SharePoint 2010 - Third Party Tools Evaluation Process - Part 1

As a SharePoint Architect I am often called upon to evaluate third party SharePoint tools for my customers.  Some of these tools are as simple as a list roll-up web part and others are as complex as an entire suite for backup and recovery of the SharePoint environment.  Without proper guidance and a well defined logical process this kind of task can be a very difficult, uncertain and highly subjective.  Even worse, choosing the wrong tool can be costly and have a negative impact on your customer's confidence in SharePoint.

For that reason I have developed a Third Party Tools Evaluation Process that helps guide my customer and I through the evaluation of tools for SharePoint, and in this two (or three?) part blog I will discuss how that process works so that you the SharePoint Architect can properly lead your customer.

The key artifacts of this process are the process outline itself and the Decision Support Matrix (more about this later).  The key deliverables are the decision Support Matrix (there's that word again) and the Support Document (which can follow whatever format the customer normally requires).
OK, to start with, here is the overall process, and as you can see, it is characterized by six phases (marked with Arabic numerals) and three review gates (marked by Roman numerals):

Phase 1. Requirements Definition – Decision Support Matrix – Define the Need

   o Problem Statement – What business problem creates the need for this tool?

   o Use Case Scenarios

       Format: Actor – Action – Entity

       Define the steps the user will take in using the tool

       Becomes the basis of Test Plans in Analysis/ Research Phase

         • Example 1: The site admin adds the web part to a page’s web part zone

         • Example 2: The automated workflow updates the list metadata

   o What’s the Total Cost of Ownership as Compared to an In-House Solution?

       What’s the Total Cost of Ownership (TCOO) for the Tool?

         o Purchase cost year one

         o Yearly maintenance cost

         o Period of five years

       TCOO for the In House Development?

         o Number of hours spent in initial Software Development Life Cycle year one

         o Employee cost per hour

         o Number of hours spent in subsequent (updates/fixes) over the life cycle

         o Period of five years

       Comparison = TCOO Tool – TCOO Development

Phase 2.  Analysis / Research – Decision Support Matrix – Access the Potential Solution Choices

   o Perform a Vendor Assessment

       Gartner Reviews

         • What is the Vendor’s Market Place Stability

         • Marketplace Acceptance

         • Sales Model

         • Customer References

         • Product Support

         • Product Training

   o Receive vendor led product demonstrations

   o Establish absolute pricing boundaries

   o Determine minimum infrastructure required to use the tool

   o Ensure early stakeholder involvement

       Finance

       Management

       Business Analysts

       System Engineers/Architects

       Information Security Engineers/Architects

       Software Engineers/Architects

       Business Users

       Support / Help Desk

   o Decision Support Matrix - Draft

       Selection Criteria – Pass/Fail

       Evaluation Criteria – Compare

       Weighting – Importance

       Each Stakeholder Provides a Draft Evaluation

   o Maintenance Assessment

       Third Party Vendor

         • Availability

         • Cost

         • Value

       Level of Demand for Internal Resource Support

Review Gate I – Requirements and Analysis / Research

Phase 3.  Evaluation – Decision Support Matrix – Evaluate the Potential Solution Choices
   o Environments

       Development

       Test

       Staging

   o Testing

       Test Strategy

       Test Plan – Derived from Use Cases

       Test Report

   o Product Assessment

       Finance

       IT Management

       Business Analysts

       System Engineers/Architects

       Information Security Engineers/Architects

       Software Engineers/Architects

       Business Users

       Support / Help Desk

   o Technical Documentation

       Tool Deployment/Retraction

       Tool Configuration

       Tool Use

Phase 4.  Selection – Decision Support Matrix – Choose the Solution

   o Decision Support Matrix - Final

       Selection Criteria – Pass/Fail

       Evaluation Criteria – Compare

       Weighting – Importance

       Each Stakeholder Provides a Final Evaluation

   o Evaluation Review Meeting

       Key Stakeholders

       Evaluation Team

       Evaluation Documentation

         • Requirements Document

         • Decision Support matrix

         • Technical Documentation

Review Gate II – Evaluation and Selection

Phase 5.  Deployment – Support Documentation – Deploy the Solution

   o Production Environment

   o Tool Deployment Scheduling

   o Engineer/Power User/User Training

   o Communication/Announcement

Review Gate III – Deployment and Maintenance

Phase 6.  Maintenance – Support Documentation – Maintain the Solution

   o Updates/Patches

   o Trouble Tickets

       Vendor

       Internal

   o Migration


In my next blog I'll explain this process as well as introduce the all important Decision Support Matrix.

I hope that helps!

Tom