SharePoint Governance Policies - Taxonomy

Each type of site can and should have its own set of policies:

Common sites that fit this realm are:

·         Mysites

·         Teamsites

·         Project Sites

·         Blogs

·         Wikis

Information Governance Policies

·         Users want and need to find information fast

·         They want the applicable content and data via a useful navigation taxonomy

·         Use of metadata can make it easy to search for and compare related items of information

Site Structure

·         Think how users need to work

·         What do they need to find first and fast

Examples ->

Human Resource information

General Search

People Search

Organization Chart

Organization Knowledge Base

Organization News

Information Technology Help (Guides and Videos)

Private / Team Collaboration / Ad-Hoc Collaboration

·         Sites are for departmental and/or divisional teams such as Finance, IT, HR etc.

·         They are permissioned as such so only the proper individuals have access

Project Collaboration

·         Sites are used mainly by PMO to manage Projects during the project lifespan

·         Temporary content

·         Controlled and moderately governed

 

Client Team Sites (Restricted)

These sites are used to store documentation related to clients with a site for each client

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SharePoint Back-up Strategy Planning

 The following are some items to consider when planning an on-premise backup strategy:

See the table columns below for items to be aware of and in this example some data was entered to see what could be needed:

Intranet – On-Premise
	Current database sizes per site collection:	Site Specs	Growth in last year	Estimated additional needed disk space for SharePoint	Estimated growth per year
	93 gigs	875 sites, 21757 lists, 257477 items.	45 gigs	300 gigs   (this is to perform farm back-up and site collection back-up)	50 gigs

Possibly Back-up policy:

Onsite available - > 7 dailies, 4 weekly, one monthly

Off-site available -> 3 monthly, 6 weekly, 14 dailies

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Governance – Proper Naming Conventions

The following are some items for consider for naming conventions:

Have format for database names – example->  WSS_Content_Sitename

Real world example ->  WSS_Content_IT

Have a format for document library naming (example IT_Core_Docs)

Have server name convention which – plans for growth

(example spweb1, spweb2, spweb3, spcentad1, spworkflow1, spsearch1, spdist1)

Names of files should be short and not utilize spaces – use _ instead

Names of view – should be short and descriptive (example: ITContacts or IT_Contacts)

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Governance Site Planning – Part 2

The following are some items to consider for site planning:

Will approval be turned on and who will approve content?

Who will secure sensitive information?

Who will have the permissions to create new sites?

Who will create and publish content?

Who will have the ability to customize sites?

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Governance Site Planning – Part 1

The following are some items to consider for site planning:

·         Decide if users will manage - own websites

·         Decide if users will create their own sites

·         Decide how users will use metadata (managed metadata navigation, managed metadata column or document sets)

·         Train users before they are granted permission to site

·         Decide if owner, member, visitor groups will be enough as far as permissions and who will grant access

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SharePoint Wheeling & Dealing

The following items can be used in regards to issues with SharePoint for what I call the wheeling & dealing:

 

1)      Think on how one can better a site via content, graphics, features and functionality

2)      Ask for clarification – if content and layout being asked for doesn’t make sense

3)      It is recommended to create a wiki of governance items that contains polices in regard to sites, permissions, naming conventions, requests for new functionality amongst other items. The wiki can then be referred to as the golden rule when issues/clarification is needed

4)      Ask users when you meet or talk with them “Am I making sense?”

5)      Say something once – in regard to pushing back when items out of scope are asked – then move on – don’t have negative behavior

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SharePoint – Working on a Project Collaboratively

Some core items to work collaboratively:

1)      Have to have process for how SharePoint projects are run (Agile, Waterfall, Constructive Cost Model – COCOMO, etc.)

2)      Have to obtain – good detailed specifications for what is needed on a site

3)      For new requirements that are requested – have to have process for approval if items will be approved by project/manager/manager/director

4)      Have to decide if out of the box functionality works or if customization is required

5)      Have to track issues/support tickets even if they are calls, e-mails or via a web-based form entry

6)      Capture changes to sites/applications thoroughly (maybe just use a simple custom list)

7)      All team members across the group – should be on the same page