The document summarizes key points from sessions attended at the SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2010 and SharePoint Saturday Baltimore. Recurring themes included the importance of governance, project management, requirements definition, executive buy-in, training, communication, and measuring ROI. Specific sessions provided best practices for post-deployment stability and support, understanding what SharePoint is and isn't suitable for, requirements gathering, governance, team management, and measuring non-technical success factors.

1. SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2010 and SharePoint Saturday Baltimore Compiled by Veronique Palmer, 3 Sept 2010 1

3. What is a best practice?

4. Why this conference?

5. Recurring BPC themes.

6. Details from session tracks.

7. Tweets sent during the events.

8. List of resources.

10. What is a Best Practice It is a course of action which balances security, risks, scheduling, performance, maintainability and culture to find the right solution to the problem. - Bill English 4

12. Where there is aimlessness – it brings direction.

13. Where there is hopelessness – it brings confidence.5

14. Why attend BPC Because it is not a technical drill down conference. It is a conference to connect the business layer to the with the technology layer. 6

16. Identifies one worst practice.

17. Identifies at least one trade off decision, (if you choose that, you won’t get this). 7

18. Session Highlights 8

19. Recurring BPC Themes Governance is key. Project management and planning is crucial. Ignore doing requirements definition at your peril. Executive buy in is not negotiable. Training is paramount. Communication can make or break an implementation. Measuring ROI essential. Understanding the business processes is principle. It takes time. 9

20. SharePoint the Day After Wes Preston What happens after you’ve deployed your farm, built your customisations, and integrated your external systems? How do you make sure your users are informed, educated, trained and supported? How do you measure success? How are you insuring the stability of the platform going forward? Answering these questions is important to your success. 10

23. NOT setting up users for success (training) is an easy way to fail.

26. Continue to communicate and offer training opportunities.

28. Not providing ongoing training, user support or resources for users.13

29. Why SharePoint Projects Fail and How You Can Succeed Scott Edwards Know what SharePoint is and isn’t. It is not : data warehousing, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), financial management, ERM (Enterprise Resource Management). SharePoint will not : solve all information management problems, fix insufficient or broken business processes, fix cultural resistance to efficient information management, fix entry of poor quality information, ensure consistent and proper use of the system. 14

30. Why SharePoint Projects Fail and How You Can Succeed Scott Edwards 10 things to do when managing SharePoint : Choose a project management methodology, anyone, and stick to it (ITIL, Agile, etc). Consistency is key and it requires stakeholder support. Gather requirements (can take 2 – 5 weeks, design requirement mapping is important). Business dictates what the system will do. Technical dictates how it will be done. Compliance is beyond either’s control and system must comply to legislation. Define needs vs wants and categorize into mandatory, preferred and optional. Define Governance (consistent method of working that should not prevent users from doing their job). Should align with business processes. Taxonomy and information architecture (same words that mean different things). Consistent data input. Agreed upon meanings for metadata. IA is URL taxonomy, site collection, site and managed path structure. There isn’t a one size fits all solution. Training – choose who should be trained. Lack of training results in over and under engineering. 15

31. Why SharePoint Projects Fail and How You Can Succeed Scott Edwards Change and configuration management – server changes, dependant systems (eg Business Data Catalogue), site collections, content types. Capacity planning – what works for 10 users might not work for 1000. Choose a tool for testing. Know the software and hardware boundaries. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Don’t guess, know! Disaster Recovery and restore procedures – define Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO). (What will you restore and in how long). Document, test, refine, document. Only do customisation as a last resort – developers love to write code, if there’s a problem, code will fix it. Use OOB web parts as much as possible. Refer to original business requirements before customizing SharePoint. Package code as solution and deploy it as a solution. Developers don’t bother because it’s either too hard, they don’t know how, or are “too busy”. Hard to maintain consistency without solutions. Reduces downtime and availability. 16

33. Executives place value on information / knowledge through the information architecture.

34. Implements a solid and understood governance plan.

35. Implements a consistent taxonomy (increases findability).

36. Ensures user education.

37. Provides for capacity planning and management.

38. Implements customisations as a last resort.

39. Provides a clear understanding of where SharePoint starts and stops in the Enterprise Application Architecture. Lack two or more of these, and your project is likely to fail. 17

