sharepoint saturday south florida - future proofing your sharepoint strategy

Future Proofing Your SharePoint Strategy (and Tactics)

#SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge

Presented By: Richard Harbridge

Who am I?

I

Future Proofing Your SharePoint StrategyRequires Understanding…

What is SharePoint?To IT?To the Business?

What is a SharePoint Strategy?How do we make our strategy complete?

Our Goal Today…

From Here To Here

SharePoint Current and Future State


Meet Joe

Hi!


At Joe’s Company…


Decision Makers don’t have Enough Information


The CFO needs to Reduce Costs


IT Services Struggles to Keep Up


People Are Having Trouble Finding What They Need

And


So Joe has an Idea!


Since…

Awesome! Not as awesome.


And Everyone in Joe’s Company uses Microsoft Office…


SharePoint is the Perfect Fit!


What is SharePoint?


to IT Services?What is SharePoint


The Main Point of Implementing SharePoint: SharePoint eventually allows Business Users to

develop and implement business solutions that use technology without IT’s direct involvement.

SharePoint and IT

Enable Solutions


When I Say “SharePoint Integration” You Probably Think Of This...

Secondary (But Important) Points: SharePoint’s integration with technologies you

already use and it’s extendibility are invaluable.

SharePoint and IT


The Reality: IT struggles with supporting another technology.

SharePoint and IT


Information

Search

Collaboration

ManagementControl

Process

InformationInformationInformationInformation

IT Information Overload


Information

Search

Collaboration

Management

Control

ProcessForms Services

Business Intelligence

Personalization

Records Management

Information

Search

Collaboration

ManagementControl

Process

IT Platform Benefits


to the Business?What is SharePoint


Prioritize and Plan


Map Solutions to ObjectivesCentralize Knowledge and Resources

Enhance Collaboration

Automate and Improve Business Processes

Enhance Governance Model

Reduce Redundancy and Improve Efficiency

Adjust Site Structure and Taxonomy

Migrate File Shares

Create Dashboards

Implement Workflow Solutions

Configure Search Services

Branding

Direct Relationship Indirect Relationship

* Objectives/solutions should be more specific – Example purposes only.


Map the needs of the organization to the right

technology…

SharePoint is not a Silver Bullet…

SharePoint is not a Silver Bullet at NothingButSharePoint.com

https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/SharePoint-is-not-a-Silver-Bullet.aspx


Utilized by Business Users to develop and implement business solutions that use technology without IT’s direct involvement.

Our primary unified application delivery platform.

Our primary workflow/business process automation platform.

Our intranet and communication center for internal corporate communications.

…

SharePoint will be…

Our (external) web content management platform.

Our primary document management platform.

Our contact management platform.

…

SharePoint will not be…


Foundation

Standard

Enterprise

SharePoint has Multiple Options

2007

2010

Online

On Site

It’s Big Ecosystem


It’s not just a feature to feature comparison

People

Process

Technology


So Joe does all that good research and…


SharePoint is a part of his overall Enterprise Technology Plan

The Outcome

Within an overall enterprise technology plan SharePoint and it’s solutions meet

specific business needs.

What to watch out for…“Technology provides no benefits of its own; it is the application of technology to business opportunities that produces

ROI.” – Robert McDowell

Achieving a Scalable SharePoint Strategy


Strategy Approach


Phase the Strategies

Phase 3

Phase 2

Phase 1

SharePoint Business Strategy

SharePoint Infrastructure

Strategy

SharePoint Search Strategy

SharePoint Security Strategy

SharePoint Performance

Strategy

SharePoint Branding and

Usability Strategy

SharePoint Development

Strategy

SharePoint Integration

Strategy

SharePoint Governance

Strategy

SharePoint User Adoption Strategy


• Do you have clearly defined Governance teams, committees or boards?• Are the roles and responsibilities of the membership

clearly defined?• Is all of the membership engaged?• Does the membership rotate?

• How often are your members getting together?• What are the reasons your Governance teams,

committees or boards get together?• Are the outcomes of these meetings actionable?

• Do you have a Governance Site (and Governance Plan)?• What is within your Governance Site?

Governance Strategy


Without effective governanceorganization, performance, and

capability are significantly reduced.

What does that mean?


Without Governance


So how do we tell if we have good Governance?


