creating great client experiences with sharepoint 2010 for web content management
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Creating Great Client Experiences with SharePoint 2010 for Web Content Management. Fostering Cross-Team Knowledge Sharing. Rebecca Dornin Web Technologist, HBS ITG Mary Fowkes Senior Project Manager, HBS ITG Anne E. Holden HBS EE Web Marketing Manager June 23, 2011. Agenda. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College
Creating Great Client Experienceswith SharePoint 2010for Web Content Management
Fostering Cross-Team Knowledge Sharing
Rebecca DorninWeb Technologist, HBS ITG
Mary FowkesSenior Project Manager, HBS ITG
Anne E. HoldenHBS EE Web Marketing Manager
June 23, 2011
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Agenda
• What is SharePoint?
• Deep dive on the project with Executive Education
• Program Management
• Training and Outreach
• Collaboration
• From the Customer’s Perspective
• Lessons Learned
• Q & A
3
What is Microsoft SharePoint?An out of the box web publishing and collaboration platform
• Common uses include intranet sites, extranet sites, document management, and internet sites such as HBS Executive Education (EE)
• Industry leading collaboration portal in the enterprise space
• Offers page-editing, file-storing and custom design ('branding') capabilities
• A SharePoint site is a collection of pages, lists, and libraries configured for the purpose of achieving an express goal
Key goals and benefits of WCM
• Great user experience
• Establish and promote web standards – common header, footer, navigation, global CSS
• Establish reusable templates that support HBS look and feel
• Content reuse within and across sites (news, feeds, faculty interests)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Establish shared content types and metadata taxonomies
• Site personalization
• Platform flexibility and scalability
• Content versioning and workflows
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Decision to Implement a Web Content Management (WCM) System
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Why SharePoint?
A Focus on Web Content Management
• Access to a large community user base
• SharePoint dynamic pages with content that is editable by MS Office like ribbon controls
• Lists and Libraries of many types
• Announcement Lists, Blogs, Contacts, Discussion Boards, Document Libraries,
Pages, Surveys Tasks
• Ability to copy, create, delete, or rename lists and libraries, pages, and sites
• Manage user permissions and view document/page version histories
• Evolve with industry. Take advantage of technical innovations (mobile, foreign language support, targeted content)
• Utilize consistent visual design framework across sites
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What is the HBS Exec Ed Web Site?
www.exed.hbs.edu
• Marketing web site with thousands of pages of unique content
• Over a thousand video and article assets
that must be shared dynamically across
sub sites
• More than 80 programs, with dates, fees,
and application info
• Forward facing public site targeted at the world’s top executives
• Fortune 200 companies looking at this site
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Key Considerations of the Project
• Technical
• Software upgrade needed to support
new functionality
• New hardware needed to support
software upgrade
• Finding ways to improve EE’s
workflow
• Working with the system out of the
box capabilities
• Customer Engagement
• Ease the learning curve for the
customer with new technology
• Understanding how to map the
requirements of the customer to the
feature set of SP2010
• Content integrity
• Open communication channels
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Project Management
Identified success factors for HBS, ITG, and Executive Education
• Early decision was made to use a two pronged approach to achieve long term success
• Project 1–SharePoint 2010 with EE Site Upgrade
• Upgraded SharePoint WCM from 2007 to 2010
• Built robust infrastructure, all new hardware
(intDEV, STAGE, PROD, DR)
• Upgraded EXISTING Executive Education site
• Seized opportunity for training ITG and EE on SP2010
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Project Management
• Project 2-Executive Education Site Redesign
• Focus was exclusively on Executive Education’s
goals
• Training and knowledge transfer were deliverables
on project plan
• Agile project methodology
• Milestones were agreed to collaboratively
• Approach for solutions were signed off on prior to
coding
• Executive Education tested and approved
deliverables throughout project lifecycle
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Customer Engagement• Conducted three 8 hour on site training sessions for EE marketing
• Met bi-weekly in person to determine training needs and ways to improve workflow
• Based training off information gathered in meetings, tailored trainings to the
customer’s workflow
• Worked with SharePoint out of the box enabled rapid prototyping of workflow changes
• Created Transparency: Kept customer knowledgeable and heavily involved in the requirements gathering process
• Used Agile approach by listening and adapting to the customer as the project progressed, ability to adjust as needed
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Customer PerspectiveOwnership between both ITG and EE
• Inclusive Team Dynamic
• Willingness to let down defenses to build good chemistry
• Daily stand-ups and weekly meetings supported real-time communication
facilitated the smooth project flow
• Coding Best Practice Documentation
• Established standard of excellence for all developers on the team
• Provided the customer with a high-level of confidence for the deliverables
• Transparency
• Challenges elevated to the team-level, not left for discussion within only the
impacted group
• Alternative ideas for processes and resolutions solicited and discussed with merit
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Customer Perspective
The EE Marketing Approach
• Project Schedule
• Persistent close monitoring with a keen eye on dependencies
• Limited deliverables slippage and avoided surprises
• Shared Learning
• Reciprocal learning between departments: EE process and ITG application
knowledge
• Collaboration to identify training scenarios provided solid foundation to write
training documentation
• Local desk-top training sessions allowed comfort level to EE and process insight
for ITG
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Lessons Learned
• Regular communication both internally and externally created opportunities for agile decision making
• Upgrading to SP2010 prior to the site redesign gave customer a chance to ease into the new user interface enhancements
• A deep understanding of the customer’s needs allowed the team to use the SharePoint out of the box functionality to meet goals without the use of custom code
• Face to face meetings proved to be extremely effective, particularly when arriving at solutions
• Recognizing that when content and code are involved quality is always a key driver for success