In the last weekend I tried, with a number of CGI colleagues, how far we could get implementing a case management system with SharePoint 2013.
The last years we have created a number of case management systems on multiple platforms and the idea ripened that this should be doable on SharePoint as well.
We choose to have a hackathon: 15 colleagues locked in a youth hostel in the woods for one and a halve day, knowing that the management would come and judge the result on Saturday afternoon. Due to the time pressure, building a lot of custom code was no option, everything would have to be done using out of the box SharePoint.
The case we received on Friday was quite generic, based on what we had seen with customers. The figure below gives an impression.
The work was split in three teams, each taking a block of process steps. After working hard for one and a halve day and a lot of fun we presented the results to the management. Together we concluded that we had been able to realize an amazing amount of functionality. Each block had been dived in 5 to 6 obligatory functions and 4 to 5 optional ones. All obligatory functions had been realized and were shown to the management. A considerable number of optional ones were also realized (but could not be shown due to the length of the demo).
The solution was created entirely with out of the box SharePoint 2013, except for a small adjustment in the standard approval workflow.
Would our solution be mature enough to be used in real world situations? No, of course not. A mature case management system has loads of functionality which we were not able to create in such a short time. On the other hand, we were not that far from a minimal usable system.
An important difference with the realisation of a real case management system is that we had very clear, mature requirements. Because of this, the realisation could be taken up very efficiently. In the real world, this is never the case. Even when great minds have gone at great lengths to create the requirements, the realisation phase brings up new insights and new questions, because everything becomes very concrete. Since these issues are related to the fundamental processes and sometimes to the web of institutional politics, it can take a while to clear up. All that time the team is working less efficiently.
This hackathon confirmed our idea that implementing a case management system (and enterprise content management in general) is no so much a system challenge, but the challenge is in eliciting the requirements in an efficient manner, in such a way that they align with the higher business goals, policies and overall architecture.
All in all a great experience in which we learned a lot!