Teamwork is KeyThere are typically 5 teams for SharePoint Governance:

Business Strategy TeamInitiatives/Technical Strategy TeamTactical Teams:

Tactical Operations Team

Tactical Development Team

Tactical Support Team

Identify patterns.Plan for patterns.Execute patterns.


I think I see a Pattern.


Executing Governance


No Single “Approach”

Projects

Tasks

Communities

Practices


Aggregate/Reference Document or Site (Contains all SharePoint Info – Single Point of Reference)

Objectives/Priorities (Tech/Business)

Governance Deliverables


Objectives/Priorities Disaster Recovery Plan Storage and Quota Policies Monitoring Plans Maintenance Plans Service Level Agreements Security Policies Deployment Process, Policies, and Schedule

Operations Deliverables


Objectives/Priorities Branding Guide SharePoint Designer Policy Workflow Policy Development Standards (Including OOTB vs Custom) Development Environment Policy Testing Requirements Deployment Process, Policies, and Schedule

Development Deliverables

SharePoint Standards Online

http://www.spstandards.com/


Deployment Process/Policies

Extremely Important! Ensure you have clear schedules and ownership.


Objectives/Priorities Site Classification and Platform Classification Site Provisioning Process/Questionnaire User Expectations Agreement Roles and Responsibilities Support Agreement(s) Training and Communication Plans MySite Policies (Pictures)…

Support Deliverables


User Lifecycle Policy Taxonomy Management Social Policies Content Standards Legal and Compliance Policy Search Management

Support Deliverables

SharePoint Standards Online



Business StrategyIt is important to understand the vision, direction, objectives, and priorities of any SharePoint implementation or solution.

• Why are we using SharePoint within our Enterprise?• What are we currently using SharePoint for within our Enterprise?• What are the future uses for SharePoint within our Enterprise?

• How is SharePoint helping us achieve our business goals?• What are our SharePoint objectives and their priority?• What are our SharePoint initiatives and their priority?• How do our SharePoint initiatives align with our SharePoint

objectives?• What are ways we can reduce inefficiencies and duplication?

• What groups are doing similar initiatives and how can we help?• What are the related systems, applications and services we have

within our enterprise?• How is the business prioritizing SharePoint initiatives?

• Who are the people or key areas of the business involved in setting the strategic direction for our SharePoint implementation?

• What areas of the business offer the most opportunity for growth?• How are you communicating strategic changes or initiatives related to

SharePoint in your organization?• How are you allocating costs?

• What are we currently using SharePoint for within our Enterprise?

• Are we using it as our primary document management platform?

• Are we using it to meet external web content management needs?

• Are we using it as an application delivery platform?


Technical Strategy• What are the known current SharePoint Initiatives?• What are the known future SharePoint initiatives?• Am I using all the features our organization is paying for?• Are we using any of the features incorrectly?• What are the related business applications and services?

• Do any contain duplicate features/functionality?• Are any being retired/eliminated in the future?

• What are the technical objectives for SharePoint within the organization?• How are these technical objectives prioritized?

• What are our current and future licensing plans with SharePoint?• Do you have a communication plan?

• When do communications occur?• What must the communications contain?• Who are the contacts for key responsibilities?

• Am I using all the features our organization is paying for?


Do you know what people are doing in your SharePoint implementation?

• What content is the most popular and where are people going/coming from?

• What are people searching for and what are they not able to find?

• How fast are your sites growing? How big are they getting?

Analytics for Management


SharePoint Designer ManagementAre you aware of who is building and using SharePoint workflows?

• Do you know how many SharePoint Designer Workflows you have in your environment?

• Do you know how complex the SharePoint Designer workflows are in your environment?

• Have you mitigated the impact to end users from a poorly designed workflow?


Infrastructure Strategy• Who is responsible for what when it comes to SharePoint infrastructure?

• Do they have a backup?• Do they have the knowledge and training they need?

• Have you ever deviated from the default settings? Why and when?• How are you monitoring SharePoint?

• Do you know when a content DB’s size is approaching it’s recommended limit?

• Do you know when the site count of a site collection is approaching it’s recommended limit?

• Do you know when the site collection count in a content database is approaching it’s recommended limit?

• What quotas have you configured for SharePoint?• How do you handle requests for a larger quota? • What is the maximum quota?

