Governance Fundamentals for SharePoint

Scott JamisonMarch 6, 2012

Meet Scott Jamison Chief Architect & CEO at Jornata

Formerly a Director at Microsoft Microsoft partner w/Gold Competency in Portals & Collab

SharePoint MVP Microsoft Certified Architect for SharePoint Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint Author:

Essential SharePoint 2007 Essential SharePoint 2010 Five whitepapers on SharePoint 2010

Blog: www.scottjamison.com Twitter: @sjam

Agenda Why do you need a Governance Plan? What does Governance mean in the context

of SharePoint? Top Ten Governance Considerations for

SharePoint Summary

WHY GOVERANCE?

An Analogy… You want to create an easy way for people to get

around So, you create a project called the “Interstate

Highway System” You invest heavily in infrastructure (fuel-efficient

cars, excellent roadways, gas stations, etc.) BUT…you neglect to invest in the “rules of the road”

Drive on the right (or left) Stop at intersections

Without them, there’s chaos.

Without Governance

With Governance

SharePoint Governance: Simply the “Rules of the

Road”

Why Governance? Solution success is not just about technology

20%Support

Training

CommunicationPolicies

Technology

DocumentationDeployment

It’s easy to make mistakes Not defining policies on what to use SharePoint for

(and what not to use it for) Empowering users without appropriate training and

guidance Letting users manage security when they have no

clue what they are doing Not planning for scale and/or growth Providing (or not providing) SharePoint as a

centralized service for the organization

So, why do you need Governance? Avoid sprawl Ensure that content quality is maintained Consistently provide a great user experience Establish clear decision making authority Establish clear process for new policies and features Establish clear escalation procedures so that policy

violations are dealt with and conflicts are resolved on a timely basis

Ensure that the portal strategy is aligned with business objectives so that it delivers business value

A Governance plan is important…Because:

SharePoint often overlaps with other installed applications in particular capabilities

Many of SharePoint’s capabilities are not ‘required’ or ‘mandated’; users need to understand the value to get the benefit

Users can do a lot – we give them “great power” and need to ensure they accept their “great responsibility”

What is SharePoint governance? Your governance plan defines:

roles & responsibilities technology and policy guidelines processes to resolve ambiguity, manage short and long-

range goals, and mitigate conflict within an organization

What is SharePoint governance? Your governance plan:

Clarifies your plan for SharePoint design and usage

Creates structure and framework to measure and manage the success of your solution over time

What is SharePoint Governance?

How to Govern Policies

(“May/May Not do”) “You must stop at intersections.”

Guidance (“Should/Should Not do”)

“You should stop at a gas station if you’re at ¼ tank or less.” Enforcement

(“Can/Cannot do”) “Here’s your speeding ticket.” “In a skid, anti-lock brakes will engage automatically.”

Top 10 Governance ‘Must Haves’

Governance Top Ten List1. Have a Clear Vision2. Key Roles and Responsibilities3. Deployment Model4. Governance Needs Can Vary Within Your IA5. Policies 6. Guiding Principles7. Launch and Roll-out (Adoption) Strategy8. Content Management Plan9. Training Plan10.Governance Plan Document

1. Vision: What is your business goal?

Improve collaboration with partners Create a searchable central repository of marketing assets Provide a one-stop shop for firm-wide information Share best practices and collaborate across teams with

online collaboration workspaces Replace shared drives with searchable, organized document

repositories Provide a platform for document management Showcase a business process dashboard

1. Vision: What is your business outcome?

Provide easier and more timely access to the information employees need to get their work done

Provide easier and more effective mechanisms to move work between business entities, such as self-service for customers or partners, enabling outsourcing by providing business partners with access to a collaboration environment or business data on an extranet

Provide an organized "one stop shop" for information by making it easier to find authoritative information

Improve the ability to share and exchange information across the organization by providing an electronic publishing method that is easy for users to leverage

Improve the "time to talent," the speed with which new employees become productive

Capture knowledge of retiring employees in a collaborative environment

Put the right team together…early Use an upgrade to 2013 as an opportunity!

