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Lessons Learned from a SharePoint Implementation -

Cradle to GraveRichard Darzynkiewicz

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Welcome to SharePoint Saturday Houston

• Please turn off all electronic devices or set them to vibrate• If you must take a phone call, please do so in the hall so as not

to disturb others• Special thanks to our Title Sponsor, ProSymmetry

Thank you for being a part of the 5th Annual SharePoint Saturday

for the greater Houston area!

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Thanks to all our Sponsors!

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Information• Speaker presentation slides should be available

from the SPSHOU website within a week or so

• The Houston SharePoint User Group will be having it’s next meeting Wednesday April 15th. Please join us at www.h-spug.org

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SharePoint - Cradle to Grave

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Overview• I’ve been an IT Solution Architect for United Space

Alliance for over fifteen years• Our company implemented several SharePoint

farms starting in 2007 for various uses• USA has shrunk from almost 12,000 employees to

less than 50 over the last few years• In December 2014, we turned off our last

SharePoint farm• This presentation contains lessons learned and

best practices from startup to shutdown

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RIP SharePoint

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SharePoint in the Cradle• Plan what you will use it for (build a roadmap)

• Demo it out (kick the tires)

• Get strong stakeholders (execs would be best)

• Know what it will cost (we had a million dollar plus Decision Package)

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SharePoint Roadmap (circa 2010) .

IDS and BDPilots

Unofficial and Draft Content

User and Group Drives

Web

ECM

Apps

BI

= where we are today

= decision points

SPOC

Ends

NewMSEA

SP2010

TBD

?..

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• Find some low hanging fruit (quick wins)

• Start documenting your processes (better yet, have your customers do it!)

• Train your developers (train your trainers)

• Find points of contacts (Software Development Leads, Office of Primary Responsibility, etc.)

SharePoint Infancy

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One of Our Document Libraries

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SharePoint Adolescence• Use SharePoint to manage the SharePoint projects

(eat your own dog food)

• Build a Governance system (not just a document)

• Identify some customer pain points (but don’t automate a broken process!)

• Know when and not when to customize (upgrades will be affected)

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Richard’s Top 10 (OK, 12!)1. Only DRAFT information is allowed in SharePoint2. Be aware of what the classification is for the information

that you are working on and check that the Access Control List on the location where you are working coincides

3. A CURF is required for every individual who has elevated permissions in SharePoint

4. Do not enable “All Authenticated Users” on any resource in SharePoint

5. Every new site shall be registered by the SharePoint Team (workspaces are excluded)

6. Design the site to avoid breaking permission inheritance

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Richard’s Top 10 (OK, 12!)8. No Personal Sites are allowed in SharePoint9. Wikis, Blogs and Forums must be moderated (requiring

review prior to posting) if it is open to all USA Employees9. The default SharePoint Groups shall be renamed to more

clearly indicate the location or the general membership of the group

10.Organizational Charts are not allowed in SharePoint11.Leave Thursday evenings for SharePoint maintenance,

software installs, promotions, etc12.The default SharePoint MasterPages, PageMasters,

Themes and CSSs shall be used

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SharePoint Childhood• Create mandatory training (and remediation!)

• Start looking for 3rd party tools (for automation)

• Team Blog (how did we do that?)

• Start monitoring performance (don’t let the customers tell you SharePoint is down)

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“Connection Dropped” Errors

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5

10

15

20

25

30

SharePoint Errors Per Day

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SharePoint Early Adulthood• Start planning for upgrades (it is inevitable)

• Get support beyond the MSDN forums (get to know your Microsoft Rep!)

• Recognize team members (awards, etc.)

• Not everyone can get a tab at the top of the page (categorize your site types)

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“Next 100” link missing

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SharePoint Adulthood• We needed full-time Librarians (but didn’t get

any)

• Become “Leading Edge” not “Bleeding Edge” (let others do all the R&D)

• Climb the Capability Maturity Model ladder (CMMI)

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CMMI Certification

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SharePoint Old Age• Monitor disk usage (and delete old sites)

• Audit your processes (surprise tests!)

• Rebrand your image (finally customize that Master Page?)

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SharePoint Age = Super Dog Years? .

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SharePoint in the Grave• We exported SharePoint content into file shares

(I know, really!)

• We found that MOSS 2007 had a reserved word (folder names)

• We found authoritative data in the collaboration areas (I know, really!)

• Quality check your transfers (as a CYA)

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Quality Check of Files Moved

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Conclusion• You may not have all these steps, or have them in

the same order (not all SharePoint implementations are equal)

• If I have given someone an idea that they can take back, I have been successful (I hope!!)

• Enjoy the rest of the conference, thanks for attending my talk

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Contact Me• richdarz@live.com• www.linkedin.com/in/richarddarzynkiewicz• www.twitter.com/richdarz• The Houston SharePoint User Group will be having

it’s next meeting Wednesday April 15th. Please join us at www.h-spug.org

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