SharePoint Roadmap

Author: Amy Weisman

March 2008

With over 75 million licenses sold, it’s likely that the word “SharePoint” has crossed your desk at some point in the last year.  To effectively implement this extremely sophisticated and robust system, it is critical to build a “SharePoint RoadMap.”  
For those not familiar with the tool, the SharePoint content management system has been used by companies to:

•    Replace existing (and often less robust) document repository solutions like Lotus Notes, Stellent, and Netware Personal File Storage
•    Expand the use of Intranet Portals through SharePoint’s Template Offerings, Enterprise Search and Site Directory
•    Streamline cross-functional business processes through the use of workflows and InfoPath forms
•    Simplify content retention policies to meet regulation, and
•    Improve employee productivity through collaboration

To build your company’s SharePoint roadmap requires a certain level of objectivity. It is important the appropriate individuals are included in your brainstorming sessions at each step in the process.  The Roadmap can be implemented in four steps.

Step 1: Evaluate internal systems and functionality needs and pair with SharePoint offerings.
The first step to enhancing knowledge management for your company is to evaluate current practices. Perhaps the biggest mistake companies make is defining what SharePoint has to offer in terms of a feature set and then trying to make their business needs align to the system; the approach should be just the opposite. This process involves evaluating current internal applications, current business processes, intranet and extranet sites, and opportunities for new functionality that can improve your company’s productivity. Then match SharePoint’s solutions and functionality against your company’s needs.  On completing this step you will have a list of potential solutions and SharePoint’s functional requirements to implement each.

Step 2: Define and  prioritize criteria.    
Defining criteria involves reviewing your company’s mission statement, your department’s goals and objectives, and the reality of your company’s culture to define what is most important to you in a content management system.   Some criteria that others have found useful include cost, short time to deployment, foundational for future deployments, end user pain point alleviation, rapid adoptability, and strategic advantage.
Assign weighted values for each criteria based on your company’s internal constraints.  You can define these values by comparing the criteria against each other.  ‘Is cost more important than timing?’ ‘Is strategic advantage more important than cost?’

The output of this step will provide a weighted priority list of your company’s criteria for project/solution execution.

Step 3: Rank solutions against each criterion.
Build a matrix taking each solution identified in Step 1 and map it against the criteria in step 2.  Using the weighted values defined for each criterion; calculate the overall priority of each solution.  
This step prioritizes the solutions in the order in which they should be implemented.   

Step 4: Schedule the prioritized solutions.
Define the duration of your planning window.  Consider a duration that extends the length of the following fiscal year.  This Roadmap can be used as a budgeting tool for projects in the upcoming fiscal year. Traverse through the solutions from highest priority to lowest, allocating an estimated delivery timeframe for each.  Until project plans are created, assume all solutions are linear.  If there are remaining solutions, solutions unable to be scheduled within your planning window, include them in your next SharePoint Roadmap planning session.

SharePoint is an ever evolving application. It continuously improves its integration with other Microsoft and third party vendor applications.  For this reason, SharePoint roadmapping is an ongoing strategy to optimize the SharePoint Content Management System across your entire company.

Sara Miller of Ray & Barney Group, Inc. can be reached at 513.234.5822. Ray & Barney Group, Inc. is an Information Technology and Workforce consulting company focused on helping clients achieve their business goals by implementing practical strategies and best practices through their PEOPLE, PROCESSES and TECHNOLOGY.

Amy Wiesman is a SharePoint Lead Technical Consultant at Ray & Barney Group, Inc.