Effective Requirements Gathering for Search in SharePoint 2010
Michal PisarekSharePoint MVP
www.sharepointanalysthq.com [email protected]
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
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
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 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
[email protected]@SurfRay
Michal PisarekSharePoint MVP
www.sharepointanalysthq.com [email protected]
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/
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