A Word about SharePoint Governance

SharePoint is an incredibly powerful business tool that can be leveraged to improve collaboration and operational efficiency across your organization. With proper planning, it can be transformational for your business.

As a SharePoint Architect & Consultant, I’ve seen and remediated many failed SharePoint initiatives in the last decade.   I’ve met a lot of people who “hate SharePoint” and have had to turn those folks around and convert them into believers.   I’ve seen what SharePoint can do with proper planning, and I’m a huge believer in the platform.

More often than not, when SharePoint “fails”, it’s due to lack of planning and understanding of your business requirements. When you build a house, you understand the basic requirements of the house before you start building. During the design process, before a single piece of timber is purchased, you identify every room that will be in the house and the requirements of each of those rooms. You know there will be cooking in the kitchen, sleeping in the bedroom, you know where there should be outlets and wall switches and doors where people can pass between rooms. You know what will be stored in each room and what you need for closet space.   You organize your floor plan in such a way that you will know where to look for things, based on what they are and their usage.

Creating a successful SharePoint portal is similar to building a house. Understanding the requirements of the portal, how they are componentized into separate “rooms” or sub-sites; what the necessary applications are in each of those sub-sites (stove, refrigerator, outlets); what types of things will be stored, how much storage you need (contact information, pictures, files, videos), and the level of security called for.

This is what we call your “Information Architecture” and it is the blueprint for your SharePoint portal. It is also an important piece of your SharePoint Governance Plan.

If you’ve been part of SharePoint conversations, you have heard the mystical term “SharePoint Governance”.   There is a lot of confusion on what a SharePoint Governance Plan is and why it is important. More, there is a lack of understanding that a proper Governance Plan is the key to a successful adoption.

In this four part series, I will debunk the mystery of the SharePoint Governance Plan. I will break down what it should include and how it can be combined with training for your users in such a way that guarantees your SharePoint portal will be successfully adopted across your organization.   Let’s get started!

Part 1 of the Governance Series Link

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