Earlier in this series:
1 – Your Future with SharePoint? Looking Back
2 – Your Future with SharePoint? Looking Forward

Answer the 5 W’s
Microsoft’s future with SharePoint offers increased simplicity (e.g., new modern libraries and lists), mobile interaction (e.g., the new SharePoint app for mobile phones), and efforts to make SharePoint core to the Office 365 platform – not a shrinking shadow of yesteryear. In the first post, I explored Microsoft’s journey with SharePoint over recent years.

In the second post, I took a wide view and reported on some of the principles and frameworks that can be used to inform an organisational journey with SharePoint. That was an exercise in listing numerous principles and frameworks to build an evidence set, not the work of synthesis across the frameworks to look for patterns, similarities, and common items.

My sense in looking at the principles and frameworks in the second post, is that organisations need to answer five questions in planning their future with SharePoint; and the questions are all of the W words:

• Why? … the question of vision. In light of the business outcomes being pursued by an organisation, why is SharePoint the right answer?
• Where? … the question of governance. With all that’s on offer in SharePoint, where does it make sense to use SharePoint, what internal guidance is needed to ensure alignment with business priorities, and what rails need to be laid to decrease the likelihood of everything turning to custard (e.g., proliferation of low-value and out-of-date sites)?
• Who? … the question of people. Who are the key influencers in your organisation that need to be engaged to create context for the successful use of SharePoint? There are certain categories of these people – and their involvement needs to be shaped appropriately.
• What? … the question of engagement. Everyone across your organisation has current ways of working; what aspects of their work should be transitioned to SharePoint?
• When? … the question of adoption. Adoption of new ways of working doesn’t work without intentional activity. What strategies will be used to encourage adoption and drive effective use?

In future posts, I’ll look in more detail at each of these W’s.