SharePoint Europe - Office 365 – SharePoint Online Instructor Guide

SharePoint Europe - Office 365 – SharePoint Online Instructor Guide https://www.sharepointeurope.com/office-365-sharepoint-online-instructor-guide-preview/

SharePoint & Teaching

When teaching others about SharePoint – the following items one should be mindful of:

·         Observe how you react to mistakes – and not be defensive – SharePoint is challenging to learn so users should be taught with patience

·         Try new learning techniques – users learn differently so be mindful of this – therefore creating many different mediums (live classes, remote classes, videos, quick guides, self-help written modules, etc.) is essential

·         Teach in your area of strength – if one is good with out of the box SharePoint aspects – they should teach in that area, if one is good with workflows, they should teach in that area  

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Paradigm Shift & SharePoint

In regard to SharePoint a paradigm shift is present as a lot of the time newer processes are needed for the system to be successful. Thus, adopting these traits will be good to possibly utilize:

Have a plan – in this regard, it’s having a scope for the SharePoint launch – this should include not only a schedule for launch but a launch for each teams/departments new sites/subsites. When launched proper training of basic functionality (uploading, alerts and views) should be given.

Value Driven – sell the platform via town-hall meetings, videos, e-mail blasts and proper on-line documentation. SharePoint empowers users which can’t be un-sprung if users don’t know how to utilize the system or know what it can do.

 

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Design a SharePoint Taxonomy

One of the most important aspects of SharePoint is having a good taxonomy -> because how users find information as well as where new sites and subsites are built depends on taxonomy.

Typically, I recommend that a taxonomy be filled in as such – so that end-users can start to see how the information, libraries and meta-data in their site will be created:

The one item – I’ve been utilizing for many years is the use of a private site which basically is a team site with unique permissions only to those users whom are granted permission to that said site.

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User Centered Design (UCID) Methodology

To have a focus on end users throughout a SharePoint project – the UCID is sometimes utilized.

The methodology includes four stages and both developer/designers and end users are engaged and work together at each step:

Research concept and plan – at this stage getting the user and compatibility requirements is done.

Design prototype – via a white board or wireframe – an actual working prototype is built – because most end users are visual.

Define branding – what are the color schemes and logo to be utilized.

Develop, launch and test – the prototype is developed then put into production and tested for general usability and accessibility.

The Beauty of the Link

A link in SharePoint is a beautiful item. Historically, individuals fire up their e-mail client and create an e-mail and then attach a file. This maybe good if the contents of that file – will not change – however in reality what if a typo is found or information changes? Now – if it’s attached that file is frozen in time and thus the typo stays forever – as does the information in that said e-mail.

Using a link allows one to fix that typo as well as make sure that everyone is looking at and receiving and viewing the latest information. Therefore – utilize the simple link by navigating to your document library and clicking that … then highlight the link displayed (the one starting with http:// or https://) and right mouse click it – and then select copy – go to your e-mail client – then right mouse click and select paste and then you will have your desired link in an e-mail:

SharePoint – Top 10 Ways to Train Users

The following are the 10 top items to consider in regard to SharePoint end user training:

1)      Create short quick guides (4-12 pages) of applicable features (uploading files, views, using calendars etc.)

 

2)      Create short videos on key aspects and make sure the videos are organized by topic area. Make them available via easy to find subject titles

 

3)      Create a blog and then post key items which the system can do – have good clear categories available so users can find information quickly

 

4)      Create guides 20-50 pages for those whom will be acting as site owner/content owners

 

5)      Run lunch and learn live and remote based sessions – keeping subject matter one hour in duration

 

6)      Offer – live training one hour to 90 minutes in duration which encompass showing users needed functionality

 

7)      Create a custom self-help by overriding the ? with one’s own content (could be a custom wiki/blog)

 

8)      Create live classes and offer a curriculum teaching basic users (covers navigation, terminology, simple basic items in regard to what SharePoint can do, etc.)

 

9)      Create live classes and offer a curriculum for content owners (covers editing/adding pages, creating lists and views, etc.)

 

10)   Create live classes and a curriculum for site owners (covers editing/adding pages, creating sites, handling permissions and site features which can be enabled, etc.)

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Project Methodology - Waterfall vs. Agile for SharePoint Projects

In regard to project management methodologies and SharePoint – for a long time I utilized a pure Waterfall methodology where requirement analysis, system design, implementation, testing, deployment and maintenance was done. Since a large majority of the SharePoint work I’ve done to date involved migrating content from one system to another or from one SharePoint version to another – this methodology appeared to work well in these projects – however pros and cons were evident. Essentially since content always needed to be reviewed the requirement was well known it was move content from this SharePoint location/version to this SharePoint location/version. At the system design phase – the Waterfall and SharePoint do work a majority of the time because it is known what the said systems base will be utilizing. The only aspects from a systems standpoint is that from one version to another – different features typically needed to be turned on to support needed functionality. Great example being site publishing. Testing using Waterfall – seemed to always be slow as test scripts either needed to be written or a load test needed created in the designated application (example: Load-runner, Team Foundation Server, Stress Stimulus etc.) Additionally, deploying using Waterfall seemed to produce a fair amount of documents surrounding lists of various items that needed turned on, configured for, migrated, moved etc. Then maintenance using Waterfall – really always seemed to leave a lot to be desired as guess work into what was really being asked for a lot of times – resulted in sites and subsites that didn’t meet user’s requirements and thus – had to be scrapped.  

Now coming to age – it appears SharePoint and an agile project methodology – work well. The notion of creating work that is broken down into 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 90 day sprints is ideal.  For the larger work an epic – usually work that spans a quarter (or 90 days) works well for SharePoint because typically this is how long the complex world of SharePoint to migrate a site or create it – spans if all the bells and whistles of content analysis, design, graphics, training and testing are to occur.

An example of an epic maybe: [SharePoint 2016 – IT Site]

A feature which would be a core item that needs to be included in the project and associated with this epic maybe: [SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT site

Stories are core working pieces that need to be built and are part of a feature – so example items are:

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT homepage landing

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT calendar page

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT contact list page

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT project list page

Tasks will then appear under each story so in this example case these would be:

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT homepage graphics

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT homepage content

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT calendar permissioned to only managers

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT contact list permissioned to only IT employees

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT project list permissioned only to project managers

Therefore putting this down on paper with the epic/feature/story/task – the project mapped out would look as such where the indenting depicts where the item fits in regard to this methodology:

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site]

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT site

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT homepage landing

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT homepage graphics

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT homepage content

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT calendar page

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT calendar permissioned to only managers

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT contact list page

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT contact list permissioned to only IT employees

[SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT project list page

 [SharePoint 2016 – IT Site] – Create IT project list permissioned only to project managers

Thus, it’s easy to see why the Agile methodology lends itself to SharePoint in a much broader way – as features, stories and tasks can be created as the project itself evolves. Since SharePoint lends itself to creating sites of business value – by using an Agile methodology users will have real working sites with the needed requirements more quickly and can therefore, change items as needed as the sprint progresses. Because of this – I’ve found that Agile is a better project methodology choice for SharePoint projects then Waterfall.

SharePoint 2016 Content Editor Instructor Guide

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HW3G5FQ

The world of SharePoint is an intricate one that many users need guidance on. Therefore, this guide is meant to be utilized by an individual whom will be reviewing via a demonstration format the core aspects that a general user who will be adding content to a site – will need to utilize. The guide can also be utilized by any individual interested in self-study learning the core and key aspects of SharePoint 2016.