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SharePoint 2010 Governance Best Practices

Prepared for Prepared by Submitted on

SharePoint Saturday Boston Scott Jamison Jornata 8 Faneuil Hall Boston, MA April 25, 2020

About Scott Jamison

• • • • CEO of Jornata, a Gold Certified SharePoint & Online partner in the Northeast Works closely with Microsoft on product planning, business & technical guidance SharePoint Certified Master Author: – – Essential SharePoint 2007 Essential SharePoint 2010 – Four whitepapers on SharePoint 2010 April 25, 2020 Progress. Accelerated.

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Agenda

• • • • • Why do you need a Governance Plan?

What does Governance mean in the context of SharePoint?

Governance Top Ten Important Governance Considerations for SharePoint 2010 Summary 3 Progress. Accelerated.

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WHY GOVERNANCE?

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An Analogy…

• • • • • You want to create an easy way for people to get around So, you create a project called the “Interstate Highway System” You invest heavily in infrastructure (fuel-efficient cars, excellent roadways, gas stations, etc.) BUT…you neglect to invest in the “rules of the road” – Drive on the right – Obey stop lights – Obey the speed limit Without them, there’s chaos. April 25, 2020 Progress. Accelerated.

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Without Governance

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With Governance

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SharePoint – incredible demand, incredible capabilities …

Bill Gates at the 2008 SharePoint Conference

“There is an incredible demand today for solutions that help businesses to harness the power of a global work force and tackle the challenges that come with the explosive growth of digital information. The spectacular growth of SharePoint is the result of the great combination of collaboration and information management capabilities it delivers. I believe that the success we’ve seen so far is just the beginning for SharePoint.”

… but solution success is not just about technology …

Training Support Technology Policies Communication Deployment Documentation

20%

… and it’s easy to make mistakes

• • • • • • Not defining policies on what to use SharePoint for (and what not to use it for) Empowering users without appropriate training and guidance Letting users manage security when they have no clue what they are doing Not treating SharePoint like an enterprise application Not planning for scale and/or growth Not providing SharePoint as a centralized service for the organization

So, why do you need Governance?

• • • • • Avoid portal, team site, and content "sprawl" Ensure that content quality is maintained for the life of the portal Consistently provide a high quality user experience by ensuring that the governance plan is followed Establish clear decision making authority and escalation procedures so that policy violations are dealt with and conflicts are resolved on a timely basis Ensure that the portal strategy is aligned with business objectives so that it continuously delivers business value

A Governance plan is important…

Because: – SharePoint often overlaps with other installed applications in particular capabilities – Many of SharePoint’s capabilities are not ‘required’ or ‘mandated’; users need to understand the value to get the benefit – Users can do a lot – we give them “great power” and need to ensure they accept their “great responsibility”

What is SharePoint governance?

• • Your governance plan defines roles & responsibilities, technology and policy guidelines, and processes to resolve ambiguity, manage short and long-range goals, and mitigate conflict within an organization Your governance plan – Clarifies your plan for SharePoint design and usage – Creates structure and framework to measure and manage the success of your solution over time

Three Key Governance Items

• • • Policies – (“May do”) Guidance – (“Should do”) Enforcement – (“Can do”) Progress. Accelerated.

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Three Key Governance Items

• • • Things that users can and cannot do. These items are enforced via technology. For example, a company might impose a site collection quota or file upload restriction.

Things that users may and may not do. These items are described within processes & policy. For example, a company might have a policy that customer information must not be stored within a SharePoint list unless it’s secured properly.

Things that users should and should not do. These items are described within a set of guidance. For example, a company might recommend that documents should be shared via document workspaces and not emailed as attachments.

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Top 10 Governance ‘Must Haves’

Governance Top Ten List

1. Have a Clear Vision 2. Key Roles and Responsibilities 3. Deployment Model 4. One Size Does Not Fit All 5. Policies 6. Guiding Principles 7. Launch and Roll-out (Adoption) Strategy 8. Content Management Plan 9. Training Plan 10. Governance Plan Document

1. Vision: What are the business goals? They could be…

• • • • • • • Improve collaboration with partners Create a searchable central repository of marketing assets Provide a one-stop shop for firm-wide information Share best practices and collaborate across teams with online collaboration workspaces Replace shared drives with searchable, organized document repositories Provide a platform for document management Showcase a business process dashboard

• • • • • •

1. Vision: What are the business outcomes? They could be…

Provide easier and more timely access to the information employees need to get their work done Provide easier and more effective mechanisms to move work between business entities, such as self-service for customers or partners, enabling outsourcing by providing business partners with access to a collaboration environment or business data on an extranet Provide an organized "one stop shop" for information by making it easier to find authoritative information Improve the ability to share and exchange information across the organization by providing an electronic publishing method that is easy for

users to leverage

Improve the "time to talent," the speed with which new employees become productive Capture knowledge of retiring employees in a collaborative environment

2. Roles and Responsibilities

• • Put the right team together…early – Use an upgrade as an opportunity!

