SharePoint Governance Checklist Guide - WordPress

OPERATIONAL CONCERNSmonitoring, uptime and downtimeEstabliіsh moniіtoriіng at the server and web appliіcatiіon levelDefine responses to each type of faiіlure that may occur; useMiіcrosoft Operatiіons Manager Packs for appliіcable areas iіn thedeployment such as IІIІS, SQL, WSS 3.0, and SharePoiіnt Server 2007Define scheduled downtiіme periіods iіf neededCommunicate the procedure to report unscheduled downtime orspeciіfic performance iіssues (consiіder usiіng another mediіum foroutage notiіficatiіon)Define response procedures to unscheduled downtiіmedisaster recoveryPlan for siіngle file recovery (perhaps usiіng versiіon control and therecycle biіn)Plan for siіngle or multiіple siіte recoveryPlan for server recoveryPlan for data center recoverydata and document recoveryCodiіfy corporate records management requiіrements iіnto SharePoiіntDefine rules for archiіve of siіtes iіncludiіng warniіngs and approvalsquotas and reportingEstabliіsh default storage quota templates by web appliіcatiіonEstabliіsh process for requestiіng a larger quota, iіncludiіng maxiіmumquotasDefine requiіred audiіtiіng reports and establiіsh storage usage reports,iіncludiіng how the data wiіll be gathered and frequencyDevelop actiіviіty based reportiіng for admiіniіstrators and busiіnessusers

EDUCATION & TRAININGtraining budgetIІnclude realiіstiіc traiіniіng costs as part of your earliіest estiіmatesAllocate budget for IІT staff, Development staff, and busiіness users.Consider train the trainer and onsite training to reduce costsinitial trainingAcquiіre end user traiіniіng and resourcesAcquiіre help desk traiіniіng and resourcesAcquiіre admiіniіstrator traiіniіng and resourcesDevelop admiіniіstrator poliіcy guiіdes whiіch descriіbe organiіzatiіonspeciіfic poliіciіesAcquiіre developer traiіniіng and resourcesDevelop developer poliіcy guiіdes whiіch descriіbe organiіzatiіon speciіficdevelopment policiesProvide separate training for site managers, application designers,information workers, and end userscommunity developmentCreate online forums where users can support each other and askquestiіonsCreate opportunities for face-to-face learning in unstructured orsemi-structured environments, such as lunch and learns or afterhours discussionsrenewal trainingPlan for renewal training which gathers the learning from multiplegroups and exposes it to other groupsPerform periodic audits of the platform to discover what features arenot beiіng utiіliіzed and whiіch features are not beiіng utiіliіzed correctly

NAVIGATION & TAXONOMYtaxonomyGiіve one group control over the taxonomyConsiіder hiіriіng or utiіliіziіng a professiіonal taxonomiіst or iіn housetaxonomiіst who has been traiіned or has experiіence wiіth SharePoiіnttechnologyUse the taxonomy for consiіstent labeliіng of the siіteBuiіld one set of taxonomy labels priіor to finaliіziіng your wiіreframesUpdate taxonomy to proviіde useful search metadatasite directoriesDefine the structure of the siіte diіrectoriіes iіncludiіng the majјorgroupings and associationsDevelop a liіnkiіng strategy between diіfferent types of siіtes such asenterpriіse, diіviіsiіonal, departmental, team, etc.content typesDefine core content types iіn the organiіzatiіon and iіnclude iіn siіtetemplates or siіte definiіtiіonsDefine key fields to liіnk documents and operatiіonal systems

ENTERPRISE SEARCHsearchAssiіgn workflows for content creatiіon so only the best iіnformatiіon iіsavaiіlable for search iіndexiіngIІntegrate your taxonomy wiіth search planniіngUse hiіt hiіghliіghtiіng, best bets, and people searchIІncorporate alternatiіve content forms such as blogs and Wiіkiіs iіntoyour search resultsUtiіliіze BDC functiіonaliіty iіn SharePoiіnt to enable search on customerrelationship management or partners, products and moresearch locationsEstabliіsh content sources to the file based reposiіtoriіes iіn theorganiіzatiіonUse the Busiіness Data Catalog to allow searchiіng of busiіness datasearch relevancyDefine who wiіll be responsiіble for core relevancy settiіngsIІmplement organiіzatiіonal enhancements of the noiіse words file,thesaurus file, and keyword best bests

CUSTOM CHECKLISTadditional checklist itemsnotes, acronyms, definitions, and references

