Develop a SharePoint Governance Strategy

This research is designed for…This research will help you… Understand what SharePoint elements require governance. Create a SharePoint governance model and plan. Govern SharePoint on an on-going basis. CIOs and IT managers who have already made the decision to deploy, or have deployed, SharePoint. Deployments with moderate complexity and informal processes. Enterprises and SharePoint deployments of all sizes. Use this research to get a handle on what needs to be governed and how you can govern it to achieve operational success. Regardless of version deployed, enterprises are finding out the hard way that SharePoint won’t govern itself. SharePoint’s explosive popularity has often meant that planning has taken a backseat to deployment, and many enterprises find themselves in a Wild West environment. Without sufficient planning, SharePoint is often used recklessly if at all. Understand the common issues and develop a governance model to restore order and smooth operational management. Consult “Select the Right Collaboration Platform “ and “Evaluate SharePoint for ECM” for help with SharePoint evaluation. For SharePoint Development see “Manage a SharePoint Customization & Development Team”.Select the Right Collaboration Platform Evaluate SharePoint for ECMManage a SharePoint Customization & Development Team Introduction

Develop a strategy around architecture, security, maintenance, storage planning, development, and policies; the sooner the better. Ideally this should be well before deployment, but can still be done years later if necessary. Don’t let additional governance needs deter you from using SharePoint 2010; with more requirements comes more included governance functionality. Involving business stakeholders has the largest impact on operational success. SharePoint should never be deployed without planning or governance considerations. SharePoint will become a mission critical application, with or without you. If you’re not prepared, disaster is only a matter of time. Governing SharePoint is not just throwing a team together or rehashing old policies. Design and configuration of SharePoint is a key responsibility for modern IT Business Analysts. Info-Tech Research Group3 An ungoverned SharePoint threatens more than business requirements -- it can bring your business to a grinding halt. SharePoint can be effectively governed by having a few basic processes, policies, and standards in place. Training will make or break your SharePoint deployment. Effective governance goes beyond design and can mitigate the risk of operational issues. Understand Strategize Manage Executive Summary

StrategizeManage Understand Formalize Govern or fail: the choice is yours. SharePoint success is a factor of use cases, so govern accordingly. Set up SharePoint like a content database, not a fileserver. Follow Info-Tech’s SharePoint Governance Model to cover all the bases. 4 Governance activities aren’t optional SharePoint Governance Strategy Roadmap I

Dedicate resources to SharePoint governance or your initiative will fail Do not deploy SharePoint without planning or governance considerations, no matter what your scenario. You need certain stops in place, even if they are light. Info-Tech Insight SharePoint governance isn’t a ‘nice to have’ that only really applies to large enterprises. Though upfront costs, if any, are limited, and it is easy to deploy from IT’s perspective, SharePoint should never be deployed without governance considerations (use, content, design). SharePoint is a content database, not a file system, making features and management exponentially more complex; once it’s set up, it is notoriously difficult to alter, so the importance of preparation cannot be understated. It’s a very nice tool, I really love it, but it must be planned in the beginning because it’s tough to go back and restructure once it’s going. After two years, it was a big mess. No standards. Problems in the backend with disk space, massive document uploads, users adding list fields on the fly. - Senior Business Analyst, Distribution SharePoint without governance can result in more cost, time, and grief in any number of ways. Users can bring down the system without proper access controls Confidential documents can be compromised if security measures aren’t in place Document management will be nearly impossible without maintenance guidelines Poor navigability and maxed out capacity by content sprawl Use may cease if the application is too difficult to use and navigate Collaboration initiatives fail as business requirements go unmet “ ”

Licensing: $105,000 Five year TCO: $630,000 Govern SharePoint to unlock the benefits of existing costs Wild West Governed Use SharePoint governance to create business value. Without it, achieving any ROI at all is virtually impossible. Info-Tech Insight Initial Costs are the same…but a Benefits gap…creates different Outcomes. Business requirements are achieved effectively with SharePoint. IT can quickly and effectively manage SharePoint. Grief level is low for IT and business users. Negative benefits exist and create new costs: Poor user acceptance Overtime work System outage Lost productivity Grief level is high for IT and business users. SharePoint 2010 (Standard CAL) for 1,000 users, 3 server farms, 2 WFE servers and SQL Staffing: $105,000 annually 1 SharePoint Administrator and 0.5 Business Analyst Licensing: $105,000 Five year TCO: $630,000 SharePoint 2010 (Standard CAL) for 1,000 users, 3 server farms, 2 WFE servers and SQL Staffing: $105,000 annually 1 SharePoint Administrator and 0.5 Business Analyst Costs accumulate every year while SharePoint becomes more and more broken. The longer SharePoint remains ungoverned the more difficult, time- consuming, and expensive it is to bail out. Initial time and grief investment in governance activities pays dividends. While benefits are difficult to quantify, they will exist and negative benefits will be avoided.

