Why SharePoint Hegemony?

With all the writing I do these days, I’m glad to still maintain this personal blog and share some of my unedited opinions on things. For those of you who follow my activities in the twitterverse (@buckleyplanet), you’ve probably already seen my latest article over on SharePointMagazine.net, entitled Taking Control of Governance. It’s the first article in my new column for the site, which I’m calling SharePoint Hegemony. I liked this name, first because I am a huge fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender series, but second because it provided some dissonance when paired with governance, setting up my column for some bold and candid conversations on the topic.

Here’s how I define the column in my extended bio:

SharePoint Hegemony with Christian Buckley is on ongoing review of the management and governance issues surrounding SharePoint. The goal of this column is to help readers get maximum business value out of their SharePoint platform through effective planning, repeatable processes, and sound governance policies.

You’ll learn more about the many different facets of governance and how they can help you get the most out of your SharePoint environment. Christian will explore topics from a project management and business analyst perspective, exploring how proper analysis and planning around architecture, infrastructure, and business requirements can help align your tactical SharePoint activities to your broader corporate goals and initiatives.

I hope to grab some attention, both with the title of the content and some plain words on what is means to build out governance in the enterprise – of which SharePoint governance is just one small (but important) part. I mean it when I state “If your engineering team is building your governance plan, you’re doing it wrong.” Most dev-types are just not wired for this kind of business thinking, or if they have the softer skills, they just don’t have the bandwidth to be effective in both technical and management tasks.

I’m looking forward to this new column, and to share some of my own background, coming from more of a project management and business analyst world. I’ve always been in high-tech, but the meat and potatoes of my experience has been project management organizations, business analysis, MRDs and PRDs, and building governance and decision-support systems within organizations. I am passionate about it…..which is why it often hurts and frustrates me to hear engineers who have a very limited view on the topic espouse their expertise (kind of like everyone is suddenly a social media guru).

I hope you enjoy the content that is coming, and I look forward to the open dialog.