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Top SharePoint (MOSS) IA / EIA links and resources (plus my advice for a successful SharePoint IA implementation based on my experience from the coal face)
By admin | February 2, 2010
I spent a fair bit of 2009 working with (enterprise) information architecture challenges presented by using SharePoint as a replacement for a traditional file storage system.
At the outset I was confident that my ‘transferable’ IA skills could be applied to this situation without too much difficulty. This turned out to be the case, and the main challenge it transpired was finding out about the nuances of SharePoint and how best to design an information architecture and user experience that would play to its strengths and not require aeons of development to implement and consequently a horrible maintenance overhead when a new release came along.
I searched high and low online to find the gems from other IA practitioners who I imagined would have it all sorted out. However, I didn’t find a load of useful blog posts as I expected…. Why the dearth of information about SharePoint?
Rather like searching for a graphic designer to work in Microsoft Word, my search was in vain, well nearly. I did find lots of technically led coding advice or a raging debate about the worth of the product (well it’s a Microsoft product isn’t it!). Oh and there was lots of moaning about how painful a SharePoint implementation can be. Rather short of what I was seeking.
So I downloaded the relevant implementation guides about SharePoint and if a 400+ page word document wasn’t frightening enough I also bought the SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices book too (runs to 700+ pages). I would imagine that those 2 things are enough to stop most people in their tracks! Maybe that explained why I couldn’t find much about ‘SharePoint IA’!
Resolute and fearless I carried on, this may be the dark side to some, but it didn’t put me off… though when I searched for ‘SharePoint design’ or ‘SharePoint designers’ I also didn’t get what I was expecting.
I became frustrated by the lack of information about how people were implementing SharePoint and the IA challenges it throws up. After all, I’d been approached to help a client overcome their issues surely this would be pretty common to SharePoint implementations for many, many organisations around the world? Was this a closed shop (in the sense of unions)?
Thankfully, I did find some nuggets (see below) and I was able to help my client overcome their challenges by clearly defining a firm-wide taxonomy and sticking to a very pragmatic and practical approach. The 4 things I’d recommend for a successful SharePoint implementation are:
1. Don’t get carried away
Remember that the 3 basic types of SharePoint site are as follows:
a. Publishing capability
b. Collaboration capability
c. Records management capability
This will serve you well in striving to keep things simple (for the sake of your SharePoint implementation and your developers’ sanity) and keeping the various sites’ purpose/rationale clear (necessary to adjudicate the debates the business will throw at you and to make sure the business can walk with SharePoint before it starts to try to run!).
2. Keep your technical and implementation team close
Iterate your proposals based on what they can easily deliver. Have you technical team wittle away at them and sense check them before you go blabbing to the wider ‘business’. Then move quickly into turning those ideas into actual templates and pages that seek to achieve what you’re trying to do so that you can see if the theory is going to be possible in practice.
3. Put the business users centre stage
At the centre of the IA / EIA work has got to be the end users, but you’d expect me to say that eh? You want to make sure you get the input of the experts and the day-to-day users of the information, both are equally valid and useful. Card sorts are the quick and cheap way to make sure you’re listening to as many people as possible in a structured way.
Plus, the more you explain the principles of what you are trying to achieve, the constraints that exist and the difficulties of trying to emulate the powerful user experience of a Google search, the better. With your business users on side and involved they’ll be your allies rather than just critics. They need to be bought in to tagging because ultimately their involvement and acceptance will make the solution live or die.
4. Don’t underestimate the task, communicate realistically
In fact, you need to make sure that everyone involved has a clear understanding of the difficulties and challenges involved. While it’s great to paint a nice vision of where you want to be and make people feel like you’re ever so capable because you’re good at saying ‘yes, no problem’ at the requirements gathering stage, you’re going to end up with egg on your face when you don’t deliver and you’ve raised expectations very high without any understanding of what’s involved. If you’ve left the scene by this point you might have dodged the egg, but you’re hardly likely to get any word of mouth recommendations.
The aim is to find a balancing act. On one hand you need to be positive and constructive, on the other you need to be realistic and explain how things that sound simple and easy actually belie how complex and difficult they really are. Especially when it comes to SharePoint, ahem!
Sorry for the digression into management advice that might not be the nitty gritty detail you are looking for to help you solve your particular IA/EIA problems. There’s simply too much to say and not enough time! However you might find the following links help you, or you can drop me a line and I’ll see if I can help.
Roll on SharePoint 2010! Oh yes!