Don’t assume SharePoint can be managed with existing resources (even if SharePoint is already in place). Getting the right people in place is an important step in the process.

– Include both business process and IT process contacts on the governance team – Work with the PMO and standards teams within the organization to leverage ITIL, ISO, Six Sigma, and other standards that may be in place

Enterprise Roles and Responsibilities

Role

Executive Sponsor Governance Board/Steering Committee

Responsibilities

Provides executive level sponsorship for the solution. The primary responsibility of the Executive Sponsor is strategic, positioning the solution as a critical mechanism for achieving business value and helping to communicate the value of the solution to the management levels of the organization.

Serves as a governance body with ultimate responsibility for meeting the goals of the solution. This Board is typically comprised of representatives of each of the major businesses represented in the solution, including Corporate Communications and IT.

Business Owner Solution Administrator (Technology) Technology Support Team Manages the overall design and functionality integrity of the solution from a business perspective. Manages the overall design and functionality integrity of the solution from a technology perspective. Works in partnership with the Business Owner.

Ensures the technical integrity of the solution. Develops new web parts and provides support to Site Sponsors/Owners seeking enhancements to their pages or new uses of the solution.

Site Roles and Responsibilities

Role

Site Sponsor/Owner Site Steward Users

Responsibilities

Serves as the centralized, primary role for ensuring that content for a particular page/site is properly collected, reviewed, published, and maintained over time. The Site or Page Sponsor/Owner is an expert in the content that is showcased on the site or page. Manages the site day-to-day by executing the functions required to ensure that the content on the site or page is accurate and relevant. Monitors site security to ensure that the security model for the site matches the goals of the business and Site Sponsor/Owner and support users of the site by serving as the primary identified contact point for the site.

Uses the solution to access and share information. Users may have different access permissions in different areas of the solution, sometimes acting as a Contributor and other times acting as a Visitor.

3. Deployment Model

4.0 One Size Does Not Fit All

Corporate Business Taxonomy With Divisional Stakeholders

Central Portal

Aggregation & Navigation

Division Portals

Business Process Management Division News Group Reporting & Scorecards Self-Service Site Creation + Life Cycle Management Provisioned per User

Loosely Structured Group, Team, Project Sites and Workspaces Individual Contributors

Blogs, Social Networking

5. Policies

• • • Design Policies – Policies and Best Practices for Site Designers Usage Policies – Clear instruction on how and when users should work with SharePoint • • What constitutes abuse or misuse of system How to keep information secure information • When to use SharePoint versus other alternatives Help Policies • • Get support and training Request design and development services • Request new functionality

6. Guiding Principles

• • • Guiding Principles help Site Designers narrow the scope of the “possible” to focus on the “practical” and “valuable.” Guiding Principles help Site Designers make trade offs (“if this is the problem, choose this approach”) Guiding Principles remind users of the behaviors necessary to achieve business objectives (such as “send links, not attachments”)

Example Guiding Principles – Design

• • • • • • Consistent user experience Design with the end user in mind – minimize the need for training Standards tied to scope (audience) Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should (“with great power comes great responsibility”) Existing rules still apply (privacy, use of IT resources, records retention) Default access is “read only” for all – apply additional “read” security only as needed

Example Guiding Principles – Usage and Content Management • • • • • • No e-mail attachments – send links Publish once, link many 2007: Use Metadata, not Folders – more flexible in responding to a dynamic environment 2010: Use folders, inherit metadata Content management is everyone’s responsibility but site owners are accountable The metadata paradigm shift – likely to be your biggest challenge: relevant examples are critical!

Content owners are responsible for ensuring their content is managed according to corporate records retention policies.

7. Adoption Strategy

• • Potential Issues: – The new system will require time for the company culture to adapt to it – build that time into the schedule – Users may lack sufficient training – ensure they get the training they need – Users may continue to do things the way they are used to – encourage users to adopt new business practices Tactics: – Fun and engaging launch event – “Lunch and Learn”/”Get Sharp on SharePoint” – Power Users Community of Practice

Adoption Doesn’t 'Just Happen'

Need to reach critical mass to stay in the game

VHS and Betamax: adoption x time Tipping point Crossing the Chasm critical mass critical mess

8. Content Management Plan

• • • • • • • What is the only thing we can guarantee about your solution? Everything will change!

