At 3rd SharePoint Saturday Vietnam, I
gave the presentation regarding deploying managed metadata, which is new
in SharePoint 2010 allowing you to store terms, keyword, managed
metadata or so on in order to make your rich information across
organization. How do you think about managed metadata comparing with metadata?
Both definitions are metadata that is described on a lot of resources
through Internet even you couldn’t understand quickly once you’ve read “data about data“,
however, managed metadata in my opinion is different from metadata when
it comes to taxonomy/folksonomy. I had a controversy with Filipino
consultant regarding pros and cons of taxonomy, which is described as a
particular classification, when we start planning metadata for document
management system.
Now take a look at my title with the word “Managed metadata” so I don’t absolutely intend to give 4 “think about” ideas to make you metadata. Let’s follow me to see 4 quick ideas to make managed metadata for your organization.
Think about general information
The first idea is to think about general
information in your organization. General information is what you know
when being asked about your organization or your profile. Department
unit basically is used as managed metadata, however you should carefully
consider your structure of organization in order to make a hierarchy of
department effectively. Sometimes, when we synchronize Active Directory
to SharePoint, we have two options for Department whether using
Department attribute in Active Directory or managed metadata in
SharePoint but you don’t worry because managed metadata on Manged
Metadata service application is automatically prioritized. Some general
information you still keep thinking about is positions, roles,
divisions. The last one thing I can recommend you to put into general
information is location room or branch. From location room idea, you can
build floor-level such as Floor 1st (Room A111, Room A112), Floor 2nd
(Room A221, Room A222) for meeting solution. That’s why I recommend you
to use floor-level in such a way that you can make your meeting better.
Below are groups I recommend:
Think about where, when, who
It sounds like above idea when you see the words “Where, Who“, however, this isn’t my opinion. Prior to thinking about Where – When – Who,
let me know the business activities of your organization such as
Information Technology, Consulting service, Retail, Education or so on,
you will then need to indicate partners, clients who are working and
coordinating with your organization to get the success. And the word “Who” in my opinion basically means partners, clients of your organization.
After listing your partners and client, you start thinking about “Where“. There are many recommendations for “where” so I can suggest as follows:
- Branch office
- Region
- Partner/Client country
You still keep wondering the word “When” in 3W (Where – When – Who).
Depending on your business processes or activities from Accounting
process, Finance department to event, which is held by Human Resource
department, or traditional event every month/year, so you can list and
classify corresponding period every year. Don’t represent it in term of week/month format such as Jan, Feb… This isn’t my opinion You can analyze as follows:
- Recurrent event of Accounting/Finance
- Recurrent meeting
- Recurrent holiday/vacation
- Recurrent general event from Human Resource department
Think about process
Depending on business process in your
organization, you should localize in such a way that business process is
classified. For example that is basically recruitment process of Human
Resource department, you have the following processes:
- Identify vacancy
- Prepare job description and person specification
- Advertising the vacancy
- Managing the response
- Short-listing
- Arrange interviews
- Conducting interview and decision making
Remember you are using managed metadata
and desiring to make a best enterprise information management system as
well. I narrow EIM into DM (as known as Document Management) to give you
why I recommend that you think about process. Take a loot at again 7
processes and let me know what you are thinking of managing document in
recruitment process.
One thing related to business process is workflow. You can make the status of workflow such as Pending, Rejected, Approved. That’s useful if you plan business processes carefully.
Think about classification
The last idea is to think about
classification. When it comes to classification, there are a lot of
things you need to classify, from document type, product, project,
employee type, fields .. You probably know what your organization will
be classified in order to manage effectively. Depending on each
department, you will have different classifications.
The word “Classification” may makes you confuse, however, I put it as the last idea in order to give you a view based on the first 3 ideas.
In this post, I didn’t intend to show
pros/cons or compare managed metadata with metadata. I just recommend 4
ideas to make your managed metadata. I though I would write more
articles regarding taxonomy/folksonomy especially taxonymy in comparison
with folksonomy in SharePoint 2010.
1:45 AM GMT +7, Oct 3rd 2011