Recently I again saw the importance of the integrated and user centric approach in the development of, in this case, a SharePoint site template for complex document management and collaboration. The consultants from the different disciplines need to work closely each other and with the key users from the business, to achieve the best template and its adoption by the users.

• We have to learn what the users need to do their jobs effectively, efficiently and agreeably: what are they trying to achieve, who and what is involved, what are their processes now, and what is making their lives and their work difficult.
  So we learn from the key users before we start developing.
• We are not custom developing a solution from scratch but creating a template that stays as close as possible to standard functionality and “approved” methods of customization. Therefore it is helpful if the key users understand how standard SharePoint and the solutions we developed at an early stage could meet many of their needs.
  So we provide training for new key users who want to learn about the relevant SharePoint functionality.
• The key users test the first iteration of the template in a playground environment, then with more realistic content and – in a next iteration – in a real life pilot.
  So we guide the key users in how the template is supposed to work.
• We need more input and feedback, in order to build a fully-fledged solution and set up an effective adoption programme.
  So the key users guide us, by finding out and explaining in more detail what they really need and what does and what does not work for them.
• After a first prototype and a small pilot with the inner circle of the key users, we do a pilot of an improved and expanded version of the template with a larger group of users,. We generally start with knowledge workers, also called office workers; people who work with a computer most of their day. They can greatly benefit from the experience the key users built up earlier.
  So not only do we provide training to the larger group of knowledge workers, but most of all the key users guide their colleagues on how to use the new template in practice – their practice.
• In most projects, we were very careful with the “outside workers”, like the service engineers providing maintenance in hospitals, for example. These service engineers did not want ot be bothered with IT stuff. They just wanted to fix the machinery they were supposed to fix, for instance. So we do not bother them until we are confident that the template works and will meet their needs and until we have ironed out all the kinks in the work processes and the adoptio approach.