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One of the most common questions that I get from prospects as I'm talking to them about the creation of a governance plan and process is what does it look like. In other words, there are materials available which describe what should be in a governance plan but there isn't a ton of guidance on what the process of creating a governance plan and process are.

Unlike a few years ago you now have sample governance plans you can look at, there are articles describing the kinds of things that you need to make sure are in a governance document, and a governance resource center on TechNet.

The goal of this article is something slightly different. The other resources available describe what to create, in this article I'll focus on the process for creating the plan based on the engagements I've been a part of. Rather than a specific step-by-step process, what appears here is a rough framework that you can and should tailor to your unique situation. In the following you'll also find some insight as to the psychology of putting a plan together as well as the aspects of how we as humans learn and process information.

The underlying assumption to this process is that you have an expert available. Whether you're contracting that expert yourself or using one of the Microsoft programs like SharePoint Deployment and Planning Services (SDPS) to get the resource, it's assumed that the time estimates below are your time with an expert.

Phase I: Orientation

The first phase of a typical governance project is an orientation phase. This is, generally speaking, a single day for a mid-sized organization but can be broken into multiple two half day sessions which are spaced close together (within one-two days). There are three major objectives for this phase:

Verify a clear definition and objective for the governance

Educate the consultant on the organization, industry, and special factors which may be working on the organization.

Educate the client on some of the features of SharePoint which may be appropriate to consider as a part of the governance process.

Walk through the high level decisions related to governance.

Ultimately the goal is to collaborate on the creation of a governance process and plan. In order to do this there are two different sets of domain knowledge that need to be transferred. First, the consultant needs to get from the client information about the organization including background on the industry in general (if the consultant isn't familiar with the industry) and any special factors for the organization that may make the governance process and plan difficult, different, or "interesting."

Second, the consultant needs to educate the client on the parts of SharePoint that are applicable to their situation. For instance, the quintessential feature is the Quotas feature. This is a part of nearly every governance plan. However, conversely, the SharePoint Single Sign On feature rarely is a part of a governance plan. The consultant will tailor the information communicated about SharePoint to those parts of the product which are most necessary to reach an agreement.

The final step is to walk through a high level discussion of governance. The objective is to review a set of questions that are useful for the creation of the plan. Frequently these questions are based on the two SharePoint Governance articles at IntranetJournal.com [Part 1 and Part 2] or the SharePoint Deployment Guide and Checklists. The goal is to sort the questions into three piles: definitely govern, don't govern, and discuss. We don't generally discuss the "discuss" items during this day because there isn't time. The good news is that the items that end up in the definitely govern category are relatively easy to develop guidance on and can be started without outside help -- although there are often cases where a review of these is appropriate.

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