40. Design in the Hands of the User Cathy Dew In SharePoint 2010 there are many new branding features that enable users to change the look and feel of their SharePoint sites. We need to educate them as to how to make effective design decisions for their sites. Branding is the act of building a specific image or identity that people recognize in relation to your company. Website branding entails colours, fonts, logos and supporting graphics that make up the general look and feel of a corporate website. SharePoint branding involves master pages, page layouts, CSS, web parts, XSLT, images, etc. 18

41. Design in the Hands of the User Cathy Dew Why brand? Delivers your message clearly. Confirms your credibility. Connects your target audience emotionally. Motivates the buyers (users in this case). Cements user loyalty. But… Communicate corporate colours. Themes must form part of the governance plan. 19

46. Complimentary – any 2 colours on opposite sides of the wheel.

47. Nature – colours inspired by nature usually work well.Watch out for red on blue, it can trigger epilepsy! (Think 3D glasses) 21

48. Effective Team Management Jennifer Mason At the root of every successful implementation is a team supporting it and making it possible. But how did the team get started and who should be part of the team? Understand how SharePoint is different. When creating a team it is important to understand what each role does rather than trying to match a specific person to it first. It is very important to have an owner for the platform!! It can be the governance forum but politics may dictate that more than one person has to own it. 22

49. Effective Team Management Jennifer Mason If you are a team of one / jack of all trades, think in terms of many roles and book your time accordingly. This will help when you need to motivate for more staff because you’ll know what you’re missing, eg: Owner, administrator, architect, developer, site owner, end user, trainer. Tell everybody what you do! As a one man band, you need to write your own governance plan. While it is likely that one person will fulfill all these roles in a jack of all trades position – it must be avoided at all costs! It is a single point of failure. If they leave, the whole project falls flat. 23

51. Define team goals and work together regularly.

52. Communication and collaboration are key to a successful team!

53. Think big, start small, keep growing.

54. Build a SharePoint team with diverse skills.

55. Select projects that set you up for success.Helpdesk Numbers (Adapted from SharePoint Supported) On average a helpdesk person can handle 25 issues per week. An organisation of 10 000 users generates 35 – 50 tickets per week. 30 000 people will generate between 105 – 150 tickets per week. You would need 4 – 6 people on the helpdesk alone to manage that. 24

56. 25 7 Most Important Non Technical Success Factors Richard Harbridge Understanding the ‘why’ when making a decision – understand business needs and map to them. Achieving buy in and setting expectations – share alignment, vision and expectations. Determining and supporting ROI – use measurements to improve and return more. Implementing successful governance – use team work and execute with patterns. Approaching and supporting SharePoint – be iterative, leverage everyone and respond. Improving user adoption – share the value and successes. Planning for new work and growth – manage your capability and priorities.

57. 7 Most Important Non Technical Success Factors Richard Harbridge Governance is not part of Microsoft’s model so they don’t publish a lot on it. You can’t go backwards. If you haven’t been using governance in the past, just start now, with the next project that comes up. For example, put in a proper requirements definition and see how the new project goes compared to old ones that didn’t have that. You don’t want to rebuild a CRM system in SharePoint, so it is important to understand the business process. Build an application map – what is everyone using it for, in what, how will info be migrated, etc etc. Don’t use the word SharePoint if possible, perceptions impact motivation. If the sale was wrong from the beginning it will be a constant battle. Always say THANK YOU to someone by the end of the day. Appreciate your people. 26

59. SharePoint’s integration is invaluable to IT.

60. A platform like SharePoint can greatly reduce costs, time and effort being a unified delivery application platform. 27

62. Money can be invested to always generate a return.

63. You need to have measurement, account for risk, and have some quantifiable expectation of return that makes it worth the initial investment and ongoing costs. 28

65. Rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong when it comes to estimating.29

66. 7 Most Important Non Technical Success Factors Richard Harbridge Measuring ROI is absolutely crucial. But you can’t do ROI on the platform as a whole. You need to break it down and add all the bits together to determine total ROI. Measure the right thing, don’t lose perspective. Example Measuring blog hits. It could highlight the issue that people don’t know the blog is there. Move it to the home and measure again after an agreed time frame. It can also identify where the most interest is on blog topics. So if there are 2000 hits out of 4000 people now, half the company is paying attention to that blog topic. The author can then write more blogs based on that subject or in that style. This is a good communication channel via company bloggers. 30

67. 31 7 Most Important Non Technical Success Factors (Slide addition by Veronique Palmer) My monthly and weekly blog stats

68. 32 7 Most Important Non Technical Success Factors (Slide addition by Veronique Palmer)

69. 7 Most Important Non Technical Success Factors Richard Harbridge Determining which project to choose based on ROI You have a difficult requirement that’s 8 / 10 in difficulty. You have an easy requirement that’s 2 / 10 in difficulty. The expected value of the difficult requirement is 4 / 10. The expected value of the easy requirement is 6 / 10. Estimated value Estimated difficulty 33

71. 4 out of 5 of our workers do not know that we have an employee loan program.

73. Cultivate and promote the right culture.

74. Create and identity and brand which makes it easier and more effective.

75. Focus on those on board already.

76. Make it fun (scavenger hunts, contests).

77. Use what they love – if Outlook is their favourite, focus on integration there.

78. Say thank you!

79. Reward super users with achievements.

80. Promote the desire to get rewards.

81. Create a SharePoint showcase where users can show off their solutions.

82. Make it easier to work with (setting up lots of views).

83. Walk your own talk!Outcome… SharePoint is successfully adopted by a large enough group to be deemed a successful implementation.

85. Is the goal practical?

86. Can I sum it up in just a few words?

87. How do people respond when they first hear it? 36

88. Building Solutions That Users Get Jennifer Mason Goal Example “Replace the current file server with SharePoint”. or “Implement a structure within SharePoint to enable the sharing and collaboration of files and documents through SharePoint’s built in functionality in order to move away from the reliance on file shares”. It’s all in the words… 37

89. Building Solutions That Users Get Jennifer Mason Common roadblocks to achieving goals Confusion – if I don’t understand why I need to use this tool, or how it works, I’ll just work around it. Navigation – I can’t find anything and don’t know how to find my way around my site. Automation – things just happen and I have no idea what’s going on. Requirements – I never requested to do ‘this’, but I really needed to do ‘that’. Training – I have no idea how to use this thing. There is a translation layer missing between what SharePoint can do and how users do their jobs. Don’t worry if it’s a mess, just do it better next time. 38

90. Building Solutions That Users Get Jennifer Mason You know your users better than anyone else. You know how your users will respond in certain situations. You know your company’s politics better than an outsider. Use this information as a framework for your decision making process. Determine your success criteria, eg: reduce the number of emails when finalising documents. Training is a critical success factor. 39

91. You Could Need a List If… Sarah Haase The perfect SharePoint site consists of 80% lists and 20% other functionality. (Wikis, blogs, libraries, surveys, discussion boards, presence, search, etc). … this is not foolproof however, just a guideline. If left to their own devices, even the most well intentioned people will live in information chaos. Lists are a great way to manage that chaos. Document Libraries meet people “where they live”. They’re used to file shares. But they get Document Library tunnel vision. Lists requires out of the box thinking – and as usual, training. Find the right opportunity, meet with business owners, do audience and content analysis, business process redesign, document all requirements. 40

92. You Could Need a List If… 41 Sarah Haase Example of a custom list and its ROI.

93. You Could Need a List If… 42 Sarah Haase Example of a custom list and its ROI.

94. You Could Need a List If… 43 Sarah Haase Example of a custom list and its ROI.

96. They never take lunch, breaks or holidays.

97. They don’t want to be there and don’t care about your presentation.

98. They see dozens of presentations every month.

99. They will usually sit in stony faced silence throughout your presentation.

100. They are likely to blurt out one question right at the end, and you better be ready with an answer.

103. Don’t panic – they are just people, understand that.

105. 46 Getting Executive Buy In Bill English Top 10 worst practices… No implementation methodology. Lack of requirements. Insufficient training. No governance plan. Not using packaged solutions for customisation. Insufficient DR and testing. Lack of capacity planning and testing. No configuration / change management. No information organisation / information management. Expecting technology to manage people.

