Meet Dux Raymond Sy, Resident Expert

Dux (yup, it's pronounced "ducks") Raymond Sy boasts over 15 years of IT and Project Management experience.  Dux has been working with SharePoint since 2001, and has been writing and conducting SharePoint training since 2004 for organizations the world over.  With his forthcoming book, SharePoint for Project Management due this fall, Dux was the natural choice to approach as the "resident expert" to host our SharePoint for Project Management topic area.  We're honored to be working with Dux, and to be able to share the benefit of his years of experience with Bamboo Nation ... so without further ado, let's meet Dux!

You've been involved with IT and Project Management for over 15 years now ... when did you begin working with SharePoint?

I still remember when I first laid my eyes on SharePoint. It was late 2001, I was working on a Web development project with a geographically dispersed project team. Just like most project teams back then (even today for that matter), e-mail was the primary tool we used to collaborate and share project information.  As we all know, this is not the most efficient nor effective way. With frustration brewing, I investigated other collaborative tools available that would benefit us. Web sites, FTP, WebDav came up ... however, No Más!

While researching, I came across SharePoint Team Services (STS). It was a a free add-on to Office 2000 called SharePoint Team Services (STS) that provided Web-based team collaboration features. It wasn't the silver bullet that I was looking for but it was easy to use, specially for the less technical individuals in my project team.  It provided the central repository that we needed to store project files.

Three years later, one of my government clients found out that I was using SharePoint on a regular basis (at this point I was using Windows SharePoint Services 2.0), so they engaged me to develop a customized hands-on, in-house training program on implementing, maintaining and using SharePoint Portal Server 2003. This opportunity further piqued my interest in SharePoint and, more importantly, I saw the potential in how this tool can address various business challenges.

At what point did you recognize the value that SharePoint offers as a project management tool specifically?

The eureka moment came about in late 2006 when I was working on a three-month project that I needed more time for (who doesn't, right?). Since the client didn't give me the extra time I asked for,  I decided to find out if I could gain more time by reducing inefficiencies within the project team (which included myself).  I monitored and analyzed a few individuals for a period of a week and I was amazed at what I discovered:

On an average 8-hour workday, an individual spends 45 minutes a day looking for project information. For example, when asked by a client to retrieve a specific status report, the project coordinator had to look for it on the network share, her e-mail inbox, on the project folder of her computer, and she even had to call up another colleague to help her find it. This typical mode of searching took up time which could have been spent on something more productive. According to the article "Time Wasted? Perhaps It's Well Spent" published by the New York Times on May 31, 2007, a Microsoft study found that American workers, on average, spend 45 hours a week at work, with 16 of these hours described as "unproductive".

45 minutes may not sound like a lot to you, but when I looked at the bigger picture, it essentially meant that a team of 20 people wastes 900 minutes a day. In a 3-month project, that is 54,000 minutes or roughly 38 person days. How much does this cost the project and the organization? Well, depending on who you're considering, 45 minutes/day might cost $50/day for a project coordinator or  $250/day for a technical contractor.

Bottom line is, time and money is not well spent. What if my team can regain just 20 of those 45 minutes wasted each day? So with that in mind, I customized the use of SharePoint applying formal project management processes and trained the project team I was working on how to use SharePoint according to our project management standard.

As the team got familiar with and used SharePoint as the project management information system for subsequent projects, we did regain the wasted time, and project communication, status reporting, accountability, and traceability also improved.

With your book "SharePoint for Project Management" coming out from O'Reilly Media this fall, can you tell us a little about some of the plans surrounding the marketing of the book?

O'Reilly is on top of the game with how they market their products. First and foremost, they have hands-down the best web 2.0 marketing platform that I have worked with so far. Not to go into technical details, but let's just say that whenever I update my blog, personal profile, and speaking events, not only does it show up in their own website, it also reaches various web sites, blogs and user group postings. Simply amazing.

Also, I am planning to do a book launch event during the PMI Global Congress (it's like the TechEd of Project Management) in Denver, Colorado from October 18-21, 2008. This is around the time when my book will be coming out.

Lastly, I would welcome any marketing ideas from the Bamboo Nation community =)

You've been a SharePoint trainer now for how long?

I have authored and taught SharePoint training courses since 2004. 

I understand you've conducted SharePoint training for companies and organizations both large and small, and in some pretty far-flung locations.  Is there any one occasion that really stands out as a particularly memorable experience?

