Seven Pillars of SharePoint

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Introduction

Quite a few months ago I wrote a white paper titled Quit - Don't be the Subsequent SharePoint Disaster. Judging by the feedback and downloads it was certainly effectively received, with lots of readers out there telling us they had come up against some of those issues themselves.

Even so, not all readers had been pleased, some commented the white paper was too much about what not to do and not enough about essentially to do. They knew there SharePoint deployment was a disaster (they didn't have to have us to tell them that) what they did require was some assistance on how to turn it about and make it a achievement. In response to this feedback I decided to write second white paper to outline the steps necessary to take to make your SharePoint deployment a good results. I call this plan for success the Seven Pillars of SharePoint.

Creating a profitable SharePoint deployment is like developing a home - ahead of we start out choosing wallpaper and HD TVs for the inside we have to construct the home, and just before we can build the house we require to dig the foundations. The Seven Pillars of SharePoint are the foundations of the house - if they are powerful and robust the home will last for years, if they are shaky and incomplete the residence will come tumbling down about our ears.

Pillar 1 - Corporate Method

Once the decision has been produced to use SharePoint it is very important to document why SharePoint was brought in, where it will sit inside the organization and the functions it will give. This document should really be agreed by all involved and kept for future reference, this will come to be your SharePoint Method Document. As basic as this sounds without suitable documentation it can be easy to forget what SharePoint was supposed to do for the organization and why you even had it in the 1st place. The SharePoint Technique Document will need to offer continual guidance as to what information is to be held in SharePoint, and how that details requirements to be managed.

It is also essential to decide on the scope of SharePoint at this stage, with out clear guidance on what functions can be contained in SharePoint and which functions cannot, scope creep can set in. Scope creep can lead to the project growing without having guidance and can finish up in disaster. The group responsible for creating the technique document and ongoing governance are named the SharePoint technique team this team must consist of representatives from the stakeholder groups affected by SharePoint. This team will be responsible for generating the corporate method, implementing, managing and maintaining it.

The strategy team ought to also cover the following areas in the SharePoint Method Document:

•Information Architecture
•Project Management
•Site Policies
•Deployment and configuration
•Code Management
•Branding
•Testing
•Information Management
•Operational Concerns
•Education and Training
•Site Taxonomy

Pillar two - Alter Management Process

In order for SharePoint to grow and evolve with the organization users/stakeholders have to be able to request adjustments. The initial step in this process is setting up a mechanism for users to request a alter this could be done via the site as a survey or list. The technique team ought to convene regularly to analyse the alter requests. Initially they must check that the requested change is aligned with the overall objectives of SharePoint Method Document as discussed in Pillar 1 - The Corporate Strategy.

If the change request does not fit in with the strategy the team must feedback to the stakeholder and clarify why the alter was not implemented. If the requested change fits with the corporate method then the request wants to be passed onto the technical team for them to conduct a resource analysis on it. As soon as method team have a business case for the request with the resource data they are in a position to make a decision regardless of whether to implement or not.

This method need to be in place from the begin of a deployment to make positive all changes are analysed and implemented appropriately. Without this method the web page would either:

1) Stop growing and stay static, or
two) It would grow chaotically and turn into unworkable.

This procedure have to be applied to all change requests no matter how smaller or huge. The process control works most beneficial if applied consistently to all suggestions, with out appropriate guidelines a perceived smaller change could result in a main headache for the method team.

Pillar 3 - Back Workplace Administration

Prior to implementing the SharePoint deployment the back workplace team will have to have to make a decision which version of SharePoint to install Windows SharePoint Server 3. (WSS three.) or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS). If MOSS is selected a further consideration is which version to go for Enterprise or Normal.

As soon as these decisions are made (and licensing has been thoroughly investigated) the next choice the back offices has to take is to decide on the technical implementation and the specification of the hardware needed. These decisions are all based firstly on the expected visitors. Once the back office team has installed SharePoint there subsequent task prior to any function begins on the SharePoint environment is to test the backup and restore procedures. Without having a tested backup and restore the entire SharePoint deployment is put at risk. Only proceed with further developments when the backup and restore procedure works successfully.

The final job the back workplace staff should total is to produce a disaster recovery document this document will detail exactly what to do if a disaster need to occur. A disaster recovery document really should include a total set of directions such as screen grabs of how to bring the method back following a complete outage. This document ought to be a total step by step guide that can be followed by a non-technical member of staff.