So, here’s my round up of what I did find for anyone looking for the top 10 sharepoint EIA / IA resources out there here’s what I did find that was worth bookmarking:
In alphabetical order:
Ari Bakker: How we did it: Tag driven Information Architecture using MOSS
http://ari.provoke.co.nz/archive/2008/01/22/how-we-did-it-tag-driven-information-architecture-using-moss.aspx
A Matter of Degree
http://amatterofdegree.typepad.com/a_matter_of_degree/sharepoint/
A Picture is worth 1,000 Words: Achieving Good SharePoint Usability
http://www.mindsharpblogs.com/Phil/archive/2008/08/22/7676.aspx
AMBIENT KM 0 Bottom-up approach to taxonomy development
http://www.ambientkm.com/2008/01/bottom-up-approach-to-taxonomy.html
Architects Rule! Community blog for architects in the Belgium and Luxembourg region moderated by Bart Vande Ghinste, Enterprise Architect for Microsoft Belgium and Luxembourg.
http://blogs.msdn.com/architectsrule/archive/2009/02/26/forrester-the-critical-role-of-sharepoint-information-architecture.aspx
Beating Down the Breadcrumbs – The 404 Blog
http://404uxd.com/2008/12/09/beating-down-the-breadcrumbs
CleverWorkarounds: The one best practice to rule them all
http://www.cleverworkarounds.com/2009/02/12/the-one-best-practice-to-rule-them-all-part-1/
Consejo blog
http://blog.consejoinc.com/search/label/SharePoint
Earley & Associates: Taxonomy for SharePoint
http://www.earley.com/webinars/taxonomy-for-sharepoint
End User SharePoint.com
http://www.endusersharepoint.com/
Eric Shupps – The SharePoint Cowboy
http://www.binarywave.com/blogs/eshupps/default.aspx
Forrester – How to Build a High-Octane Taxonomy For ECM And Enterprise Search Systems
http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/build_high-octane_taxonomy_for_ecm_and_enterprise/q/id/46459/t/2
Forrester: The Critical Role Of A SharePoint Information Architect
http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/critical_role_of_sharepoint_information_architecture/q/id/47565/t/2
fumsi: Creating User Centred Taxonomies
http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/manage/3126
fumsi: Information Architecture: Why SharePoint 2007 needs it
http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/manage/3730
Green Chameleon: Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness
http://www.organisingknowledge.com/
Heather Solomon – SharePoint Resources
http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/articles/resources.aspx
InfoStrat – Top Ten SharePoint Best Practices
http://www.infostrat.com/home/TopTenLists/SharePointTopTen.htm
International SharePoint Professionals Association
http://www.sharepointpros.org/Pages/Default.aspx
Joe Oleson’s Blog – SharePoint Land
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/tags/Information+Architecture/default.aspx
Mark Eichenberger’s SharePoint blog
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/MarkE/default.aspx
Mark Schneider’s SharePoint Taxonomy and Governance Blog
http://www.sharepointplan.com/mark_schneiders_sharepoin/
Microsoft Sharepoint Team Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/
Mastering Sharepoint with Bob Mixon
http://bobmixon.com/
Microsoft TechNet: Determine the information architecture of your site
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262873.aspx
Not Otherwise Categorized
http://sethearley.wordpress.com/category/sharepoint-moss/
SharePartXXL
http://www.sharepartxxl.com/products/taxonomy/default.aspx
SharePoint 2010 Evolution Conference (previously Best Practices conference)
http://www.sharepointbestpractices.co.uk/
SharePointIACoP
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SharePointIACoP/
SharePointless – One man’s experience with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies
http://geekswithblogs.net/SharePointless/Default.aspx
SharePoint Magazine
http://sharepointmagazine.net/
SharePoint My Sites: It ain’t just about profiles, people.
http://www.giatalks.com/2007/12/sharepoint-my-sites-it-aint-just-about-profiles-people/
SharePoint User Group UK
http://suguk.org/
Taxonomy Watch
http://taxonomy2watch.blogspot.com/2007/09/microsoft-sharepoint-2007-taxonomy.html
Teblog: Social software and a troubled bank
http://teblog.typepad.com/david_tebbutt/2008/10/social-software.html
Using MOSS: SharePoint for Designers
http://designshare.wordpress.com/category/using-moss/
ZDNet: SharePoint as a Gateway Drug to Greater Efficiency
http://blogs.zdnet.com/collaboration/?p=406&tag=rbxccnbzd1
ZDNet: Sharepoint and Enterprise 2.0: The good, the bad, and the ugly
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=280
Topics: Uncategorized |
March 9th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Great post! I’ve been looking for something like this. Had no look googling good Sharepoint resources. Will be in touch very soon!