effective requirements gathering for search in sharepoint 2010

Effective Requirements Gathering for Search in SharePoint 2010

Michal PisarekSharePoint MVP

www.sharepointanalysthq.com michalpisarek@sharepointanalysthq.com

michalpisarek@michalpisarek www.surfray.com

Effective Requirements Gathering for Search in SharePoint 2010

Agenda• Introduction• Why are requirements needed for search• Search requirements overview• Search requirements techniques• Q&A

www.surfray.com

About Me

• SharePoint MVP• Extensive work with search• Author of sharepointanalysthq.com blog• SharePoint Analyst:– Business– Technical

• Love search

WHY ARE REQUIREMENTS NEEDED FOR SEARCH?

Don’t fall into the trap of

thinking you know HOW your users find information without

ASKING them

Search Requirements Issues

• Typically the last thing deployed– Lower priority because of time– Just having ANY search is seen as a win– An expectation that it just ‘works’

• No process to implement– Who tests search?– Gathering requirements can be tricky– Difficult to measure success or failure adequately

Foundation of good search

Information Architecture

Usage Patterns

Business Process

Modeling

Continuous Improvement

Governance

SEARCH REQUIREMENTS OVERVIEW

Bad Examples“Google like search experience”

“I should be able to type in a term and what I need should be at the top”

“It should just show me the most relevant content”

“We need it to be intuitive”

Good Examples

Specific• Enough detail to be able to create a

solution that users need right now

Measureable• Can you measure the difference this

makes?

Attainable • Is this technically feasible?

Relevant • Is this relevant to the search vision?

Time Bound• When should this requirement be

evaluated?

Good Example

• When I search for my name I want to see the content I modified, order by date, because it takes me 30 minutes per day to find things sometimes. I work mainly on Excel files so they would be more relevant than other documents. I also need to know the type of content it is and the size of the file.

SEARCH REQUIREMENTS TECHNIQUES

Search Requirements Flow

Current State Analysis

Requirements Elicitation

Expert Judgment

Verification

Techniques Overview

• There are multiple ways to gather requirements for search

• However your aim is to determine what your users need and craft a solution that meets their needs

Current State AnalysisGOAL: Understand the current organizational context to help inform search decisions

Vision Content

Stakeholders Personas

Current State Analysis

Requirements Elicitation

Expert Judgment

Verification

Vision

• Workshop with stakeholders and sponsors• Answer the following:– What will role will search play in the organization?– How will we measure success?– What are the steps in the roadmap?– What are the risks?

Content

• Understand what content the organization has• This is VERY IMPORTANT to search solution• A search solution can be no better than the

content it exposes• Understand the what, why, when , who, where

Content Content Type Location Owner Value Usage

Contracts File Share Business Development

High High usage

Customer Receipts

D: Drive for all content

None found Low – only kept for compliance

Less than one access per month, only kept for compliance

Requirements ElicitationGOAL: Understand the needs of the organization and its users

User Stories Surveys

Workshops or

InterviewsCard sorts

Current State Analysis

Requirements Elicitation

Expert Judgment

Verification

User Stories

• Expresses a specific need a user has• Typical format:“As a <persona>, I want to <do something> so that <some benefit>”Example:“As a human resources assistant, I want to find all HR related policies, so that I can review them when their date is due”

Card Sorting

• Lets people group related information together

• Powerful way to see how users think about information in groups

• Two types:– Open: Users create categories– Closed: Pre-defined categories

Running a card sort

• Create cue cards cards• Users sort into categories• Can be done online or in person

Expert JudgmentGOAL: Map business/user needs to functional specifications

• Search Scopes• MetadataGroup• Best Bets• Authoritative SitesRank• Search Refinements• Sorting CategoriesFilter• Custom search results pages• Web Part ConfigurationView

Scopes

• How does your organization think about information?– Content Based: Contracts, Policies, Procedures– Task Based: New Member Account, Termination– Storage Based: C Drive, SharePoint,CRM– Time Based: Yearly Financial Cycles– Department Based: Accounting

Scopes Requirements Inputs

• Card Sorts: Related information easily identified

• Content Analysis: Allows to realize how information is structured

• Persona’s: If many persona’s looking for one type of information maybe a scope is required

My Experience

• Always have a Documents search scope implemented

• Users are more comfortable with the word ‘filter’ than ‘scope’

• Too many scopes can be confusing

Custom search results pages

• What do user wants to see when search results are presented?

• Easy to implement• Often tied to scopes

Custom Search Result Pages Inputs

• User Stories: ‘So That’ can lead to insights• Content Analysis: If metadata is marked as

required for content, shouldn't it be visible in search results?

• Workshops: Results pages workshop

VerificationGOAL: Ensure solution meets business needs

Impression Testing

Search Reporting

User FeedbackHow was your

search Web Part

Current State Analysis

Requirements Elicitation

Expert Judgment

Verification

Search Reporting

• Fantastic way to verify your solution is functioning correctly

• Also a great way to uncover new requirements• SharePoint 2010 has a lot of great search

reporting features

Search Reporting

• Identify best bets• Identify scopes• Find popular queries

How was your search web part

• Great way to gather feedback about search• Simple way for end users to communicate

their feedback• The information can be a goldmine

More info : http://www.habaneros.com/Blog/Posts/A_best_bets_success_story.aspx

Q/A & Contact Details

www.surfray.com

Josh NobleAuthor: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search

jno@surfray.comjoshnoble@SurfRay

Michal PisarekSharePoint MVP

www.sharepointanalysthq.com michalpisarek@sharepointanalysthq.com

michalpisarek@michalpisarek

Additional Resources

www.surfray.com

Our SharePoint Search Video Webinars:http://surfray.com/resources/webcasts.html

Mikael Svenson – Tech and Mehttp://techmikael.blogspot.com/

Michal Pisarek – SharePoint Analyst HQhttp://www.sharepointanalysthq.com/

ProSharePointSearch.comhttp://www.prosharepointsearch.com/