Information Architecture for SharePoint : What You Need to Know

1. Information Architecture for SharePoint: What You Need to Know January 24th, 2012 Seth Earley, CEO, Earley & Associates

2. Seth Earley, Founder & CEO, Earley & Associates • Co-author of Practical Knowledge Management from IBM Press • 17 years experience building content and knowledge management systems, 20+ years experience in technology • Former Co-Chair, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, • Science and Technology Council Metadata Project Committee • Founder of the Boston Knowledge Management Forum • Former adjunct professor at Northeastern University • Editor Information Professional Magazine from the IEEE • Guest speaker for US Strategic Command briefing on knowledge networks • Currently working with enterprises to develop knowledge and digital asset management systems, taxonomy and metadata governance strategies • Founder of Taxonomy Community of Practice – host monthly conference calls of case studies on taxonomy derivation and application. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxoCoP 100+ calls since 2005 • Co-founder Search Community of Practice: • http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SearchCoP

3. Agenda • Knowledge processes and the content lifecycle • Developing a user-centric information architecture • Defining business-critical content types • Using metadata to optimize search • Appendix: Term-management governance processes for SharePoint

4. The Content Continuum

5. The Content Continuum Enterprise Knowledge Management Spans Structured and Unstructured Processes Controlled Processes Chaotic Processes Accessing information Answering questions Problem solving Collaboration Knowledge Reuse Knowledge Creation LESS STRUCTURE MORE STRUCTURE Learning Management Email Management Document Management Records Management Instant Messaging Blogs CLASS of TOOL Process Management Collaborative Spaces Web Content Management Digital Asset Management Wikis Centralized Publishing My Sites SharePoint Span of Control

6. The Content Continuum Relative Value of Content Not all content is of equal value Higher Value Lower Value (Easier to access) (More difficult to access) Formal Tagging/Organizing Processes Lower Cost Higher Cost Unfiltered Reviewed/Vetted/Approved Example deliverables External News Interim deliverables Benchmarks Best Practices TYPE OF CONTENT Message text Discussion postings Content Repositories Success Stories Approved Methods Social tagging (“folksonomy”) Structured tagging (taxonomy)

7. User Centric Information Architecture Design

8. Strategy, Roadmap & Recommendations Requirements & Analysis Findings Content Analysis Current State Assessment Audience Analysis Future State Vision Gap Analysis Requirements Definition Heuristic Evaluation RESEARCH & DISCOVER TEST & VALIDATE MAINTAIN & ENHANCE DESIGN & DEVELOP STRATEGY & VISIONN Solution Design Documents Content Types & Site Column Design Term Store & Taxonomy Development Site Maps & Wireframe Design Use Cases, Workflow & Authoring Test Plan & Execution Taxonomy User Interface Tagging Processes Auto Categorization Governance / Maintenance Processes Governance Strategy & Guidelines Socialization Communication & Adoption Migration Strategy & Approach Metrics Development Information Architecture Design Process Task Analysis

9. The IA Design Process • This is a conceptual representation of the IA approach roughly broken into five work streams: • Strategy and Vision • Research and Discovery • Design and Development • Testing and Validation • Maintenance and Enhancement • These are not necessarily discrete sets of activities, there is overlap • Each document icon (last column) represents a deliverable which summarizes activities in that work stream. These may be combined into a single document. • Chevrons represent tasks and activities. Not all need to be addressed or they may be addressed as parts of other tasks. • Steps are not necessarily sequential. For example, Governance and Socialization happen at all levels • Some deliverables are required as inputs for other processes. For example, Use Cases and User Scenarios are required for testing

10. Translating Concepts into Design Elements • Challenge lies in going from an abstraction to something concrete. • Many organizations are trying to “make the information easier to use” which is a broad ambiguous abstraction • Need to answer: • What information? • For whom? • Accomplishing what task? • With what information? • Many information management projects fail because they are too broad, scope is ambiguous, and outcome is not measurable. • SharePoint IA needs to start with a focus on problems and processes • May be broadened from this starting point, but cannot solve ambiguous problems

