2. Who am I?
Dan Lead Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton
Usher 7 years of experience with SharePoint
going back to adventures with STS 2001
and SPS 2003 with fun in the SharePoint
usher 2007 and 2010
Follows the SharePoint Credo - ADIDAS
All Day I Dream About SharePoint
Enjoys discussions about Claims AuthZ,
SmartCard AuthN, Atomic Molecular
Optics & the Big Bang Theory
2
4. agenda
Common Challenges
Bad Practices and Pain Points
Proper Approaches
Conclusions
5. what's this all about?
SharePoint the Product vs. SharePoint the Platform
Collaboration Solutions
Development
Administration
Considerations for Frameworks and Governance
Technical
Business
Social
Potholes and cracks in the road
Recovering from disaster…
6. SharePoint as a product
SharePoint is our…
File Share
Calendar
Forms Management System
Web Content Management Tool
Records Management System
Digital Asset Management
…universe
7. SharePoint as a platform
SharePoint hosts my…
Time Tracker
Help Desk Center
FAQ Center
Event Planning
Productivity Hub
Inventory Tracker
Knowledge Base
Lending Library
Asset Tracker
…which keeps my business moving forward.
11. technical challenges
Authentication and Authorization
External Accessibility and Extranets
System Scalability and Caching
Search
Usability / Client Integration
User Interface Design and Branding
Application Lifecycle Management
Migration Challenges
New Capabilities Introduced
Training
3rd Party Products and Integrated Systems
12. business challenges
System Adoption
Design of System
Accessibility of System
Lack of Features
Lack of Federation
Business Process Management
Resource Availability and Training
Multi-Generational Culture Differences
Hosting Solutions – To the Cloud?
Mobile, Disconnected and Distributed Workforces
IT Shops disconnected from Business Users
13. social challenges
What is „Social‟?
Disabling or not planning for OOTB functionality of
MySites, Audiences, etc.
Information Silos
Lack of / Too much Governance
No planning for structured metadata
Not leveraging folksonomy, ratings, etc.
Lack of Directory Structure Impacts
Active Directory information (Manager, Reports, etc.)
Findability of sites, communities and documents
14. typical user base
They‟re not technically savvy
They don‟t want to deal with “the SharePoint”
They want results
16. planning
Do you have a
plan?
Ensure business,
technical, and
social plans align.
“If you have no
plan, you plan to
fail.”
17. technically speaking… how'd we get here?
Did we have a plan in place?
Development Guidelines?
Architecture Plans and System Design Document?
Implementation Documents?
Change management plans?
Requirements Traceability matrixes?
Did we have a vision or business case for the
use of SharePoint in place?
Did we have a visioning group work to define
needed capabilities and solutions?
What about Agile development methods?
18. what didn't we do right?
Lack of Governance surrounding
several key areas:
Business Drivers for what the system is for
Development Guidelines
Infrastructure Processes
Architecting for the future
Deployment to the user community
19. development disasters
Source Control Management
Development Methodologies
Release based, Waterfall, Agile?
Test Driven Development (Nunit, TypeMock)
Separate Development and Quality
Assurance Environments
Solution Types and Issues
Farm Based Solutions
Sandboxed Solutions
21. more development disasters
Features, Web Part Packs, Solution Packages
Scoping of Solutions
Solution Behavior (bin / GAC / Sandbox)
Install, Deploy, Retract, Remove
Knowing the differences between a site
definition, a web template, and a master
page… Branding matters
Lack of Documentation
Requirements, Design, Implementation
Disposing of Objects Properly
22. enterprise infrastructure processes
IT Governance & Service Level Agreement
Source Sean McDonough @spmcdonough
Capacity Planning
System Maintenance
Disaster Recovery
Continuity of Operations
RTO / RPO / RLO
23. operations and maintenance
Scheduled and Emergency/Unscheduled Maintenance
Time
Deploying code without testing in a staging
environment
Lack of regression path
Disaster Recovery
Business Continuity of Operations
25. what‟s in your IT Pro toolbox?
STSADM & PowerShell
PSConfig arguments
Custom PowerShell Cmdlets
CHM files of TechNet
SP Admin Toolkit and Diagnostic Management
Studio
SQL Analyzer & Maintenance Plans
ULS Log Spy Viewer
Free Trials from ISVs
27. turning the ship around…
Approach
Execution Planning
Documentation Governance
28. the approach
What‟s the problem we‟re trying to solve?
Being able to define both the mission and the
vision…
Project Planning and Execution
PMBOK
DMAIC
Agile
Define Business Rules, Processes, and
Requirements
29. planning
Start off with the governance checklist…
SharePoint 2007 - http://go.spdan.com/xeurd
SharePoint 2010 -
http://go.spdan.com/sp2010gov
Use the sample project plans…
SharePoint 2007 - http://go.spdan.com/hmewo
SharePoint 2010 -
http://go.spdan.com/sp2010project
Firm up your stakeholders and work to define
solutions that meet their needs…
Hire a SharePoint consultant to assist…
30. architecting for the future…
Vision…
Use cases…
Planning the enterprise
taxonomy and logical
architecture…
Physical architecture?