• Do you have errors in your event logs?• Do you have errors in your SharePoint logs?• Have you changed the default settings for storing logs?• Do you have errors in your SQL logs?• How much space to grow do each of your logs have?

• Have you ever deviated from the default settings? Why and when?

• What quotas have you configured for SharePoint?• How do you handle requests for larger

quotas?• What is the maximum quota?


• How many servers do you have in your farm? (and possibly how many farms?)

• How many web applications do you have in your farm?• How many site collections do you have?

• How many databases do you have?• How large are your databases?• How many SQL Server Instances do you have?• How many users are using your SharePoint site collections?• How many requests per second are you seeing?

• How many sites do you have?• How many documents do you have?

• What is the highest document size?• What is the average document size?

• What are your resource throttling settings?• What other technologies are you using with SharePoint?

• Are you using ISA or Forefront?• Are your users using Micrsoft Groove or SharePoint Workspace?• What is the current version of Microsoft Office you are using?• Are you using Office Communication Server or Lync?• Are you using Microsoft System Center products? Which ones?


Are there performance problems with large lists or queries?

• What are the realistic limits for list views and lookup columns to protect server performance and user experience?

• What are the dangers of DDoS and DoS attacks and/or your servers running out of resources based on existing jobs and PUT/POST requests?

Resource Monitoring and ThrottlingWait a second… I have SharePoint 2007 (or 2003)!

• Large list views and lists with many lookup columns (MM and User/Group are also lookups) lead to performance challenges.

• If you are upgrading to SharePoint 2010 this is also important to understand as the default throttling limits may impact user experience.

• SQL Scripts (Read Only) and API calls can help identify what lists you do have over the default throttle settings, and which have a larger lookup count.

• Preventative Measures: Selectively indexing large list columns can help for add/delete ops, building smarter more efficient views (1st filter), CAML/Search alternatives etc…

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nathbr/archive/2011/02/24/sp2010-large-list-throttling-over-5000-items-query-to-detect.aspx


Health AnalyzerAre there problems in your server farm?

• What are the current problems?

• Where are the problems?

• What are the solutions for these problems?

• Awesome Tip?

• Turn on alerts for this list (especially if you ignore red warning bars).


SharePoint DiagnosticsHow do you determine how well different aspects of your environment are performing?

• How do you quickly identify, isolate and resolve an issue?

• How do you keep Environments within SLAs?

• How do you reduce downtime?

• How do you validate and benchmark code

Download the Latest SharePoint Admin Toolkit

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=718447d8-0814-427a-81c3-c9c3d84c456e&displaylang=en


• What is your Disaster Recovery plan for your SharePoint implementation?• Do you perform a fire drills based on your plan? When was the last

one and how often do you do them?• How do you provide single file recovery? (version control, recycling bin,

DPM, etc)• How do you provide single or multiple site recovery?• How do you provide server recovery?• How do you provide data center recovery?• Are you storing excess or unnecessary (unused) data in your SharePoint

farm?• What are the costs of this storage?• Why is it being stored?

Backup and Recovery Strategy


• How is SharePoint performance?• What are the bandwidth costs associated with SharePoint?

• What are the costs associated with transferring redundant data around your farm?

• What are my slowest performing pages?• How heavy are my SharePoint pages?• Are you using caching in your SharePoint implementation?

• Are you using Output Caching?• Are you using Disk Based Caching?• Are you using Object Caching?

• Are you using IIS compression?• Are you monitoring SQL Server Latency?

• Is your latency 10 milliseconds or less for the Temp Database?• Is your latency 10 milliseconds or less for the Search Database?• Is your latency 20 milliseconds or less for the Database Log File?

• Do you have pre-negotiated SLAs for first time load of a site, subsequent loads of a site, and performance at remote locations?

Performance Strategy


Are you monitoring all the things you should be?

• What are your slowest pages?

• What lists or sites are becoming very large?

• Two Key SharePoint 2007 Tips:

• Look at the reports available in SharePoint Designer.

• Explore “_layouts/usagedetails.aspx”

Analytics for Management


Security Strategy• How secure is your SharePoint environment?• Do you have PII (Personally Identifiable Information) in your

environment? Is it secured and audited?• How well are permissions managed in your SharePoint environment?• Have you ever deviated from SharePoint’s default security levels?