11. Problems => Solutions • Problems are identified through interviews, surveys, working sessions • In each forum, we are making observations about the current state: how people accomplish tasks, bottlenecks in processes, problems with information access and findability, challenges around inaccurate and incomplete information • Need to translate observations about the information environment into a vision of how those issues can be resolved. • User centric IA requires that we understand the mental model of the user: the tasks they need to execute and how they go about accomplishing their work • Steps to the process: • Observe and gather data points • Summarize into themes • Translate themes into conceptual solutions • Develop scenarios that comprise solutions • Identify audiences who are impacted by scenarios • Articulate tasks that audiences execute in scenarios • Build detailed use cases around tasks and audiences • Identify content needed by audiences in specific use cases • Develop organizing principles for content

12. From Problems to Solution – Steps to the Process

13. Task based view of SharePoint IA Development • Start with content • Develop the taxonomy • Create metadata fields • Assemble into content types • Align personas with use cases • Create site map based on use cases • Develop wireframes from site maps • Create document libraries and navigation based on site maps and wireframes

14. Defining Business Critical Content Types

15. Content Type Definition • Content type definition follows from content analysis and detailed use cases • Need to understand the nature of the information consumed by users • What is the “is-ness” and “about-ness” that describes content? • Content types are the single most important IA construct in SharePoint. All other organizing principles are leveraged through content types.

16. Content Types In SharePoint 2010 • A Content Type is an information management construct that defines a common set of attributes used to consistently manage content that has the same or similar properties. Includes things like: • Metadata Schemas/Attributes • Information Management Policies • Standardized Templates • Workflow Settings • Provide a consistent approach to content management and establish the foundation for navigability and findability. • Do not create content types at an overly granular level. Create content types that require differentiation according structure, workflow process, lifecycle or template

17. Developing Content Types • Base content models on core content types • Build structures for extending content types by considering access and lifecycle

18. Developing Content Types • Create different content types when you can distinguish between content based on structure, audience, process, lifecycle • Determine elements that require controlled vocabulary • Create metadata schemas to ensure consistency across sites and collections

19. Optimizing Search with Metadata

20. Taxonomy and Metadata for Search • Need to base metadata on access scenarios driven by use cases • Consider metadata specific to content models • Knowledgebase Article metadata will be different than Policy metadata – each can be leveraged in search scopes • Facets will vary depending on content object structure.

21. Leveraging Taxonomy and Metadata to Drive Search • Improve findability by leveraging consistently tagged metadata surfaced via facets in a variety of ways… Faceted Search Design

22. Leveraging Taxonomy and Metadata with Search Scopes • Display of facets defined as part of the taxonomy for a specific content type (Forms) Faceted Search restricted to Content Type = Form

23. Leveraging Taxonomy as Stored Search Queries • Display of topics defined as part of the taxonomy that execute scoped search when A-Z Index Term Set = Topic Topic = Cost of Work

24. Summary • Content lies along a continuum of structure and value. • Effective content management takes into consideration value of content in the context of business processes • Information architecture needs to focus on specific user needs and processes • Content types are core constructs for managing the information life cycle • Search precision and recall is improved by leveraging content metadata

25. Wrap up and Questions

26. Earley & Associates Overview Founded -1994Headquarters -Boston, MA What we do – Design and deliver content management and search solutions for companies and their customers Our core team – 35 information and system architects, library scientists, process improvement consultants, project managers and other information management specialists Our unique offering – Content Choreography™ Retail High Tech & Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences Financial Services & Insurance Media & Entertainment • Our clients include – Global 2000, major non-profits and government entities

27. Partial Client List clients

28. Events and Communities Communities of Practice • SharePoint IA Group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SharePointIACoP/ • Taxonomy Group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxoCoP • Search Group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SearchCoP Upcoming Webinar Events • February 1, 2012 – Business Value of Taxonomy • More to come soon…

29. Training Opportunities SharePoint Information Architecture (3 days) $1995 ($1795, early reg) AIIM IOA Master Certificate Course (4 days) $2995

