SharePoint Information Architecture AppliedBy Bob MixonCollectiveKnowledge Solutions, Inc.

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About Bob Mixon

Delivering business solutions for more than 30 yearsFocusing on business process improvement, document management, knowledge management, collaboration and portals

Microsoft SharePoint MVP

2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

Specializing In Strategic Content Management Knowledge Management Document Management Content Choreography Records Management Business Social Collaboration

Governance Business Process Management

and Automation Intranet IMS, DMS, DAM, KMS

and Collaboration Portal Implementation

Training Speaking

CollectiveKnowledge Solutions, Inc.

Founder of CollectiveKnowledge Solutions, Inc.Senior SharePoint Information Architect

Agenda

• High-level Process Overview• Site Structure Taxonomy• Content Types (Data Taxonomy)• Content Type Hub (Enterprise Data Taxonomy)

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High-level IA Process Overview

Educate•Educate team on Process

Assessment•Audit Content•Requirements

Design•Primary Destinations

•Site Structure•Navigation Structure

•Data Taxonomy•Metadata

Implement•Web Apps•Site Collections•Content Type Hub

•Local Site Collection Content Types

•Metadata

Migrate•Content migration efforts

Educate•Educate team on new solution

Our Focus Today

Site Structure Taxonomy

• IA plays a significant part when designing a Site Structure Taxonomy– Reduce the question “where do I store and

manage this content?”• Store and manage content, of similar topic, in

a central location (use grouping principals)– Example: All HR content in the HR site collection,

all IT content in the IT site collection, etc.

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Site Structure TaxonomyExample Logical Design Model

Primary Destinations

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Site Structure TaxonomyExample Logical Design Model

Business Operations Web Application

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SharePoint Site TaxonomyIntranet Example

• A common mistake is to store and manage content to support consumers

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Intranet

Departments

Human Resources Operations

Resources

Corporate Policies

Corporate Forms

Storing all corporate policy documents in this site is problematic!1. Requires content owners to mark another sites to

manage their content.2. Promotes use of item-level security.

SharePoint Site TaxonomyIntranet Example

• Store and manage content as close to the point of topic/ownership as possible– Group content based on topic/ownership; not

consumption• Once you architect your information (through

categorizing and metadata principals) you can:– Consumer content grouping and views can be produced

through querying– Highly relevant results can be produced by search using

scopes and faceted filtering

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SharePoint Site TaxonomyIntranet Example

• Consider a different approach

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Intranet

Departments

Human Resources

Human Resources

Policies

Operations

Operations Policies

Resources

Corporate Policies

Corporate Forms

Corporate Policies site is simply a point of aggregation.

Corporate Policy documents are queried based on content type; Corporate Policy Document.

Human Resource Policies are stored and managed in the Human Resources destination.

Operations Policies are stored and managed in the Operations destination.

Query policy documents based on Corporate Policy Document content type.

Content TypesA Quick Refresher

• Provide a means of central management

• Will enforce the types of content that can be managed in a list or library

• Will consistently enforce the metadata associated with specific content

• Document content types can refer to a specific document template

• Associate workflow• Associate policies• Content types are hierarchical

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Content Types are a schema used to define the types of content you wish to manage in your solution!

All content stored in SharePoint is associated with a Content Type

Content Type Taxonomy

• Content Types are used to categorize the type of content to be stored in SharePoint– Some confuse this with the use of metadata• Metadata is instance specific!

• Don’t fear creating deep Content Type taxonomies (hierarchy)– Each level can be used for aggregate scoping• Can improve aggregate relevancy to support various

business contextual needs

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Content TypeExample

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Content Type TaxonomyExample

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Content TypesBest Practices

• Never modify a SharePoint out-of-box content type

• Avoid organizational taxonomy– Difficult and time consuming to re-base a content type

• Use a consistent naming convention– Consider “Document” suffix for all document content

types• Govern design, implementation and use• Educate users as to the value

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Content TypesWhen to Create Content Types?

• When you wish to govern specific types of content– Specify what types of content can be stored in specific

lists and libraries• When you need to include specific metadata• When you wish to associate a specific document

template• When you wish to associate specific workflow• When you wish to specify policies– Such as for records management

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Content Type HubEnterprise Content Types

• Centrally manage content types and publish them to subscribed site collections

• Consider a dedicated site collection for Enterprise CTH

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Content Type HubThings to Remember

• Republish after all changes• Cannot publish a content type that has

managed metadata column associated with a term set defined in the hub

• Govern the implementation, maintenance and use of content types derived from the hub

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Advantages of Doing All This IA Work?

• Reduce the question “where do I store and manage my content”

• Product highly relevant aggregate content• Product highly relevant search results• Provide aggregate and search refinement

(scopes)• Provide further refinement through faceted

filtering

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