• In what site collections?• What was the reasoning/need behind creating your own security

levels?• How can security be improved in your SharePoint environment?• How can you more effectively monitor, manage, and maintain security in

your SharePoint environment?• Do you have separate/specific site collections or web applications for

confidential data which are more tightly controlled, audited, and managed?


• Do you have clearly defined Development Standards?• What third party products are we using in our SharePoint environment?

• Where are they available? Who can use them?• What is the status of these non-Microsoft products?

• Are there newer versions available?• How is custom code performing within our SharePoint environment?

• Are you disposing of SharePoint objects correctly?• Are you using best practices when querying or working with

SharePoint objects?• Do you know how many workflows have been created within your

SharePoint environment?• Do you know what they do?• Do you know who owns them?• Do you know what they were developed using? (SharePoint

Designer? Visual Studio? Third Party Product?)• Who is using SharePoint Designer?• How do you test your SharePoint environment when an update is made

to it?• When new code is added or a third party product?

• How are you storing older versions of configurations, code and compiled components?

Development Strategy


SPDisposeCheck


Deployment Processes


• What kind of SharePoint support do you currently provide?• Do you provide help material such as Manuals, Course Guidebooks,

Workbooks, How To, Tutorials, or Demonstrations?• How do you train users on SharePoint?

• How do you currently provision your sites?• How do you determine where each site should live?• Who owns the site and who supports the site?

• How do you communicate new features, initiatives, or changes to SharePoint to your users?

• How many SharePoint support requests do you currently get?• How are these categorized?• How are these assigned and escalated?• How many are effectively responded to?• How many are closed with success?

• Do you leverage/contribute to an internal knowledgebase for SharePoint support?

• Do you have clearly defined SLAs for support and problem resolution?• Do you offer face to face learning or unstructured/semi-structured

environments for learning? (Lunch and learns, after hours discussions, communities etc)

Support Strategy


Multiple Tiers for Escalation

Tactical Support Team

Help Desk

Site Administrators

End Users

Learning Libraries/Online/Help

(You can’t know everything)


Measure SupportLearn and use data to be proactive.


Diversify Support resources/mediums

Books and Manuals Online

MSDN

TechNet

Blogs

Cheat Sheets One on One Classroom Training

Forums

Help

Etc


• Do you have a site map that represents the current site structures?• Does this clearly indicate recommended containment hierarchy?

• Do you have a site map that defines future site structures?• Are you using Content Types?• Are you using metadata to help make content easier to organize and find?• Are you using site columns?• Are you using and managing Term Sets?• Do you have tagging guidelines?• Are you managing keywords?• Are you using and managing Site Directories?• Do you have classifications based on type of use?

• Communications based (publishing) portal/sites/collections?• Team based collaboration sites/collections?• Application/services based sites/collections?

• Are you checking for dead links?• How well is your site structured?• Can people find what they are looking for?

Taxonomy Strategy


Structured Approach for Navigation


Integration Strategy• Is your SharePoint implementation part of an overall enterprise technology plan?

• What are the current systems and applications in place?• What are the application and system lifecycles?

• Is there duplicated content that is contained in other systems or applications and not just within SharePoint?• How is this content kept synchronized when updates are made to it?

• Can data stored in other systems provide additional value to your SharePoint business solutions? • Can it give added context to SharePoint content?

• What are already integrated?• How are they integrated?

• What are not integrated?• Why haven’t they been integrated?• Are there ways to reduce user disruption by providing more single

sign on opportunities?


Usage and Adoption Strategy• How do you share the benefit of existing SharePoint solutions in your

organization?• Does this include user built SharePoint solutions?

• What is the SharePoint skill level of your users?• Do you have user stories on how people are currently using SharePoint

successfully?• Have you performed interviews or surveys to help understand how

people are using SharePoint or how specific SharePoint solutions can be improved?

• How many people are using your SharePoint implementation? • Are you reviewing SharePoint Usage Statistics on a Regular Basis?• How many are using a specific site?• How many are using specific documents?• What times of the week are they using specific sites or documents?

• Are there patterns that can be identified to help in determining the best time for updates or additions?

• Is your SharePoint accessible externally or via mobile devices?