106. 47 Getting Executive Buy In Bill English You need 5 things for change… A champion – not an IT person. Approved funded budget. Hire / fire control approval. Measurable objectives. Grass roots support. You can be missing one of these, but if you miss two you will fail.

107. 48 Pretty and Practical - Branding Lori Gowin, Cathy Dew Is your SharePoint site a work horse? Or is it a show pony? Do branding and aesthetics account for more than functionality? Do functionality and user experience outweigh artistic impression? Can you have both?

108. 49 Pretty and Practical - Branding (Slide addition by Veronique Palmer) Show pony Work horse

109. 50 Pretty and Practical - Branding (Slide addition by Veronique Palmer) Neither pretty nor practical

113. What is the point? Reason to visit the site, reason to return.

117. Managed Metadata = the service on the server that enables all this.30 000 x 1000 = 30 000 000!!!!! Managed Metadata is a full time job!

119. Taxonomy and folksonomy are concepts, not a technology.

120. Try using Mind Manager to build taxonomies.

121. Governance implications on tagging, can users decide for themselves.

124. Keywords are used in different ways. They are all kept in the term store but treated differently.

125. Enterprise keywords are a column you can add on a library level.

126. No hierarchy for keywords = a long term manglement headache!

129. Session Highlights 59

131. CMS Wire is a good source for best practices.

132. Misspellings are problematic in terms.

137. Don’t be afraid to use natural language or slang on keywords.

141. Cost of not finding information.

142. Value of education.

143. Cost of construction.

144. Cost of maintenance.

145. Cost of training.

146. Value of brand.Start small, grow organically, don’t be afraid of natural language, always label, train user right now, pay attention.

150. Missing and incomplete information.

152. Rework / low quality work (politics – sheltered employment).

153. Lack of expertise (huge need).Yes 80% wins happen, that’s the easy part – it’s the last 20% that’s hard. Tell me what the solution will look like and do for you at the end. I will decide how it has to happen – Susan Hanley.

157. If you use folders, max 2 levels.

158. Content Organiserin must use content types to work. If you can’t find the right content type it drops the docs in a dropoff library to be sorted by someone else.

162. @veroniquepalmer tweets 2 68

163. 69 @veroniquepalmer tweets 3

164. 70 @veroniquepalmer tweets 4

165. 71 @veroniquepalmer tweets 5

166. 72 @veroniquepalmer tweets 6

167. 73 @veroniquepalmer tweets 7

169. Minnesota SharePoint User Group : www.sharepointmn.com

170. Managed Metadata information : www.sharepointbits.com/blog

171. Good governance blog – Craig Roth : http://knowledgeforward.wordpress.com/

173. CMS Wire : http://www.cmswire.com/cms/document-management/

174. Business Side of Collaboration : http://www.week3.org/Pages/Default.aspx

175. Relatively Easy OOB Solutions : http://www.pathtosharepoint.com/default.aspx74

176. Business User Blog Dream Team Bill English : http://aiimcommunities.org/users/benglish Dux Raymond Sy : http://sp.meetdux.com/default.aspx Jay Simcox: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?s=jay+simcox Jennifer Mason : http://www.sharepoint911.com/blogs/jennifer/default.aspx Joy Earles: http://joyknows.wordpress.com/ Lori Gowin : http://www.pointgowin.com/SeeThePoint/default.aspx Richard Harbridge : http://www.rharbridge.com/ Ruven Gotz : http://spinsiders.com/ruveng/ and Veronique Palmer : http://veroniquepalmer.wordpress.com/;-) 75

177. 76 3 Hour Workshop Dux Raymond Sy, (adapted by Veronique Palmer) Team name Identify top 3 SharePoint challenges and draw them, no words Pitch to CEO 5 items to get buy in Project name Quantify mission statement – what, when, where, who, why List 3 top level tasks List 4 item level tasks for each and allocate number of days each will take ROI strategy Governance considerations Training plan Swap plans with team next to you and do lessons learnt

178. veronique@letscollaborate.co.za www.letscollaborate.co.za 77