Don’t assume SharePoint can be managed with existing resources (even if SharePoint is already in place). Getting the right people in place is an important step in the process. Include both business process and IT process contacts on the

governance team Work with the PMO and standards teams within the organization to

leverage ITIL, ISO, Six Sigma, and other standards that may be in place

2. Roles and Responsibilities

Governance Stakeholders

Enterprise Roles and Responsibilities

Role Responsibilities

Executive Sponsor

Provides executive level sponsorship for the solution. The primary responsibility of the Executive Sponsor is strategic, positioning the solution as a critical mechanism for achieving business value and helping to communicate the value of the solution to the management levels of the organization.

Governance Board/Steering Committee

Serves as a governance body with ultimate responsibility for meeting the goals of the solution. This Board is typically comprised of representatives of each of the major businesses represented in the solution, including Corporate Communications and IT.

Business OwnerManages the overall design and functionality integrity of the solution from a business perspective.

Solution Administrator (Technology)

Manages the overall design and functionality integrity of the solution from a technology perspective. Works in partnership with the Business Owner.

Technology Support Team

Ensures the technical integrity of the solution. Develops new web parts and provides support to Site Sponsors/Owners seeking enhancements to their pages or new uses of the solution.

Site Roles and ResponsibilitiesRole Responsibilities

Site Sponsor/Owner

Serves as the centralized, primary role for ensuring that content for a particular page/site is properly collected, reviewed, published, and maintained over time. The Site or Page Sponsor/Owner is an expert in the content that is showcased on the site or page.

Site Steward

Manages the site day-to-day by executing the functions required to ensure that the content on the site or page is accurate and relevant. Monitors site security to ensure that the security model for the site matches the goals of the business and Site Sponsor/Owner and support users of the site by serving as the primary identified contact point for the site.

UsersUses the solution to access and share information. Users may have different access permissions in different areas of the solution, sometimes acting as a Contributor and other times acting as a Visitor.

3. Deployment Model

• One Farm? Many Farms?• Central Service?• Distributed Administration?

Deployment Model

Asset Classification

4. Information Architecture and Governance Areas

Above The Line versus Below The Line

Permanent central portal- Few authors/Many readers

DepartmentalPortlets

Projects & Workspaces

My Sites

Communication Portal• Central navigation • Central taxonomy• Divisional stakeholders• Enterprise search

Personal

Collaboration•Local taxonomies•Local search

Departmental portlets• Departments• Resources• Business Processes- Few authors/Many readers

Semi Structured Team sites- Multiple authors

Blogs, bios, Social

CentralPortal

Incr

easi

ng S

tric

tness

of

Govern

ance

4. Governance Needs Vary

5. Policies

Design Policies Policies and Best Practices for Site Designers

Usage Policies Clear instruction on how and when users should work with

SharePoint What constitutes abuse or misuse of system How to keep information secure information When to use SharePoint versus other alternatives

Help Policies Get support and training Request design and development services Request new functionality

5. Policies

Book Giveaway!

6. Guiding Principles

Guiding Principles help Site Designers narrow the scope of the “possible” to focus on the “practical” and “valuable.”

Guiding Principles help Site Designers make trade-offs (“if this is the problem, choose this approach”)

Guiding Principles remind users of the behaviors necessary to achieve business objectives (such as “send links, not attachments”)

Best Route

Example Guiding Principles:Design

Consistent user experience Design with the end user in mind – minimize the need for

training Standards tied to scope (audience) Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should (“with

great power comes great responsibility”) Existing rules still apply (privacy, use of IT resources,

records retention) Default access is “read only” for all – apply additional “read”

security only as needed

Example Guiding Principles:Usage and Content Management

No e-mail attachments – send links Publish once, link many 2007: Use Metadata, not Folders – more

flexible in responding to a dynamic environment

2010/2013: Use folders, inherit metadata Content management is everyone’s

responsibility but site owners are accountable

Content owners are responsible for ensuring their content is managed according to corporate records retention policies.

Potential Issues: The new system will require time for the company culture to adapt

to it – build that time into the schedule Users may lack sufficient training – ensure they get the training they

need Users may continue to do things the way they are used to –

encourage users to adopt new business practices Tactics:

Fun and engaging launch event Online scavenger hunt “Lunch and Learn” Power Users Community of Practice

7. Adoption Strategy

What is the only thing we can guarantee about your solution? Everything will change!

