5 Immutable Laws of SharePoint

 

5 Immutable Laws of SharePoint

So I was watching (or rather listening) to the TV a few days ago, a theoretical physicist was pontificating about the effect that quantum physics had on our formerly Newtonian view of the universe. I admit it: I completely geek on this stuff. I find quantum physics fascinating, and the fact that I will never truly understand it doesn’t stop me one little bit from enjoying it. In fact, precisely because it’s so counter-intuitive from our every day sensory experience it strikes me as perhaps the ultimate “outside the box” subject.

In any case I found myself thinking about the shattering effect that Quantum Theory had on long-held scientific views of the 19th century, and couldn’t help drawing a loose correlation between that revolution and the (admittedly drastically less important) ongoing information management revolution happening in IT departments all over the country.  I’ve had front row seats to this show for about half a decade now, and there is no doubt whatsoever that  SharePoint is forcing organizations to rethink how business information is managed, accessed and stored  - whether they do so thoughtfully before deployment, or frantically afterwards.

So, in an effort to maintain a consistent theme, I’ll list “5 Immutable Laws of SharePoint”, which probably aren’t actually laws, and may or may not be immutable. And please note that I didn’t call them “The” 5 Immutable of SharePoint, because there may well be others. If you have additions, I’d love to hear them. Either way, at the very least they reflect my years of experience, as well as that of my clients and colleagues – which means that if you disagree with them, you are horribly, embarrassingly, and irrevocably wrong. Ok, here we go:

1.  Every SharePoint portal in the universe attracts Return on Investment with a force that is directly proportional to the thoughtfulness of its design, and inversely proportional to the square of the desire to skip the planning phase.

2.  The quality and quantity of worker collaboration flowing through a SharePoint portal occurs at a rate which is inverse to the number of hyperlinks a user must click to make it happen.

3.  For every large network file share that is uploaded into SharePoint, there is an equal and opposite reaction in the effort, cost and complexity required to manage, maintain, backup and restore that system.

4.  As SharePoint governance approaches absolute zero, usefulness degenerates and frustration with the system approaches a maximum value. (Credit where credit is due: Thanks to Rick over at Trilogy Solutions for this one!)

5.  By itself, SharePoint can neither create nor destroy organizational chaos, but does an excellent job of reflecting the level of organizational chaos that existed at the time of deployment.

So there’s your 5, and that ought to be enough to get us started. I’ll try to come back and post more the next time the Discovery Channel is on, but in the meantime feel free to send your suggestions!

Published Wednesday, March 11, 2009 1:32 AM by jguthridge

Point Blank - A Blog on SharePoint : 5 Immutable Laws of SharePoint