Logical architecture?
Source : http://bit.ly/sps-ref-wssLA
http://go.spdan.com/kuouh
http://go.spdan.com/2010tech
31. defining the framework
Remaining rigidly flexible for change…
Planning for Data Partitions and Software
Boundaries…
Disaster Recovery - both big and small
Defining governance and use of the system
Site Quotas
MySites
Site Creation Process
User Permissions
SharePoint Designer
Solution Types (Sandboxed vice Farm)
Disaster Recovery Plan
32. misconceptions and gotchas
Recycle Bin
Disaster Recovery “Oops”
Recovering across Domains
Consolidating and Migrating
Build Numbers
Workflow History
Governance
Social
33. governance
Roles and Responsibilities
Business Rules and Policies
System Usability and User Acceptance
Infrastructure Implementation and Maintenance
Processes
Software Development Guidelines
Architecture
Change Management
Training
It’s not just a piece of paper
34. governance
…shouldn‟t be defined by a single individual
…shouldn‟t just be technical in nature
…should take into consideration the purpose of the
system
…will make or break your deployment
…must be flexible to change
…determined by a committee and revisited
35. service management
Determining
realistic service
level
agreements
Providing
adequate
staffing to meet
your end user
needs
Keeping the end
user in mind
36. documentation
Develop Use Cases to test against
Regression Testing Plan – Test all cases you create
QA
Use the architecture planning documentation
examples available from Microsoft
SharePoint 2007 - http://go.spdan.com/efpxr
SharePoint 2010 - http://go.spdan.com/yfeqp
37. more documentation
SharePoint Online development guide -
http://go.spdan.com/cmzbm
SharePoint App Dev Guidance
SharePoint 2007 - http://go.spdan.com/sp-dev-aug09
SharePoint 2010 - http://go.spdan.com/dwyee
Implementation Guides
Communications
Training
Onboarding
User Documentation
38. execution
Make sure that stakeholders, users,
designers and developers are going in the
same direction
Visioning Team
Business Requirements and Solutions
Development
Change Control Board
Communicate with the business
Incorporate feedback and evaluations
39. defining a framework for success
Figure out what the system will be doing
before deployment… cast a vision and stick
to it!
Ensure process and governance are
developed and used not only for Developers
and Designers, but for the end user.
Keep the user base informed, don‟t expect
them to go in the web part gallery on a
regular basis - explain what‟s new!
40. striving forward
Implement feedback mechanisms
Review and refine processes and procedures
Adapt to the needs of the user base and
organization
Remain rigidly flexible
Called in during the assessment and design, the firefighting, the polishing of the system
Living breathing system that integrates with our Microsoft Networking InfrastructureHaving the right skill sets to facilitate the integration of your system is keyThe environment that coddles SharePoint is key.
Workflow product hindered by system memory.
Question: What are your common challenges?Budgets, Management, Business, Technical, Social?
Technical and Business application increase - social side irrelevantSocial and Business application increase - technical complexity increasesSocial and Technical application increase - business applicability decreasesBe mindful of end users
Training is key to help users understand limitations of the system that they’re working in…Consider software boundaries document rewrite with end users in mind so that they don’t try to put 10k items in a list they used to maintain in SAP
Hosting Solutions - Getting it out of your closet doesn’t mean you don’t do ITComplexity of Identity Management only increases
Social - Open versus Closed - I think it’s more just getting communicationsInformation Architecture - Determining the metadata and taxonomy that will facilitate process and sharing
CTO / CIO - turn on SharePoint after demo
How many of you all plan your implementation end to end?Implement first - business requirements later - scalability / processing powerHow many have a PMO shop?
How many are using source control management systems today?
SharePoint infrastructure processes should be a subset of your overarching IT Professional practices
Process and Procedures that are repeated
Having a printed or saved copy - SharePoint WorkspaceFarm inaccessible - need tool documentation somewhere
PMBOK - Project Management Body of Knowledge - PMIDMAIC - Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control - Six Sigma projectsAgile
System Growth will make or break a systemSystem accessibility and availability
Lack of governance as to what can go into a system - how will it impact your system accreditationSocial guidelines - what will you have on your hands in terms of users putting information out they shouldn’t
Whitepaper - John Ross Jr, Joel Oleson, Jennifer Mason and a few other folks from SP911 authored
5 9’s or 6 9’s may not be achievable
Microsoft - Mission Critical systems demand multiple production systems ready, why not invest in some Testing and QA
SharePoint Online documentation is a great starting point for internal documentation of a SharePoint system for your developers to work within