Establish who can change and approve content Establish how often content needs to be reviewed –

better yet, build in automated processes to route content for review

Establish policies regarding who will manage content security

Establish policies on what customization is allowed on a site

Establish policies for code deployment Plan for your Governance Plan to change!

8. Content Management Plan

Content Management Plan (Cont’d) For publishing pages, map all site content to:

Owner Description of content Update schedule

Example:

Owner: Mary SmithContains: Featured ContentDescription: A link to a featured item along with a short description.Updated: WeeklyConsequence: Fired!

9. Training Plan Not a “one time” thing Not just about features and functions – it’s also about guiding

principles, value proposition, etc. Don’t forget that everyone is listening to the same radio station:

WIIFM – make it personal! Who to train:

Site Collection Administrator(s) Engineers, ops, developers, designers Help Desk End users

What to train: Skills to design, manage and support

Consider a variety of approaches – not everyone learns the same way

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Consider breaking the document into “consumable” chunks Vision, Roles and Responsibilities, Guiding

Principles Policies, Guidelines/Best Practices, and Procedures

Don’t include: Implementation Details Network Requirements Feature Requirements

10. Governance Plan Document

TIP 1: The process of creating the document is the most important part!

TIP 2: Governance without enforcement is merely suggestion…

Example Governance Plan OutlineSECTION 1: General Governance Guidelines

1.0 Governance Plan Objective 2.0 Vision Statement 3.0 General Guidelines 4.0 Roles and Responsibilities 5.0 Guiding Principles

SECTION 2: Detailed Governance Policies and Standards

6.0 Content Management Policies and Standards • Posting Content to Existing Pages or Sites • Posting Content to the Home Page • Posting Content to Personal Pages • Social Tags and Ratings • Records Retention • Content Auditing and Review• Detailed ownership list – all sites/pages

7.0 Design Policies and Standards • Creating New Subsites • Page Layout and Organization • Content Types and Metadata • Content-Specific Guidelines/Policies • Security • Branding

8.0 Customization Policies and Standards • Browser-based updates • Updates based on SharePoint Designer • Sandboxed Solutions • Centrally-deployed / 3rd Party Solutions

SECTION 3: Enforcement

9.0 Policy and Process10.0 Guidance11.0 Penalties

Additional Governance Considerations

Additional Considerations

Social Computing Implications SharePoint 2013 offers users a far more

participatory role in the solution information architecture through the use of “social data” such as tags, bookmarks and ratings. Users need to understand and internalize the value

proposition for leveraging these features. Solution designers will likely need to provide both

guidance and encouragement for their use.

Additional Considerations

Managed Metadata Consistent Terminology Better Navigation/Filtering Better Search Results Easier on Users But…potential for confusion

What is Metadata? Authoritative Tagging vs. Social Tagging

Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy

Additional ConsiderationsRecords Management

In-Place Records vs. Records Archive You’ll likely use both – need to decide which and when Has effect on:

Record retention rules Which users can view records Ease of locating records (Collaborators vs. Records Managers) Maintaining each version as a record Records Auditing Site Organization (and number of sites used) E-Discovery Security

If you are doing Records Archive, you need a records manager role!

Summary Failing to Plan = Planning to Fail Get a Governance Board or Steering

Committee in place with a strong advocate in the role of Executive Sponsor

Keep your governance model simple (KISS!) Just because SharePoint has a cool feature

doesn't mean that you need to deploy it Full Control or Site Ownership? Require

Training! An effective governance plan doesn’t have to

constrain every move – it has to provide guidance to users to ensure that your solution remains effective and vibrant over time

Governance Resources SharePoint Governance (TechNet)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263356.aspx SharePoint Governance Whitepaper

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff848257.aspx Governance for SharePoint Poster

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199.aspx Governance Checklist

http://www.office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102306291033

Thank you! Blog: www.scottjamison.com Twitter: @sjam Email: scott.jamison@jornata.com www.jornata.com