and accountability – all of which sound to me like more traditional management concepts.
2. Is SharePoint by nature a more conservative enterprise management tool (Big M in the above context) vs. other more agile open source and other light-weight collaboration and content management apps (e.g. Google Apps, Wikipedia)?  My own sense is that enterprises should think about tapping both formal and informal info-sharing tools and structures.  SharePoint 2010, in fact, builds in a lot more social media into its new enterprise application.

And some other questions which I am still pondering…

1. How does one set the new boundaries between managers and knowledge workers, and between formal and informal information systems?
2. What social media and other technologies might best support evolution to this more flexible knowledge worker model?
3. Given the rigidities of our current organizations, what are some practical next steps in better supporting knowledge work?

Capitalizing on Complexity

IBM's recent survey of CEOs entitled "Capitalizing on Complexity" yields some intriguing observations on the C suite's assessment of opportunities and threats flowing from the information revolution.  These findings were highlighted during AIIM President John Mancini's keynote of the AIIM seminar in D.C. earlier this month on 8 Factors to Consider in Creating an Information Management Strategy.  John viewed CEOs' challenges as "being able to combine or layer different kinds of information management successfully."
 
Here are some key points he derived from the IBM study:
 
-  Risk managment and cost reduction:  Recent events such as the mortgage record-keeping mess illustrate such risk.
 
-  Reinventing customer relationships:  CEOs are still figuring out how to best integrate old and new media, organizational control and open collaboration.
 
-  Building operational dexterity:  This requires getting rid of manual processes, paper and email attachments, and finding ways to "get more out of organizational knowledge workers."
 
John also acknowledged the growing market presence and power of SharePoint as a collaboration and ECM platform.  Yet he noted that various other applications crowd this space, many without the high learning curve and useability hurdles that can be associated with SharePoint.
 
A subsequent breakout session at the AIIM Conference provided some insights on just such an alternative, lighter-weight collaboration tool:  Box.net.  This application aims at a market of companies ranging from 5-5,000 employees.  An online hosted solution, Box.net, according to the presenters, offers secure, unlimited storage and data accessibility anywhere, and can be added online to complement current ECM systems given its open API.  Box.net does not presently offer metadata tags, but the company is considering these and other enhancements for the future.  I currently use Box.net as a simple document sharing application within LinkedIn.
 
For more analysis on the rapid change in the information revolution, and the tension between formal and informal management and technology options, please see my blog entry of July 3 on a prior related AIIM video.
 
 
 

BP Project Management Lessons - Part I

I recently ran across an excellent article by editor Normal Fells in the July issue of PM World Today on project management lessons from the BP oil spill.  Entitled Deepwater Horizon:  Lessons from the Recent BP Project Failure and Environmental Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – Part I, the piece, as the title implies, is still a preliminary assessment.  Fells organizes his analysis (both pre- and post-disaster) around PM Lessons for Industry, Lessons for Government Agencies, and broader social-economic, environmental and national implications. 

Another brief blog discussion, Did BP See All of its Problems in Time?, summarizes some of the key engineering and other technical failures involved in the disaster.  Finally, in a Harvard Business Review online article, Gil Corkindale distills Five Leadership Lessons from the BP Oil Spill.  

In future postings, I plan to further sort through the lessons learned from both project  and knowledge management perspectives.  The oil spill also provides many object lessons on public vs. private sector project management, and how the two worlds can converge and collide.

 

What history teaches us...

 
I have always been a big history buff, especially the American Revolution and the Civil War. 

I have enjoyed reading popular histories, visiting museums, and viewing films.  Over the years I have also made a number of trips to battlefields in the Northeast, several with the Smithsonian's redoubtable guide, Ed Bearss.  Gettysburg has been one of my favorite haunts, and the battle offers a number of lessons on strategy, tactics and leadership.

Going further back in history, the Revolution's Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina is not well known, but was crucial in America winning its independence.  This engagement helped reverse the British tide in the South, and paved the way for Washington's defeat of Cornwallis and his British troops in Yorktown.  See my brief piece, where I briefly summarize the battle, and its lessons for modern leadership, change management, and collaboration.

And yes, this also comes back to tips on how to better plan and manage enterprise-wide deployments of SharePoint and other collaboration technologies! 

I plan to further explore the links between history and technology changement management in future posts!

SUGDC SharePoint Conference a Big Success!

We had over 200 attendees, 18 vendor exhibitors and more than 40 speakers at our annual SharePoint Users Conference in Dulles, Virginia last June 26-27.  A good time was had by all!  Thanks to everyone who helped make this event such a success! 

At the conference, I gave a presentation on a "SDLC for SharePoint", and also shared a draft white paper on the same subject.  Given the great feedback from this event, I plan to repeat the presentation at SharePoint Saturday in Baltimore on July 25, and again at a meeting of the Richmond SharePoint Users Group on July 30.  I intend to post online my final slides and white paper later this month.

SDLC Presentation for SharePoint conference

I previewed my presentation on "An SDLC for SharePoint" at the last May 14 meeting of our SUGDC users group in Reston.  The talk focused on how one might adapt the System Development Life Cycle to help a large enterprise better plan and implement SharePoint by melding governance, project and program management concepts.  The session was well received, and I have been invited to repeat it at the July 30 evening meeting of the SharePoint users group in Richmond.

Reminder:  our SUGDC SharePoint users conference is shaping up to be an exciting event!  Over 45 speakers, 15 exhibitors, and growing...check out the program and pre-register at the extended early bird rate of $299 at www.sugdc.org! I will be teaming with i3SolutionsLinc Williams to talk further about "SharePoint Planning Overview and Lifecycle" on 11:30 Friday, June 26 in a Track 2 session for the Conference.

June Conference: Mark your Calendars!

The SharePoint Users Group of Northern Virginia (SUGNOVA) will be holding its third regional SharePoint users conference at the Holiday Inn Dulles on Friday-Saturday, June 26-27.  The conference will be similar in format to our event last June, with three topical tracks for managers, administrators and developers, plus a wide variety of exhibitors in the field.  Conference details should be available soon on the SUGNOVA site.

In the interim, anyone interested in speaking or attending the program is welcome to contact me, since I will again be assisting SUGNOVA in organizing this year's conference agenda.  We expect another "full house", so please sign up soon!

Next SUGNOVA Meeting in Reston February 12

I plan to attend the next meeting of our SharePoint Users Group of Northern Virginia on February 12.  Presentations will include one by Susquetech on SharePoint and social networking, plus a demo by Prosoft Systems International of how to apply their EBAX tool to enhance usage of Excel in conjunction with SharePoint.  Susquetech will also likely promote their upcoming conference (I have registered!) in Baltimore March 22-24.

The SUGNOVA users meeting next Thursday starts with networking at 6 PM, with the program about an hour later.  Location is at HireStrategy's offices in Reston (directions)...hope to see some colleagues there!