30. SharePoint Information Architecture 3 Day Hands-on Course • The Information Architecture Process • User Research & Requirements Gathering • Audience and Process Analysis • Roles, Responsibilities, Use cases, Personas and scenario development • Content Modeling and Content Type Definitions • Metadata Schemas and Taxonomy Development • Search Integration • Term Store Management • Creating and Managing Groups • Creating and Managing Content Types • Properties (Site Columns, Workflow, IM Policies) • Overview of Content Hubs • Adding Content Types to Document Libraries • Creating Metadata for Content Enrichment • Core Metadata Schemas • Leveraging Managed Metadata and the Term Store • Governance • Governance planning • Operational zing governance using platform capability

31. Information Organization and Access (IOA) – 4 days • What you will learn • Enterprise search • Content inventory and classification • Categorization and clustering • Fact and entity extraction • Taxonomy creation and management • Information presentation • Information governance • Who should attend? • Anyone with a stake in the success of your organization’s IOA initiatives • Certificate options • Practitioner (days 1&2) • Practitioner + Specialist (days 3&4) = Master

32. Contact Seth Earley CEO Earley & Associates Phone: 781-820-8080 Email: seth@earley.com Follow me on twitter: sethearley Connect with me on  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sethearley

33. Appendix: Architecting Effective Governance Processes

34. Governance considerations Short term: • Select owner for the overall taxonomy • Continue collecting feedback on taxonomy, funnelled through owner • Identify one representative per product area to own segments of taxonomy (per branch, or section of a branch) • E.g. who will own doc types? • Taxonomy will continue to evolve over time, but aim for a solid baseline to use in initial launch

35. Governance considerations Medium term: • Create a taxonomy governance team • Determine roles & responsibilities • Identify executive sponsorship • Identify members • Develop initial documentation – charter, guidelines • Determine group operation (meeting frequency, etc.) • Develop policies for taxonomy maintenance • Determine level of control desired • Develop standard operating procedures for changes, etc.

36. Create & modify Publish & classify People & Tools Test & assess Taxonomy maintenance cycle

37. Taxonomy governance • Standards process – change control • Taxonomy is ever evolving, but evolution has to be predictable/controllable • User suggestions, requirements (e.g. product launch) • Changes in business (e.g. acquisitions) • Changes in vocabulary, error • Standards (ISO, NAICS, etc.) • Formal review process important for quality assurance, consistency • Evaluating costs & benefits of change • Impact on existing systems, retagging, retraining, etc. • Multi-disciplinary • Terminology decisions • Technology decisions • Promotion & oversight

38. Governance model • Centralized or decentralized? • Centralized – dedicated team to oversee all changes, policies, etc. • Decentralized – each business unit governs own portion • Best of both worlds: • Editorial board to provide leadership, manage overall taxonomy and resolve issues • Local groups manage their own local term sets (translations) • Consistency with flexibility • Standardized interoperability

39. Roles & Responsibilities • Requires participation from a multi-disciplinary team • Business areas, Skill sets and Functional areas Executive Sponsor Executive Sponsor Overall project owner and advocate Site Owners Responsible for guiding use of taxonomy on site System Owners IT representatives guiding implementation of taxonomy Systems Taxonomist Responsible for guiding use of taxonomy on site Information Architect Wire frames, site map, user experience IA & UX Vocabulary Owners Responsible for specific taxonomy branches SMEs Stakeholders providing input on vocabulary Content Specialists

40. Best practices / tips for success • Start with champions • Involve people who are directly affected by taxonomy issues • Decide on level, locus of control • Do offer oversight but don’t be a bottleneck • Assign accountability • Overall taxonomy & individual branches • Integrate with existing work processes • Identify your organization’s velocity

41. Recommendations & Best Practices • Measure-and-Improve Mindset • Query logs and click trails are prime example • Integrated handling of Taxonomy, Metadata, UI, and Search • To be most effective, these must work together • Governance structure must help that happen

42. Thank you