Wiki Scorecard
Wiki pages can be divided in categories. I’ve blogged about several of those categories in the post, such as:
- The Link List Wiki, mentioned in blog post https://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2012/06/17/the-big-bang-metaphor.aspx
- The Estimation Wiki, discussed in blog post https://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2012/05/20/wikis-just-may-be-your-best-bet.aspx
- The From Forum Wiki, described in detail in blog post https://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2012/05/22/synergy-in-social-computing.aspx
Today, I’d like to talk about another type of Wiki page, the Wiki scorecard…
A very wise person once wrote:
“A scorecard provides fast and better insight…”
Okay, maybe it wasn’t a “very wise” person. Maybe I wrote it myself. Maybe I wrote it for a business intelligence chapter in an MS Press book. Nevertheless, it nicely sums up what is cool about scorecards. As it turns out, scorecards can be dangerous to, considering the “What a stupid I am” anecdote at https://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=16015.
On with the story… In the IT world, a scorecard is usually written by some vendor who compares his product to others like so:
Product A | Product B | My Product | |
Feature A | X | X | |
Feature B | X | X | |
Feature C | X | X | |
Feature D | X | X | |
Feature E | X |
Conclusion: My Product is the best!
I always wonder if such a list is fair and complete, and I’m always pretty sure it isn’t. If you could look into my mind, the previous scorecard could very well read like this:
SQL Server | Oracle | |
If you pronounce it right, “SQL” almost rhymes with “Smeagol”, the hobbit who became corrupted by the One Ring |
+ | - |
Oracle rhymes with “Bworrkul” which isn’t really a word, but is useful in sport events nonetheless |
- | + |
Hard to say which product won this battle, but my vote goes for SQL Server. Maybe we can decide the winner using the Comments section of this blog post?
Anyway, I feel that Wikis are great for keeping scorecards. The community gets a chance to alter the list of features/benefits or whatever, making it very plausible that this list will be exhaustive in the sense that all major topics will be listed. It’s also a better way to make the score section more balanced: everyone gets a chance to score. It just seems fairer and less biased that way. Thus far, I’ve only written one scorecard Wiki, here it is: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/9638.sharepoint-2010-best-practice-keep-relational-data-in-a-database-or-migrate-it-into-a-custom-list.aspx