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De-Mystifying Search Implementations

De-Mystifying Search Implementations. Today’s Focus. Why do a search project in the first place? How do good projects go bad? If so many firms have done these projects, aren’t there best practices ? What internal resources do we need for the project ?

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De-Mystifying Search Implementations

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  1. De-Mystifying Search Implementations

  2. Today’s Focus • Why do a search project in the first place? • How do good projects go bad? • If so many firms have done these projects, aren’t there best practices? • What internal resources do we need for the project? • What can a firm do to prepare for a search project? • What is the best scope for a first rollout? • How do we avoid going off the rails? • How standard is standard? What if we are different to other firms?

  3. Why do a search project in the first place? • Knowledge management: • Find my documents and email • Find examples from my colleagues and understand their experience • See content in context • Service delivery: • Respond to RFPs • Staffing and pricing • Build search apps: • Electronic matter file • Conflict checking

  4. How do good projects go bad? • Scope, scope and scope • Bad data • Resourcing constraints • Belief in one’s fundamental uniqueness and that of your firm • Ignoring your own past project history

  5. Aren’t there best practices? • Take a phased approach • Understand scope up front • Don’t over-design • Perfection is the enemy of the good • Communicate transparently • Manage rigorously

  6. Sample Project Plan

  7. What Internal Resources Do We Need for the Project? • Infrastructure Team • Infrastructure Manager – will be responsible to support project timelines for sizing, procurement, and setup of hardware for search • SAN engineer – Will be primarily responsible for setting up SAN storage for search implementation • Infrastructure engineer – Will be responsible for providing input for sizing; will procure hardware based on recommendations from Fireman & Company and Recommind; will be responsible for setting up hardware, installing operating system, granting access to Fireman & Company team, etc.

  8. Example: Client IT Roles • Application Team • Application Manager – will be responsible to support development needs for search; will be responsible to identify development resources needed for internal development pieces (i.e. SQL view); will be responsible to identify key IT liaisons for each data sources • DM IT resource – will provide access to DM library and support integration needs; will be responsible to monitor DM system for performance impact as part of full crawl • Wall Builder IT resource – will be responsible to provide stored procedure that will return all restricted clients and client matters for a given user. Fireman & Company will provide a standard template, but Client IT will be responsible to update and provide accurate scripts

  9. Example: Client IT Roles • Application Team • Application development IT resource – will be responsible to provide SQL views of data fields identified as part of requirements for people, clients, and matters; data could be retrieved from multiple sources (i.e. HRIS, InterAction, Elite, etc.); Fireman & Company will require that all data for Expertise and Matters tab of search will be provided in SQL view • Elite IT resource – will be responsible to grant access to Elite system for crawling of time notes; will be responsible to provide guidance for crawling of information (i.e. environment of Elite) • SharePoint IT resource – will be responsible to grant access for search; will need to support mapping of content types in SharePoint to content types defined by Recommind

  10. What can a firm do to prepare for a search project? Focus on DATA up-front! • Data source management is often not focused on the impact of data integration • Firms merge, but data Band-Aids persist • Security by obscurity is a persistent risk

  11. Data Integrity Steps • Initial risk assessment: What are the key risks and dependencies for the target data sources: DMS, financials, HRIS, CRM, web site, file shares, etc. • Preparation: • Identify key data stewards for each system • Identify list of validations (intra/inter sources) • Draft list of data outputs needed to begin analysis

  12. Data Integrity Steps • Analysis: • Identify key metadata fields per data source • Confirm code/value combinations for each data source • Understand cross data source dependencies • Look at impacts of historical data • Log data issues • Remediate issues

  13. DMS Data Example

  14. People Data Example

  15. What is the best scope for a first rollout? • Start with transparency; no question is too obvious and no detail is too insignificant • Our goal is to reduce the risk of misunderstanding: “I thought you were going to…” • All parties need a clear understanding of scope, roles and responsibilities

  16. Start with the Basics • You want to start as close to out-of-the-box as possible • Everyone thinks they are unique; you’re not as unique as you think you are • Remember your users – the project team is much more sophisticated than the average end-user • It’s better to roll out quickly, on-time and on-budget, and then move to stage two…

  17. Example: In-Scope Data Sources

  18. How do we avoid going off the rails? Requirements Definition + Functional and Technical Designs

  19. Your to-do list • Document the content size (number of documents and average size of document) from all data sources being considered for the search implementation (include projected growth for system that will be utilized for Technical Infrastructure Design) • Document the Technical Infrastructure Design that identifies the environments and specifications for each environment based on the content analysis and additional requirements from the firm • Document the functional requirements (including a final list of all data sources) for the Decisiv Search implementation • Document/diagram the wire-frames for the Decisiv Search implementation

  20. Example: BRD in the SOW

  21. Example: BRD in the SOW Technical Approach The requirements definition phase provides an effective way to define the system requirements necessary to meet Client’s needs. These documented requirements will provide the foundation for subsequent design tasks. To complete the requirements phase, Fireman & Company will perform the following: • Fireman & Company will work with Client Business Lead and Client Project Manager to identify key firm resources who will be involved in the requirements definition. Resources from Client will be expected to contribute to the requirements gathering tasks, but Client Business Lead, IT Application Services Lead, and Infrastructure Lead will be responsible for finalization of the requirements with Fireman & Company. • Fireman & Company will conduct focus groups/requirement gathering sessions to get input from KM, IT, and other firm resources as identified by the Client Business Lead. • Fireman & Company will define and document the functional and system requirements for the solution including: • Identification and final list of data sources that will indexed for the Decisiv Search implementation • Document the current content size and project the growth of content for each data sources. • Document technical infrastructure. This will include sizing, storage, and processor needs for Development and Production environments. • Determine approach for crawling of data for Matters and Expertise. Fireman & Company will work with Client to assess bringing the matters and people data from various sources into a single view for Matters and a corresponding view for People. • Wireframe the documents, matters and people modules. This will include search results, facets/filters, and previews of the three modules. • Document what features/functions of the Decisiv Search will be implemented. • Document customizations requested by Client. • Identify Key Risks/Issues from requirements gathering process • Review and obtain sign-off for functional requirements, wireframes, and technical infrastructure design with key Client stakeholders

  22. Example: BRD • [Sample document]

  23. Critical Documents • Hardware sizing analysis • Technical infrastructure design • Functional requirements • Wireframe design • Functional test plan

  24. Rick Krzyminski Knowledge Management Director Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC rkrzyminski@bakerdonelson.com Joshua Fireman • Founder and President • Fireman & Company • Joshua.Fireman@firemanco.com

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