Groove as an “edge” element in a Document Management System. 

Hi all! I have had a busy few months and was without broadband for 6 weeks but all is now back to normal and I thought that I would share some guidance we have been giving customers on how, when and why use Groove as an element of a documenty management system.   Some folks get confused by the breadth of functionality provided in the Microsoft Office 2007 System and don't understand the value of all the options.  "Microsoft - you said SharePoint was what I use for collaboration!  Now you are saying use Groove" or "I can take SharePoint files off-line in Outlook 2007 and Groove - why the overlap of functionality?"

What I ask these people to think about is the range of choice that options give you.  We need to consider a "spectrum" of collaboration tools to do different things.  Somehow a very narrow definition of "Collaboration" has permeated the "memesphere" and people have stopped thinking about the whole issue in a broader sense.

Conside this scenario:  Contoso, a White Goods, reseller has a field service department that sends out staff to homes where appliances may need maintenance or repair.  Annually the range of appliances, from various vendors, change at a product or component level.  Contoso keeps it's library of appliance manuals on Microsoft SharePoint where it is available to all authorised employees to access on a "read-only" basis (you don't really want people "collaborating" on published reference material!).  When a model or component part changes the manuals need to be updated to reflect the latest information.

The Contoso Technical Director instructs a team to create a revised manual.  This team may include, Health & Safety advisors from a 3rd party, the Vendors' engineers, the Legal and Marketing departments etc.  The Editor sets up a Groove workspace - Checks out the manual from SharePoint into a Groove SharePoint files tool and they get to work creating the latest edition.  Once that edition is signed off as complete, it gets checked back into SharePoint and made available to everybody once again.  The Groove workspace gets disbanded and now the field servcie staff can take a copy of the manual off-line in OutLook 2007 for reference purposes - they don't do editing!  I think this illustrates nicely how all tools have a place and offer unique functionality for their intended audiences.  Below are my ramblings on how to set this up.

Centralised document management systems (DMS) provide complex, hierarchical functionality to control:  Creation, version control, document life-cycle management and archival storage.

A typical document creation cycle usually contains (but not limited to) the following roles:

1.       Editor in chief/Commissioning Editor (C-Ed) who Commissions and defines the nature of the document in terms of content and scope. Output – SOW (Scope of Work)

2.       Editor (Ed)– Engages the subject matter experts (contributors) and sub-editors to produce the document in line with the SOW.

3.       Sub-editors (SE)– Manage and edit the document sections in line with the SOW

4.       Contributors (CTR) – Create specific sections of the document within their scope of expertise.

The C-Ed’s primary function is to oversee the genesis and development of the document over time and control the “start“and “end” points of the project.  S/He does this by managing the DMS.  They ultimately have responsibility for the publishing of the final version(s) of the document to the DMS.

The Ed’s function is to recruit, brief and mange the CTR and SE in order to create the document in line with the SOW.  The Ed has the role of “Author” in the DMS.

The SE’s function is to review and edit the content created by the CTR in order to maintain a common style, voice and language, for each and every section of the document, to deliver to the editor the document sections in line with the SOW.

The CTR function is to create subject matter specific sections/chapters of the document in line with the SOW.

For this discussion our DMS will be MOSS. 

1)      The MOSS library (lib) is created by the C-Ed and the Ed is made a member of this Lib.

2)      The Ed switches on the “Track changes” feature in MSFT Word 2007.  Next Ed creates a Groove Workspace and adds a “Groove SharePoint Tool” (GSPT) to the workspace.  S/he uploads the SOW and document template into the tool, uses the document “Check out” feature and invites the SEs and CTRs as “Participants” to the workspace.

3)      The SEs create separate folders for each CTR and place a copy of the document template in to each folder.

4)      The CTRs are sent Groove messages to begin their work cycles.

As the CTR’s produce their content the SEs edit and format it and communicate with the Ed status information.  The Ed reviews and merges the changes into the GSPT copy, using the Microsoft Word Track and merge, Compare and Combine changes feature.  When a “check in point” is reached the Ed initiates the synchronisation process with MOSS and the C-Ed is notified of an update through Exchange/Outlook.

This process is repeated until the document is completed, the final version is uploaded from Groove and then the workspace is disbanded and discarded or archived.

By following this methodology the strict version control required by the DMS is enforced and captured while allowing the editorial team to operate in off-line mode and their input be funnelled and reviewed by the C-Ed before being committed to the DMS.