Case Study: Without Governance, SharePoint failure is inevitable SharePoint very quickly becomes a mission critical application, with or without you. If you’re not prepared, disaster is only a matter of time. Info-Tech Insight Lots of inexperienced users were given full permission rights. A project manager reset access at the root level, locking everybody out. Restore to a workable solution took IT 48 hours where “nobody went to sleep.” IT independently locked it down using permissions. Instability created a new wave of user antagonism. Healthcare firm’s SharePoint deployment implodes without governance. Started on Windows SharePoint Services Two instances: Internal site for document library, project management, compliance and collaboration External site for collaboration with partners and BI 175 of 200 employees access SP daily, 25% of have SharePoint open at all times. Employees saw the value, adopted en masse, and it became mission critical. Quickly became dependent but there were no rules and the basic version was short on resources. Middle management tried to create a governance document, but didn’t get traction. Created the document, but without ownership it was abandoned. You can plan for change or it will change for you and you won’t have any control. To use SharePoint effectively it’s pretty much required that you have a governance group and meet regularly. - Director of IT, Healthcare “ ” The Situation goes … from bad…to worse.

Complexity Use Case Scale Everyone needs governance, but some factors create additional risk More than 250 users use SharePoint. More than 2 instances of SharePoint are deployed. Info-Tech Research Group8 SharePoint is being used across multiple geographic offices or across countries. The Enterprise is subject to regulatory requirements. User permissions need to be set up below the department level. Using SharePoint for small, simple initiatives isn’t a free pass. Keep an eye on changing business requirements and use profiles so you’re ready when your risk profile increases. Info-Tech Insight SharePoint will be used for more than 3 unique use cases (e.g. intranet, collaboration, ECM). SharePoint will be used for ECM, records management or as an extranet portal. Scale, complexity, and use cases all complicate SharePoint initiatives and significantly increase the risk of disaster if left ungoverned.

Actualize SharePoint governance to mitigate risk & realize benefits wholesale Info-Tech Research Group9 Governing SharePoint is not just throwing a team together or rehashing old policies. It is a procedure and a business analyst job function, not a one-time project. Info-Tech Insight 1.Co-developing a Governance Plan with the Business 2.Creating an Information Architecture Model 3.Setting up Permissions for different User Profiles 4.Creating Policies around Content Retirement Governing SharePoint means: Enterprises who invested high effort in SharePoint governance activities were 81% more successful than those who invested low effort. Met business requirements Met user adoption goals Manageable for IT Users follow policies Search effectiveness IT responsiveness Compliance issues are manageable Enterprises with the highest governance effort ran laps around those with the lowest governance effort: 7.7x 5.9x 1.7x 6.2x 5.4x 1.5x 2.1x Source: Info-Tech Research Group

Treat SharePoint as a Content Database not a File System. Complexity makes solution design mission critical Designing and configuring SharePoint is one of the most important responsibilities of the modern IT Business Analyst. Don’t overlook their role in Business-IT alignment. Info-Tech Insight Unlike hierarchical File Systems, SharePoint can sort, list, and group based on advanced formulas. This means that folders-within-folders structures aren’t ideal, since folders don’t allow for multiple memberships, e.g. sort by author and project. To optimize SharePoint, use custom views to organize content, and use folders to sort based on audience and access control only. These advanced organization options make proper metadata increasingly important. Trying to use SharePoint like a file system will result in process inefficiencies, poor navigability, and broken folder-within-folder due to URL length limitations. The inherent complexity of properly designing a content database like SharePoint necessitates a co-operative solution design between IT and the business. IT must distill the site creation process down to individual steps, and ensure that each step is tied to a particular business question or requirement. Ideally one or more Business Analysts should be involved in this process. Once use cases have been defined, relevant canned templates can be presented to business decision-makers so they can decide which best suits their requirements. Follow Content Database Best PracticesDon’t treat SharePoint like a File System Content Database (SharePoint)Hierarchical File System

Use Info-Tech’s SharePoint Governance Strategy Model to cover all your bases Info-Tech Research Group11 Info. Architecture Access & Ownership Development Maintenance Storage Planning Develop Policies & Standards Outline Use Cases Design the Front End Design the Back End Design the Support Model Architecture is the structure of information and is the backbone of SharePoint’s content system. Access & Ownership matches user access control and permissions to the information architecture as well as determines who is responsible for each sub-site. Maintenance covers both content lifecycle management and backup/restore process. Storage Planning encompasses capacity planning, storage quotas, and scalability. Development and customizations requires a strategy and is often ill-advised. Policies & Standards refer to the written rules and guidelines governing SharePoint operation. Develop a strategy around each element as soon as possible. Ideally this should be well before deployment, but can still be done years later if necessary. Info-Tech Insight Formal governance structure or not, all of these elements must be considered when deploying SharePoint, as soon as possible. Follow Info-Tech’s Governance Strategy ModelUnderstand the elements

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