Pillar 4 - Training

Training is important for a effective SharePoint deployment, without having training users will not be able to use all the functions inside the internet site and the deployment could fail. Getting users comfortable with SharePoint and familiar with the internet site will enhance user participation and enhance the most likely achievement of the web-site. Detailed training analysis is required to choose on the levels of skill inside your organization and how this maps on to SharePoint. Training is usually split into the following areas:

Server Administrator- This training is aimed at the person(s) responsible for maintaining the servers SharePoint is situated on.

Super User- The super user is responsible for 70% of the configurations of the website. This person ought to be IT literate and ought to be a proficient user of Microsoft Workplace. The super user must also have the capability to take small business complications and map them onto SharePoint - this role is perfect for a enterprise analyst

End Users- Finish Users account for the majority of SharePoint users finish users interact with the website most often and use data on the web-site to complete their job. It is essential that this group feel comfy with the web-site as they will generate the most site visitors, with out their interaction the deployment is put in jeopardy.

This breakdown covers the majority of SharePoint users located in most organizations. If your organization has the abilities to develop in-house then the following two locations of training will also need to be addressed.

SharePoint Designer Developer - As we can see from the role of the super user 70% of the organizations bespoke needs can be configured by this function. A further 20% can be customised by using a tool called SharePoint designer. This tool allows for codeless customisation. SharePoint designer allows the organization to generate much more complex workflows, non-normal information sources and a great deal much more.

The SharePoint Designer Developer is needed to have a high level of technical IT abilities but does not need to have code.

Visual Studio Developer - The final 10% of an organizations requirements has to be developed using Visual Studio. Developers can make even much more complex workflows, they can surface extremely intricate data constructed from a lot of disparate legacy systems - in reality just about anything that an organization wants to occur can be created by the Visual Studio developer.

The individual for this role should certainly already be a software program developer with information of Visual Studio.

Pillar 5 - Clear Ownership

It is imperative that the SharePoint web site is owned by somebody - the question is who? As mentioned earlier the ongoing governance is the domain of the organization's SharePoint team. For this reason it would appear logical that this team owns it.

The dilemma arises when we consider ownership of content material, who is responsible for what, who owns the documents, who owns the varied web-sites and sub-websites, who's responsible for deleting content material and so on. All of the above can be resolved by clear usage policies, from the start out of the deployment users will need to be clear on what they own, what they can delete and when.

The cornerstone to this is the capacity to create and deletes web sites the enterprise will need to have competent guidance in this area. Users will have to have to be completely certain under what circumstances they can create a sub-internet site. As soon as created the guidelines require to be really clear about how lengthy the website can remain open if there is no activity - remembering that the person responsible for making it may perhaps no longer be in post.

Pillar 6 - Technical Development Process

As soon as the organization starts to leverage SharePoint there will be an growing desire to boost the item by adding functions and configurations. To do this safely the company will want a safe, efficient and repeatable method. Microsoft has enabled this in advance by which includes the notion of functions into SharePoint.

Once a widget has been produced for the SharePoint web page it is uploaded by a designated person, this then becomes a feature accessible to the website. When the feature has been uploaded it can be turned off or on with a click of the mouse from the Website Settings page. This is important as if there are errors in the feature a non-technical user with the right permissions can switch the feature off and it will no longer be active. This reduces the amount of time the feature is on the market and reduces the need for technical involvement.

It is also significant for the organization to implement a Create-Test-Deploy process for new features and web-site designs. This procedure should take location on a totally separate set of hardware from the main deployment. This hardware can also be employed as a backup to the major server as component of the disaster recovery program.

Pillar 7 - Ongoing Maintenance Tasks

Maintenance to SharePoint takes two types change requests (as mentioned in Pillar two) and ongoing maintenance tasks. Ongoing maintenance job are defined as tasks that are completed on a everyday, weekly or monthly basis to maintain the website updated. These maintenance job do not affect the structure of the web-site, its functions or the overall look and really feel, if they do then they are classified as a alter request and need to go through that method. An example of a maintenance task would be adding announcements to a team web-site, or adding a column to a list.

These smaller everyday tasks are the especially tasks that keep the web site alive and relevant. It is significant to take these task into account when preparing for a SharePoint web site, the technique team should look at who is going to total these tasks and at what frequency. SharePoint works at its most beneficial when ongoing maintenance tasks are delegated to many Finish Users inside each web site. This allows web site owners and participants to have a lot more control over their web site it also stops a bottle neck forming when the responsibility for these tasks fall to one person.

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