SharePoint 2010 for Project Management, 2nd Edition

Ensuring Stakeholder Buy-In

The most critical aspect of leveraging SharePoint as a PMIS is getting your project stakeholders to use it and then to love it! Getting people to learn something new will be a big hurdle. The following are four practical steps to ensure stakeholder buy-in for using SharePoint as a PMIS.

1. Leverage and Prove the Value of SharePoint as a PMIS on a Pilot Project

Before you mandate and implement SharePoint as a standard PMIS, take a test drive and use it with a core group of people on a pilot project. Present the value of using SharePoint to your stakeholders by comparing and contrasting its benefits relative to the existing tools and processes that you have in place for your projects.

Involve your project team and customers, from the initial steps of defining project communications requirements, to mapping those requirements to the essential components of the PMIS, all the way to determining how it should be used throughout the project lifecycle.

Have the pilot group assist you in defining and documenting project management processes, as well as how to best customize SharePoint as it applies to your project environment. For example, customize your SharePoint PMIS to adhere to your change control process.

2. Provide User Support in Learning and Utilizing SharePoint

Using SharePoint is quite different from using existing tools, so the last thing you want to do is build a SharePoint PMIS and not introduce the tool properly to its users. Provide training to everyone ...