I continue to receive TONS of congratulatory emails in response to my “I’ve taken a position” article, many of them confirming that I’m on the right track when it comes to adding Business Process Management to the SharePoint stew.

One in particular caught my eye. I’m reprinting it here, removing any references to the company talked about. It is one of those “from the trenches” stories that validates why I do what I do.

Thanks so much for the note. — Mark

Message from a long time reader:

As a Methodology Administrator and Business Analyst working for a large company, it was evident that every programmer or manager felt it was not necessary to produce any kind of a real formal evaluation. They were all looking at issues as “just another little project” to make changes for their issues. When SharePoint first appeared on the scene everyone created their version of what information a site should have.

It was not long after I began working with SharePoint that I began to recognize that the object of SharePoint being a place to organize information so it could be “SHARED” was getting lost. The Business Analyst was being cut out of the equation and it was now harder to find and share the information needed between departments within the corporate structure.

Many groups asked me to help them with a site for sharing information and data. When asked if they had done an analysis to determine which business/corporate areas needed that information they could not provide an answer. In the end their site housed duplicate information that might not be correct or current. In several cases, SharePoint information was just providing a different unorganized method of storing data that was just as bad as the old method of the multiple shares that held documents and data in an organization that made it difficult to locate what the business users needed.

I applaud you for this new venture that points out what Business Analysts have been trying to do. That being, match the tool to the problem and then organize its use to best suit the needs of the business.

Over my many decades in the IT department I have seen history repeat itself and lead to failure many times.