Usage and Adoption Strategy• How usable are your SharePoint solutions or implementation?

• Have you performed usability assessments?• How has your SharePoint implementation been branded?

• Does it have a unique name for referencing?• What are your theme and styling guidelines?• How does your SharePoint implementation work across

browsers?• What about upcoming browsers?

• What are the accessibility concerns in your current SharePoint implementation?• How can this be improved?

• Do you have usage policies defined?• Have your users signed off or acknowledged these policies?• Do you enforce these policies?• How often are these usage policies assessed and updated?


Usability Strategy• Have you identified and defined user personas?• Is your SharePoint accessible externally?• Is your SharePoint being used on mobile devices?

• How is the user experience?• How has your SharePoint implementation been branded?• What are your theme and styling guidelines?• How does your SharePoint implementation work across browsers?

• What about upcoming browsers?• What are the accessibility concerns in your current SharePoint

implementation?• How can this be improved?

• How do you make navigation changes in your SharePoint implementation?• Is your current navigation effective?• Have you performed card sorting exercises?• Have you performed the ‘blind’ test?


Make it easier to work with

Powerful Columns You Probably Didn’t Know About

https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/Powerful-Columns-You-Probably-Didn%E2%80%99t-Know-About.aspx


Make it easier to work with

Why Leveraging SharePoint Blog Features for News is a Great Idea

https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/eusp/Pages/Why-Leveraging-SharePoint-Blog-Features-for-Intranet-News-is-a-Great-Idea.aspx


Mobile Strategy• What is the mobile experience of your SharePoint site?

• Have you optimized the site for smaller resolutions?• What mobile browsers do you support?

• Is your organization adopting tablet PCs (iPads)?• What is the tablet experience of your SharePoint site?

• What support do you provide for remote workers?• What are the offline and synchronization options your organization

is providing?• Is SharePoint available outside of the firewall for employees?

• When a user receives an email linking to a SharePoint document on their phone can they download that document? • What is this mobile email and SharePoint experience like?


Search Strategy• Are you using custom search scopes?• Are you using people search?• Are you checking what queries resulted in failure (no click through or 0

results)?• Are you using best bets?• Have you defined synonyms?• Do you allow users to search non SharePoint data from within

SharePoint? If so what data?• Are you using hit highlighting?• Have you made organizational enhancements to the noise words file

and/or the thesaurus file?• Have you defragmented your search database(s)?


Social Strategy• What does a one star versus a five star rating mean in your organization?• What are acceptable tags?

• Are negative tags allowed? • Are there examples of effective tags available?

• When should a user tag and when shouldn’t they?• If content has already been tagged is it valuable to tag it again?• Is it okay to tag content if that content already has a column (or

metadata) value that represents that tag?• Are you using Status Updates?

• What are acceptable status updates? • Are there examples of effective status updates available?

• What is acceptable About Me information for a user profile? • Are there examples of effective About Me descriptions available?

• What is an acceptable user profile picture?


• Are you using keywords, key phrases, and a description that reflects each pages content?

• Are you using Robots Exclusion Standard (robots.txt)?• Are you placing your content higher up in the page (to improve search

engine processing).• Are you ensuring alt and title tags are always filled on things like images?• Are you using descriptive text in your hyperlinks?• Are you using descriptive page titles?• Are you automatically updating the sitemap (helps search engines crawl

or discover pages on the site).• Are you adjusting the Search Visibility for sites or pages you don’t want

crawled?

SEO Strategy

The OutcomeYou have a sustainable SharePoint

strategy based on your organizations SharePoint maturity and use.

What to watch out for…No organization in the world has a

future proof (complete/all encompassing) SharePoint Strategy.

To Future Proof SharePoint You Need…The Business and IT to understand what

SharePoint is, why they are using it, and when they shouldn’t use it.

The organization to have a comprehensive and constantly evolving SharePoint Strategy that effectively provides answers to relevant questions.

Questions? Ideas? Feedback? Contact me:Twitter: @RHarbridge Blog: http://www.RHarbridge.comEmail: [email protected]:

700+ SharePoint IA Slides at..PracticalIntranet.com

130+ SharePoint Standards at.. SPStandards.com

15 Pages of Important Questions at.. SharePointDiagnostics.com

Thank You Organizers, Sponsors and You for Making this Possible.

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