Author: Michael Sampson

It’s been a while since I’ve written for EndUserSharePoint. The last time was in conjunction with the online study group for Chapters 9 and 10 of Seamless Teamwork, my first book. Seamless Teamwork is about how business users can embrace SharePoint to support team collaboration, and it is published by Microsoft Press.

For the past 7 months, I’ve been focused on extending my analysis of the business and human side of using SharePoint. I presented this as a full day masterclass in London and Copenhagen back in March and April 2009 (along with some shorter workshops in the United States in March), and have just finished writing up the material as a book. So it’s with great delight that I want to let you know about my second book: SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration

Here’s the main premise of the book: the point isn’t to have a nice shiny SharePoint implementation; the point is doing business better. And it’s too that end that I wrote the six focal chapters:

• Chapter 2, focused on improving collaboration between people. This chapter talks through a number of models about how to think about this.


• Chapter 3, which talks about where SharePoint natually shines in supporting team collaboration, and how to address some of its shortcomings through add-on products.


• Chapter 4, all about governance. I argue that optimizing the technical governance of SharePoint isn’t enough, and instead outline what is required. I also propose a structure and decision process for making governance decisions.


• Chapter 5, on engaging with the business. Once you have a good sense of what SharePoint is capable of doing, you need to explore where and how those capabilities can used to do business better. This requiring engaging with business groups and teams, and I outline a number of approaches.


• Chapter 6, on user adoption strategies. There’s little point in doing all of the stuff we do with SharePoint if no one uses it … so this chapter talks through a number of approaches to cultivating user adoption. And within this chapter, I talk about the meta-message of my first book, Seamless Teamwork.


• Chapter 7, the final focal chapter, talks about how to get started. I propose that you play a game of SharePoint baseball, with base 1 being a pilot project.

I think this is a unique book in the SharePoint space, and that there’s a great need across the world for the concepts and ideas in this book. And actually, this was confirmed for me when a buyer at a Fortune 5 company said, “We were looking for a book on how to take a business and technology view of SharePoint, and found your new book.” (To which an author says, “Cool!”).

I self-published SharePoint Roadmap. Actually, I wrote the text in 4 weeks, it took a week to get it printed, and that meant that I had it available at the inaugural SharePoint Conference in New Zealand in early July 2009 (where I was able to give a copy to Joel Oleson). To buy a copy of the book, head over to www.sharepointroadmap.com — it’s not available on Amazon. While you’re there, you can read Peter O’Kelly’s foreword, download Chapter 1, and check out the early reader feedback.

Michael is an Industry Analyst and Independent Consultant focused on improving the capability of teams that can’t be together, to work together.

Michael is the author of Seamless Teamwork: Using Microsoft SharePoint Technologies to Collaborate, Innovate, and Drive Business in New Ways, published by Microsoft Press (2009).

Michael holds an MCom with first class honors in telecommunications-based IT, from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and is currently working on his doctorate in collaborative applications and virtual teams.

Michael lives in New Zealand with his glorious wife and eight children.