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SharePoint Governance, Part 2

Robert Bogue

11/29/2006

Microsoft SharePoint technologies offer an immense amount of power for an organization, and harnessing this power is the goal of every business that installs SharePoint.

But adoption of SharePoint can get out of control without proper governance. In part two of this article, you'll learn more about some of the issues that you should consider

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for a SharePoint technologies governance plan.

Click here for part 1.

Operational Concerns

Operating a SharePoint environment, like any large scale web environment, has many components. The items listed here are an important part of your SharePoint governance plan because they help to ensure that the system will remain operational and because they set proper expectations with the business about the availability of SharePoint technologies.

Operational Concerns
Item	What To Do	Why To Do It
Monitoring	Establish monitoring at the server, site, and SharePoint level Define responses to each type of failure that may occur	Systems which are not available cannot be used by users. Taking a layered approach to monitoring the system encourages better awareness of issues with the platform.
Uptime and Downtime	Define Scheduled downtime periods Communicate the procedure to report unscheduled downtime or specific performance issues Define response procedures to unscheduled downtime	Establishing the periods of time which the system will not be available is critical to allow for patches to be applied. Communicating the process for unscheduled downtime will calm users when unscheduled downtime does occur.
Disaster Recovery	Plan for single file recovery (perhaps using version control and the recycle bin) Plan for single or multiple site recovery Plan for server recovery Plan for geo-disaster recovery	Disasters will happen. It's not a question of if but of when and how. Planning for them further reinforces the commitment to the platform and the instance that it will remain available.
Data and Documentation Recovery	Codify corporate records management requirements into SharePoint. Define rules for archival of sites including warnings and approvals	SharePoint technologies can help with the records management issues associated with maintaining too much - or too little information. Defining how SharePoint will work aligns it with the corporate governance.
Quotas	Establish storage quotas by site type Establish a process for requesting a larger quota	Storage management is the responsibility of everyone within the organization the establishment of technology supported guidelines can help to provide reasonable control around disk space consumption.
Reporting	Define required auditing reports Establish storage usage reports Develop activity based reporting for administrators and business users	Reporting upon what has been done is essential for various compliance needs. Developing user reporting to report on activity and storage create a necessary feedback loop for the organization to understand the value that is being derived from the SharePoint technologies platform.

Education and Training

As adoption is an important measure of SharePoint governance success, education and training are important proactive tools. Education and training not only explains the features that SharePoint technologies expose but it also helps users understand real world solutions that they can create.

Education and Training
Item	What To Do	Why To Do It
Initial Training	Acquire end user training and resources Acquire help desk training and resources Acquire administrator training and resources Develop administrator policy guides which describe organization specific policies Acquire developer training and resources Develop developer policy guides which describe organization specific development policies	Training both in the facilities and capabilities of SharePoint as well as the policies that have been defined by the organization is the most important proactive step to ensuring the consistency and manageability of the SharePoint technologies platform.
Community Development	Create online forums where users can support each other and ask questions. Create opportunities for face-to-face learning in unstructured or semi structured environments such as lunch and learns or after hours discussions.	Some kinds of information doesn't communicate well through structured training. The context necessary for users to understand how to apply it in their environment is sometimes best created through users talking with each other about the kinds of solutions they've implemented.
Renewal Training	Plan for renewal training which gathers the learning from multiple groups and exposes it to other groups. Perform periodic audits of the platform to discover what features are not being utilized and which features are not being utilized correctly.	Formally defining your intention to review progress from a user adoption standpoint can encourage the health review of the solution and what additional training is required.

Navigation, Taxonomy, and Search

The final set of considerations for your governance plan are those related to finding information - those related to navigation, taxonomy, and search. They are important for the long term adoption of SharePoint because they are the framework by which users find the information that they are looking for when they don't know where it's located.

Navigation, Taxonomy, and Search
Item	What To Do	Why To Do It
Site Directories	Define the structure of the site directories including the major groupings and associations. Develop a linking strategy between different types of sites such as enterprise, divisional, departmental, team, etc.	Defining a structure for how sites will be organized is an essential part of helping users find the information they need. Developing a linking strategy is necessary when a single directory becomes to unwieldy to manage as a one entity.
Content Types	Define core content types in the organization Define key fields to link documents and operational systems	Consistency, which leads to a greater ability to locate information, can be encouraged through the use of standardized fields through standard content types.
Search Locations	Establish content sources to the file based repositories in the organization. Use the Business Data Catalog to allow searching of business data	Search is an immensely powerful tool which can be essential in being able to find information throughout the enterprise. The more content SharePoint search can index, the easier it will be for users to find the information they're looking for.
Search Relevancy	Define who will be responsible for core relevancy settings Implement organizational enhancements of the noise words file, thesaurus file, and keyword best bets	Although search relevancy has dramatically improved in the SharePoint 2007 platform, additional efficiencies can be gained by fine tuning search for the organization.

Defining Success

SharePoint technologies governance is a broad need with guidance needed in many different areas. By developing a minimally sufficient governance plan that emphasizes expectation setting and communication, you can have a successful adoption of SharePoint technologies while maintaining an appropriate amount of control.

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