Mixon Consulting, Inc.

• Not quite sure how to get started?
• Don’t fully understand what all it will take to “do it right”?
• Overwhelmed or getting sidetracked by the wealth of possibilities SharePoint provides?
• Having trouble “going it alone”?

These are some of the most common challenges we hear from SharePoint customers who are either “getting started” or, unfortunately, finding that they need to “start again.”

Mixon professionals have exceptional knowledge of planning for enterprise information projects using SharePoint technologies. In a few short days we can:

• Point you in the right direction…
• Provide you with a roadmap…
• Help you get stakeholders on board… and,
• Empower you to give your project the jump start it needs!

A SharePoint deployment is often a large investment in both time and money from all areas of the organization. Creating a clear business justification and involving the significant stakeholders are both critical for success. We work closely with your project team to clearly define the principal goals and requirements for your SharePoint project. Using our thorough knowledge of SharePoint technologies we help you pinpoint the most suitable solutions (both technical and non-technical), potential constraints, appropriate project scope, and ideal deployment strategy. At the culmination of our time together, we can help you communicate your preliminary project proposal to potential sponsors and stakeholders to ensure that you are gaining optimal value for your efforts.

Actions we’ll complete

Prepare for Action
(completed online prior to engagement)

• Complete survey regarding your vision for SharePoint in your organization and your current challenges.
• Conference call between project manager and consultant to review program and identify any topics or tasks we should give special attention to. We can also consider any customization of the program that may be appropriate for your situation.

Set the Stage
{Day 1, morning}

•  Why are we here? Review the importance of having a clear vision of the project that is understood and supported by stakeholders. Review Project Charter purpose and SharePoint project charter template.
• What is the scene? Review survey(s), discuss and define current situation. Define Project Background. If this is a “do-over” we will discuss what went wrong.
• What is the opportunity? We will provide a review of the key benefits of the SharePoint platform for people that you want to engage in the process but do not yet understand the opportunity the platform provides for businesses. We’ll help your group understand the important tools of information management and collaboration both technical and non-technical.  A great opportunity for further discussion! Define Project Opportunity using template.
• What is your vision? What kind of show are we creating? Considering the background and opportunity, we will sketch a VISION of a project that everyone will understand.
• Who are the players?  Next we’ll investigate the needs of various Project Stakeholders, including their likely benefits, potential attitudes, constraints in participating, success factors, and necessary contributions.

Write the Script
{Day 1 afternoon through Day 2}

• Given the vision statement(s) and the stakeholders’ key requirements, we will decide on the principal goals that will drive all other decisions throughout the planning and design process.  We will define this in our project charter as Goals, Requirements, & Solutions. We’ll help get the ideas rolling with many real-world examples!
• To make sure we’ve got realistic and meaningful goals we will need to look forward somewhat to the business analysis process. We will discuss how our goals will both influence and be influenced by this process. We’ll do a few “real world” excersises to help you get started on the “in the trenches”, or functional unit level, analysis. We will provide a content discovery template to help you continue this process, which will vary in length depending on the scope of your project.
• We’ll discuss the best primary organizing principles for your global site structure, and how this will help direct you in your business analysis.
• We’ll also discuss the importance of change management and demonstrate how you can facilitate this within a SharePoint site. This will lead us to a brief discussion of the need for a governance plan (discussed in more depth in “Success By Design”).
• Finally, we will return to our project charter and define the scope of deployment based on goals and resources so that we can effectively manage expectations when our SharePoint deployment becomes a big hit!

Casting Call
{Day 3 morning}

• What teams are best suited for your situation and what are their roles and responsibilities? We’ll determine your likely needs for a project team, governance council, steering committee, power user group, and technical support team. We’ll review the roles and responsibilities of each and your strategies for communications and training. (We’ll also decide who to invite to our “sneak preview” on day 4.)
• At this point we’ll look back at where we started and what our assumptions were about the project. Are they still true? Have we realized additional assumptions we have about the project? To further manage expectations and sponsorship, we will begin to document these Assumptions & Dependencies.

Dry Run
{Day 3 afternoon to Day 4 morning}

• We’ll begin by reviewing a roadmap for a “typical” deployment and discuss best practices and how they might work for your situation. We will provide you with a macro level Deployment roadmap.
• We’ll review what levels of resources are necessary to complete the deployment you envision and will help you draft a rough budget estimate taking into account your goals, resources, and desired milestone dates.
• We’ll define your general deployment strategy (your “roadmap”) including appropriate phases.
• We’ll conduct a high-level review of your infrastructure to make sure that your hardware and software is configured optimally for your planned usage.

Sneak Preview
{Day 4 lunch}

• Project Kick-off Meeting with key business personnel and/or potential steering committee people for you to “pitch” the projecthighlighting the goals and the strategies for accomplishing them. We will help field questions about SharePoint and gather additional input on the proposed project. We can also conduct a demonstration of SharePoint if desired.

Director’s Meeting
{Day 4 afternoon}

• Review needs for completing project charter and drafting a project plan.
• Review steering committee’s inputs and discuss how these affect the project.
• Preview the next critical actions covered in Mastering SharePoint In Action: Success By Design.

This Action is particularly suited for:

• SharePoint practitioners new to project planning, business analysis, or enterprise information system planning.
• Project managers or teams new to SharePoint technologies.
• Anyone embarking on a first-time SharePoint deployment (or even a “do-over”!)
• Project mangers trying to engage line of business staff in SharePoint planning.
• Recommended for groups of 2-6 people.

You can trust us to help you succeed.  We always give “the straight skinny” on the best way to proceed for your particular goals and constraints and we will never steer you towards unnecessary development or services. We pride ourselves on honesty and quality.

Next Program: Mastering SharePoint In Action: Success By Design