Not one event stands out, however, what amazes me is that almost always, a student would come up to me and say things like:

"Man, if I only knew that we didn't need MOSS 2007. We could have saved a lot money ..."

"We just spent $850,000 to roll out SharePoint for our organization with 3000 users and nobody wants to use it!"

"Really? To provide a basic document management and collaborative platform is free as long as we have the proper Windows licenses?"

This goes to show how misunderstood the technology is. Given that it is a relatively new technology, decision makers rarely sit down and take a hard look at what organizational pains that SharePoint can address. If this is done correctly, identifying which component of SharePoint (WSS or MOSS) is needed can be achieved easily.

Second, what is quite apparent in a lot of SharePoint implementation today is that there is a lack of sound business analysis, user requirements gathering, governance and adoption strategy planning. No disrespect to SharePoint consultants out there, but a lot of them are wannabes and poseurs (see my blog post, Will the Real SharePoint Consultant Please Stand Up?). They come in, pop the MOSS installation CD, hook it up to AD, Exchange, etc. and then walk away. 

Lastly, at the end of the day, rolling out SharePoint requires commitment from the upper echelons of  management and IT to leverage the tool as a means to empower the greater community of users. Not as another platform to serve as a bottleneck for organizational efficiency and productivity.

What's a "typical" week like in the life of a SharePoint consultant?  (With the understanding that there is probably no such thing as a "typical" week, of course!)

 I wake up 5 am everyday and go to bed at around 11pm daily. Here's what my calendar looked like in the last two weeks:

- July 6, 2008: Taken to the ER for what it turns out to be stress related chest muscle spasms

- July 7-8, 2008: In Boca Raton, FL for a 2-Day SharePoint project kick-off meeting

- July 9, 2008: Conducted a 2 hour executive briefing about SharePoint to movers and shakers of a top Washington, D.C. consultancy firm

- July 10, 2008: In Chambersburg, PA for one day to assess the SharePoint environment of a client and provide recommendations for better adoption

- July 15-18, 2008: In Alexandria, VA and conducted a 4-day training course on SharePoint Designer

- July 16, 2008: Initiated a  partnership agreement with a leading third party SharePoint solution provider for project management

- July 7-18, 2008: Involved in various meetings and conference calls to architect, design and market SharePoint solutions to new and existing clients

Let's wrap up with a few questions that we like to ask of all SharePoint experts that we talk to, beginning with, what's your favorite feature/functionality of SharePoint? 

Being able to connect Web Parts is on top of my list. 

Conversely, what do you feel is SharePoint's biggest weakness/drawback?

Usability, navigation and the general user interface has greatly improved since the last version. However, it is quite challenging to customize the branding and user interface of SharePoint. I always tell my clients that with SharePoint, the world is upside down - it is easier to implement complex functionalities than customizing the look and feel.

What is your vision of collaborative computing five years from now?

Here's what my typical day in July 2013 would look like: 

5:00AM: Wake up to my iPhone/Android smartphone buzzing 

5:10AM: Smartphone displays my schedule for the day and Twitter updates

7:00AM: On my way to work and my GPS-enabled vehicle is updating my real-time location to brightkite and  a mapping Web Part on a SharePoint site so my colleagues will know where I am

9:00AM: Conducting a systems integration design meeting and prototyping with my team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Manila, Philippines using Second Life on a touch screen smart board

11:45AM: I get an MMS message suggesting restaurants around the 5 mile radius in my current location and the suggestions are based on the food preference of the majority of the 3 people I am meeting with.

2:00PM: Stuck in traffic (some things never change) en route to a client meeting. From my Apple-based car computer, I get an IM alert from a SharePoint document library describing the changes of a proposal document that was edited by two of my colleagues.

5:00PM:  Time to go home, not! I am updating a project schedule on a SharePoint PMIS which will update and synchronize all the task assignments of my project team displayed on their calendars stored on their computers and mobile devices.

8:00PM: While having dinner, my Microsoft Surface dinner table plays video clips of my son's fencing tournament that day. By the way, I am able to change the camera perspective from different angles and even zoom in to see if he has the right stance and form.

And finally, when you're not actively engaging with SharePoint, what hobbies and/or interests do you enjoy in your downtime?

I enjoy spending my time with my family, fusion cooking and mindlessly watching YouTube on my hacked Apple TV.

Do you have questions or comments on this article, or questions of your own for Dux?  Please visit our Project Management forum and share your thoughts with Bamboo Nation!