SharePoint Governance Training

 

MA-1040 - SharePoint Governance, Planning and Oversight

Next SharePoint Governance class: 9/4/2014
You can attend locally in Cincinnati or remotely from anywhere.

I've never delivered this training twice the same way… SharePoint changes (especially SharePoint online), I learn more everyday from from students and clients, available tools change, nothing stands still, This next class is no different. New handout, new labs, more content on cloud topics and lots of details. You will leave this class with an outline of your governance plan, and 1,000 new questions! Call it homework!

 

Why focus on SharePoint governance?

SharePoint will spread as a virus! It's too easy to use. Like Lotus 1-2-3, and later Excel, it will quickly spread beyond the limited set of users you first envisioned for the product. SharePoint attracts "stuff", kind of like a closet. Important stuff, junk stuff and stuff with a legal risk. Content will appear to grow on its own. Due to misuse and lack of training SharePoint will too often be like "a new coat of paint on an old car"… your old networks shares back to haunt you.

Governance is not just about SharePoint, SharePoint is just a tool to store and manage content. You have stored enterprise content on network shares, local disk drives, in emails and on paper for years. SharePoint attracts governance attention due to its simplicity, its complexity, rapid spread throughout the organization, and of course… stuff.

 

About governance plans

A governance plan should be created before you roll out SharePoint, but probably will be created after you have already done it the wrong way. Governance is a broad topic potentially touching every aspect of the organization. Governance is not just “the plan”.

• You can’t buy one
• You can’t have a consultant write one
• You can’t do it by yourself   (can you be the one person governance team!)

 

What should be governed?

SharePoint governance is more than rules for the server administrators. Governance is about people, content, and SharePoint.

• Information architecture and taxonomy - how is content categorized and later found
• Content guidelines - what should be stored
• Retention policies
• Physical infrastructure - who owns the servers, who has access to the servers, where are the servers, what is the service level expected?
• Customization policy - what should be customized, who should be responsible for the cost of customization and the cost of supporting customized sites
• Cloud based SharePoint? (Office 365, etc.) The issues are unique. 
• Security, security and security!
• Training? Required, optional, and for which users?

 

What you will get with no plan, and no enforcement

• Servers and installations everywhere with various levels of backup, services packs and legal licenses
• Dozens or hundreds of Office 365 subscriptions
• Lack of security
• Site and subsite structures with no plan
• Inappropriate content, often with legal issues
• Content duplicated everywhere, in multiple SharePoint sites and network shares
• Garbage in, garbage out (users moving entire network shares into SharePoint)
• A never ending growth in server storage requirements and hardware
• System downtime and slow performance
• Wasted employee time - searching for documents
• Wasted employee time - "decorating" / branding sites that should have simple business purposes
• Wasted employee time - reinventing the wheel (and new paint on the old car)
• Legal issues due to content being deleted that must be retained
• Legal issues due to content being kept that should have been deleted
• Add your own here ______________________________________

 

Remember…

• It’s your plan
• It’s your issues
• It’s not just any sample plan
• Ask questions…
• Get answers…
• Fill in the blanks!

 

See you in class!

Mike

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