Ask the Expert: SharePoint Governance

These questions come from the AIIM Wednesday Webinar, SharePoint Implementation: Governance and Security Issues.

Also, read AIIM's latest Industry Watch study, AIIM State of the Market: Microsoft SharePoint.

Q: What was meant by "WSS is no longer considered as an option?" Is it no longer supported by Microsoft or what?

Dwyer: WSS is still available and going strong but gives up some key features to MOSS Standard such as:
- Property (column) search
- Fewer supplied workflows and Web Parts
- Single Sign On
- Enterprise Portal (My Sites, User Profiles, Site Portal Templates)
- Records Center
- Less breadth in supporting infrastructure (For example: LDAP provider).
And, contrasted to MOSS Enterprise WSS lacks
- Enterprise InfoPath
- Business Intelligence Support such as Excel Services, Report Center, and Business Data Catalog.

Q: Of those organizations that actually have a comprehensive governance model in place for SP, how many are effectively enforcing the model?

Dwyer: Comprehensive governance models appear to be the exception and evidence of a lack of governance or enforcement abounds. However, there are organizations that have either started with governance in place or applied their learning to a "second wave" of SharePoint deployments or solutions. Also, in some organizations you will see strong "topical governance," e.g., a good handle on the site provisioning process, at managing metadata, technology standards, etc.

Q: Can you speak more about metadata classification schemes? Why do you need this, how would you implement?

Dwyer: Within a Site Collection it is possible to use SharePoint "Content Types" to build a metadata hierarchy ranging from top level, "universal" metadata columns which are inherited by and combined with sets of lower level and more specific columns which can be used by SharePoint components such as Lists, Document Libraries, folders, and documents. However, to manage metadata across Site Collections it is necessary to use some cataloging or management tools. Vendors such as SchemaLogic have mature SharePoint products and SharePoint 2010 will offer increased abilities as well.

Q: Better reporting capabilities within SharePoint would be most beneficial, such as site permissions report (down to document level), etc. Do you know if any plans are in place to improve this capability within SharePoint?

Dwyer: To date, capabilities beyond views and Web Parts have been the province of 3rd-party products. Note that SharePoint 2010 includes enhanced PerformancePoint, Excel services, and data rendering within SharePoint.

Q: Really astonishing that MOSS turns out to become a doc mgmt strategy rather than a collaboration platform as originally sketched; all of the concerns mentioned in different articles of Infonomics (danger of uncontrolled sprawling of installations/sites in the organization, scalability, etc.) are increasing. Does AIIM share these concerns and does it recommend to use MOSS only as a front-end based on robust ECM systems (like Oracle/Stellent) if used as a DM strategy?

Dwyer: SharePoint is a legitimate DM option, but one whose rapid adoption creates new stresses on management and governance. For those with in-place ECM / DM platforms, an objective observer would acknowledge that cohabitation will make sense for many organizations to leverage previous investment, specific features, or current user familiarity.

Note that for many, SharePoint is still seen as a collaboration platform. Key determinants for the depth of collaboration are workflows and SharePoint collaboration structures. For example, a repository without a workflow could be characterized as an intelligent Shared Drive with better metadata, search, and structures. However, as workflows are introduced collaboration increases ranging from simple approvals to support for multi-step, conditional processes. Also, Doc Mgmt Sites, Team Sites, and Project Sites create arenas for topical or purpose-specific collaboration. Finally, "My Sites" can be purely social or business-driven based on user information such as skills, recent projects, relationships, etc.

Q: Is there a governance best practices document that can be shared?

Dwyer: The Microsoft "SharePoint Governance Checklist Guide" (http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102306291033) covers the basics. Also, there is an emerging site aimed at providing a platform for exchanging experience, ideas, and best practices. (http://www.sharepointgovernance.org)

Q: Is there a way to export the user list to .xls from 'People and Groups' ??

Dwyer: If you don't have the luxury of 3rd-party tools or technologists familiar with the SharePoint object model, an end user can employ a scrolling cut & paste to get data into a spreadsheet. Low tech, but it works.

Q: Do you have any demographic data on how users have learned SharePoint (i.e. self taught, internal classes, Microsoft Official training)?

Dwyer: One key differentiator is whether the usage is "General Repository" or "Solutions specific." That is, for general upload, browse, and search it is possible to rely on light assistance and on the job training (the self-taught model). However, users of a SharePoint-based application or solution will typically need increased training in navigation, views, export, workflow roles and approvals, etc. Power users of such solutions must be able to add metadata, views, or even Sites, Lists, and Document Libraries which demands a strong working knowledge of SharePoint. In either scenario, at a minimum there should be some skills checklist or access to "peer users" to make sure that the initial experience is successful.

Mike Dwyer ( mdwyer@corridor.com) is a solution architect with Corridor Consulting ( www.corridorconsulting.com).