// January 25th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Sharepoint
If solution design for any system in the solution architecture world was just a bunch of standard questions, then most certainly most of us wouldnt have a job. In fact the other day our Sharepoint Sales team member asked whether i could just send a list of questions over to a client so we could use it as a basis for our Sharepoint Governance. I just laughed and explained a little about why we are employed!
What i did send over was a detailed Sharepoint Questionaire which i find gives me a headstart when it comes to approaching the customer. It gives me a little bit of an understanding as to which part of the Sharepoint Pie to focus on. i thought id post it here so that all Sharepoint Solution Architects could benefit….
1. MOSS Questionaire
2. General Sharepoint Questionaire
Here are the questions if you are to lazy to download:
General Sharepoint
:
1. Have you given any thought to your site structure? Successful Sharepoint deployments rely on defining a logical data structure for your employees to navigate and search information. Can you provide us with a basic site hierarchy? Next to each, list the priority for the implementation (High, Medium, Low)
2. Sharepoint is a collaborative platform and is definitely not a platform which is looked after by IT only. Successful implementations rely on the latest content being available, and this done effectively by identifying a key stakeholder for each site. For each of the sites above, try to identify a business owner/champion for the site. These business owners will oversee the content for each particular site, however may not manage individual information stores such as document libraries
Sharepoint Document Management
1. How are your documents currently stored? (eg Lotus Notes, Fileshares)
2. Does the document store have a logical structure? If so, how are the documents currently categorized? (eg by department, by document type)
3. Do your employees currently store documents locally on their system, or within the document store listed above?
4. Do your employees currently collaborate on documentation?
5. Do your documents contain a reference number (unique identifier for each document)? If yes, how is this number generated?
6. What are the pitfalls of the current system? (eg cannot find anything, security not implemented correctly, structure illogical)
7. How are the versions of the documents currently managed?
8. How is the security of these documents currently managed?
9. Do you currently have a change control process (approval/rejection process) for any documentation?
Content Management
1. Would you be interested in providing your users with access to the following? (circle appropriate response)
a) Company News and Announcements YES NO
b) Company Events YES NO
c) Blog Posts/Messages from CEO/MD YES NO
d) Employee Listings YES NO
e) New Employees Listings YES NO
f) Birthdays YES NO
g) Weather YES NO
h) Social photos YES NO
i) External News Sources (eg smh.com.au) YES NO
j) Discussions/Forums YES NO
k) Employee Surveys YES NO
2. Do you currently have a “knowledgebase/how-to” information store? If yes, what types of information do you store here?
3. Does your organisation use blogs in anyway? Blogs are an effective way for Management or Employees in key areas to communicate to their staff and to encourage real feedback through commenting…
4. The Sharepoint platform is vast and is a great base for your organisation to address the needs and requirements of specific business processes or a set of tasks. Sharepoint provides this platform amongst others, for the following types of applications; Please indicate whether you would like to discuss any of the following:
1. Physical Asset Tracking and Management YES NO
2. Employee Training/Classroom Management YES NO
3. Help Desk YES NO
4. IT Team Workspace YES NO
5. Project Management Sites YES NO
Sharepoint Workflow and Business Process
1. Do you have any existing paper-based or manual processes within your organisation? Please list if they are Manual (M) or Automated (A) (eg New Employee Process, Expense Report Approval, Travel Request Approval)
Sharepoint Search
1. Have you implemented any type of search within your organisation? If Yes, how does your organisation benefit from it? What systems and information stores does it currently search? What are the pitfalls of the current search provider?
2. Which information stores within your organisation should be searchable? (eg documents, contacts, employees, clients)
3. Do you have any external data systems or business data which should be searchable? (eg existing CRM systems, Retails, Marketing, HR or Finance Systems)
4. Where do you currently store your employee details? (eg Active Directory, HR System)
5. How do currently search/lookup existing employees?