Establish who can change and approve content Establish how often content needs to be reviewed – better yet, build in automated processes to route content for review Establish policies regarding who will manage content security Establish policies on what customization is allowed on a site Establish policies for code deployment Plan for your Governance Plan to change!

9. Training Plan

• • • • • • Not a “one time” thing Not just about features and functions – it’s also about guiding principles, value proposition, etc.

Don’t forget that everyone is listening to the same radio station: WIIFM – make it personal!

Who to train: – Site Collection Administrator(s) – Engineers, ops, developers, designers – Help Desk – End users What to train: – Skills to design, manage and support Consider a variety of approaches – not everyone learns the same way 32

10. Governance Plan Document

• • Consider breaking the document into “consumable” chunks – Vision, Roles and Responsibilities, Guiding Principles – Policies, Guidelines/Best Practices, and Procedures Don’t include: – Implementation Details – Network Requirements – Feature Requirements TIP: The process of creating the document is the most important part!

Example Governance Plan Outline

SECTION 1: General Governance Guidelines 1.0 Governance Plan Objective 2.0 Vision Statement 3.0 General Guidelines 4.0 Roles and Responsibilities 5.0 Guiding Principles SECTION 2: Detailed Governance Policies and Standards 6.0 Content Management Policies and Standards • Posting Content to Existing Pages or Sites • Posting Content to the Home Page SharePoint 2010 Governance Planning July 2010 • Posting Content to Personal Pages • Social Tags and Ratings • Records Retention • Content Auditing and Review 7.0 Design Policies and Standards • Creating New Subsites • Page Layout and Organization • Content Types and Metadata • Content-Specific Guidelines/Policies • Security • Branding 8.0 Customization Policies and Standards • Browser-based updates • Updates based on SharePoint Designer • Sandboxed Solutions • Centrally-deployed / 3rd Party Solutions

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SharePoint 2010: Detailed Governance Considerations

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SharePoint 2010 Considerations

Social Computing Implications – Governance planning is even more important in SharePoint 2010 because the increased emphasis and availability of social computing features means there are more types of content to govern.

– SharePoint 2010 offers users a far more participatory role in the solution information architecture through the use of “social data” such as tags, bookmarks and ratings. • Users need to understand and internalize the value proposition for leveraging these features. • Solution designers will likely need to provide both guidance and encouragement for their use.

SharePoint 2010 Considerations

• Managed Metadata – Consistent Terminology – Better Navigation/Filtering – Better Search Results – Easier on Users – But…potential for confusion • What is Metadata?

• Authoritative Tagging vs. Social Tagging – Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy

SharePoint 2010 Considerations

• Records Management – In-Place Records vs Records Archive – – You’ll likely use both – need to decide which and when Has effect on: • • • • • Record retention rules Which users can view records Ease of locating records (Collaborators vs Records Managers) Maintaining each version as a record Records Auditing • • • Site Organization (and number of sites used) E-Discovery Security – If you are doing Records Archive, you need a records manager role!

SharePoint 2010 Considerations

• • Resource Governor – – For >5,000 Items in a List Will prevent some sites from working – know how to communicate this Content Organizer – Partitioning Mechanism – Do you use it?

– “Where did my document go?”

SharePoint 2010 Considerations

• SharePoint Customization – SharePoint Designer: Off or On?

– Partially Trusted vs Fully Trusted Code • SODA: SharePoint On-Demand Applications – Excel and Access Solutions

Summary

• • • • • • • Establish a governance plan to ensure quality and relevance of content and to ensure that all users understand their roles and responsibilities.

Make sure that you have a Governance Board or Steering Committee with a strong advocate in the role of Executive Sponsor.

Keep your governance model simple. Solutions need a strong governance model, but they don't need complicated models with lots of bureaucracy. Don't make the solution itself more complicated than it needs to be. Be careful about "over designing." Just because SharePoint has a cool feature doesn't mean that you need to deploy it – at least not right away.

Ensure that all users with design or “full control” privileges have internalized your design guiding principles and that content contributors understand guiding principles related to content. Think about how you will ensure compliance with your governance plan over time, particularly for highly visible sites. You may want to carefully monitor and review some sites and only spot check others.

An effective governance plan doesn’t have to constrain every move – it has to provide guidance to users to ensure that your solution remains effective and vibrant over time.

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Questions?

Thank You!

Contact Info: Scott Jamison Email: [email protected]

Blog: www.scottjamison.com

Jornata: www.jornata.com

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