I recently had the opportunity to review an advance publication copy of the SharePoint Governance Manifesto, written by Ant Clay.<\/p>\n
Ant is a friend of mine, we see each other occasionally on the speaker circuit and as I\u2019m generally interested in the concepts of Disruptive Governance thinking I thought it might be an interesting read.<\/p>\n
Where do I start?\u00a0 Well it was certainly disruptive and I started out by hating the writing style.\u00a0 It was too conversational in its writing style for me. It was a bit like being in Ants mind, or indeed taking part in a seminar and exchanging views, or discussing theory with other MVP\u2019s.\u00a0 I found myself saying a lot of \u201cbut – what if I did this with my client, what might the impact be\u201d type things back to Ant before realising he wasn\u2019t actually in the room with me.\u00a0 As a formal and very experienced technical reviewer the almost conversational writing style just wasn\u2019t for me \u2013 I hated it, it made me question the style so much, but then I wasn\u2019t actually reviewing as technical book.\u00a0 I was reviewing a personal exchange of information from a very experienced professional (Ant) to another very experienced professional (Me), but I could equally have been having this conversation with someone in one of my projects who wasn\u2019t as experienced and they would likely sit up and say \u201cbut – what if I did this with my users, what might the impact be\u201d.\u00a0 How annoyingly disruptive, I loved it!<\/p>\n
It really starts by covering why the book exists, and what it is really about \u2013 and it isn\u2019t about SharePoint technically.\u00a0 This manifesto is not about the SharePoint Governance approaches that you see today, focused only on technology and information and this is a good thing. \u00a0Too many \u201cSharePoint Architects\u201d (and I use that term with an offensive hatred as many laying claim to that title are just coders on a power trip) claim to understand Governance but have no concept of end to end service management, the needs of end users, corporate vision and the critical relation to strategy or the value of governing in the first place.<\/p>\n
The book then over the course of some 200 pages of so elaborates on the value of a more holistic, positively disruptive and business led form of Governance.\u00a0 Having spent many years in Government programmes of work, the value of Governance is evidently clear to me and being bound by legislative constraints I\u2019ve seen some hairy and sizeable governance documents (I\u2019ve even written a few door stops myself).\u00a0 It isn\u2019t about creating governance for the sake of it, and pages of literature because a large document can be more encompassing \u2013 you might still need that and it doesn\u2019t say this is a bad thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s about being pragmatic \u2013 and oddly applying common sense to an area that is unfortunately often founded in and surrounded by nonsense.<\/p>\n
What it does do though and do it well is to clarify much of the mistakes that are often made by those who claim ownership of the Governance area.\u00a0 It introduces a raft of terminology and practical mechanism you are likely unfamiliar with: Governance snake-oil, the celery effect, complexity theory, Cynefin, waves, change management, the seven waves of Governance, facilitation, Tummelers, collaborative play and many other new and interesting facets of a disruptive approach to Governance \u2013 take out the word SharePoint and it could apply to any governance theory.\u00a0 The reference value in itself is worth the purchase price, the contents are inspiring enough to make a seasoned professional such as I question and debate how I can be more effective when looking at governing enterprise \u2013 not just SharePoint.\u00a0 I\u2019ve even learned an entirely new Greek verb \u201cKubernao\u201d \u2013 although I don\u2019t know when I\u2019ll ever us that again.<\/p>\n
Its key strength is that the SharePoint Governance Manifesto is a light hearted, very honest but heavy read \u2013 it is difficult not to turn to the next page, and then that happens again.\u00a0 It is certainly the intention of the author to cut through and often dismiss a lot of the current SharePoint Governance trend, hype and overuse and steer the reader in an entirely different path to making SharePoint consumption vastly more successful.\u00a0 It disrupted my day no end when I had a ton of work to get through.<\/p>\n
Would I read it again, well I already have.\u00a0 Would I recommend it to you \u2013 absolutely!<\/p>\n