SharePoint GovernanceChecklist GuideTIPS & INFO

ENTERPRISE SEARCHthe business data catalogThe Business Data Catalog provides the bdcMetadata.XSD file, an XMLSchema De finition File (XSD) that de fines the XML element mappingstructure necessary for creating an Appliіcatiіon Definiіtiіon file. Whenauthoring metadata using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, valuableIntelliSense support can be gained by copying XML de finition to aworking folder and setting the schemaLocation attribute of the rootelement to point to this schema. The BdcMetadata.XSD file can be locatedin the “\Bin” folder of the Of fice SharePoint Server 2007 installationdirectory, normally located at “ root \Program Files\Microsoft Of ficeServer\12.0\Bin\”.multiple bdc application definitionsWhen developing BDC Application de finitions, the easiest approach tocreating the de finition is to include all fields in the table, making themavailable for later use by anyone. Typically, an organization will be veryselective as to which fields are available to end users. Depending on thesearch relevancyarchitecture of your application, some fields may be sensitive or evenencrypted. This can produce extended discussions on which fields areuseful and appropriate for users throughout the organization. It may bethat an organization decides to create multiple Appliіcatiіon Definiіtiіonsto the same data structure, one perhaps complete wiіth all fields and onerestriіctiіve wiіth liіmiіted field access, then assigning speci fic permissions onlyallowing company access to the more restrictive of the de finitions.using web parts to add application definitionsWeb Parts are the easiest way to surface data from new ApplicationDe finitions. When clicking “Add a Web Part” on any SharePoint page,select “Business Data List” and add it to the page. When first added, theWeb Part properties must be set to use an available BDC Entity as itssource. (For readability, select “Edit View” from the toolbar).

NAVIGATION & TAXONOMYtaxonomy governance modelA taxonomy is a structured way of ordering words, labels, tags, etc.for a Web site. It’s similar to a vocabulary list with a set of guidelinesfor de finitions and usage. A taxonomy helps to de fine and control theway a Web site is organized, what things are named, and how people find information. In short, a taxonomy makes it easier to organize and find things on a Web site.TAXONOMIC l Permanent Controlled; tightly governed Push information to users Dashboards, BusinessIntelligence, BPM Applications, Content Portaladministrators CorporatestakeholdersDivision Portals Permanent Controlled; tightly governed Push information to users All public sites - content isdivisional information Dashboards, BusinessIntelligence, BPM Applications, Content Portaladministrators Divisional businessownersDepartment, Group& Team Sites Permanent and Temporary Sharing information (push/pull) Collaboration Ad hoc, lax control Divisional businessowners Departmentalbusiness ownersProject Team Sitesand Workspaces Short lived, timed expiration Collaboration Ad hoc, lax control Departmentalbusiness ownersMy Sites Permanent Personal info Pull information Ad hoc, lax control Portaladministrators Employees

EDUCATION & TRAININGmost common roles and suggested trainingSystem Administrators:This role is responsible for Server and database management and willallocate physical infrastructure, install SharePoint, provision and con figureweb applications, and provide for top level security administration.Training should include deployment practices, SharePoint CentralAdministration, monitoring, maintenance, backup/restore, disasterrecovery, and management of Shared Service Providers.Developers:This role needs education on the structure to be followed in theorganization for developing add-ins and solutions based on SharePointtechnologies. This should include the deployment process, developmentenvironments, development life cycle management, coding standards,and policies such as security levels and whether code can be deployed inthe GAC.Help Desk Personnel:This role is the first in line to the end users. Much of the training andeducation for the help desk should be focused around problem resolutionand how to locate the right resources when needed.Information Workers:This role con figures and extends site and list level feature sets. Thisincludes branding, advanced Web Part features, work flows, and otherintegration points. Training should include SharePoint Designer, SharedService Provider interface for Search or other Service Management, SiteSettings, InfoPath, and standard SharePoint site administrator interfaces.End Users:This role will account for the bulk of SharePoint users and skills will varygreatly. Core daily use will include basic navigation, search, and documentmanagement. Focus should be on understanding lists, user interfaces,navigation, work flows, upload, of fline, and interaction with clientapplications.

OPERATIONAL CONCERNSmonitoringIt’s important to monitor at the level of detail that will let you know withcon fidence that if the site is down that you will be noti fied there is aproblem. You can do this by pinging the server, checking the status ofservices, testing health-check pages, etc. Failure of the system to respondin the expected way may be a reason to alert administrators or takeautomated actions to take the server out of the load balancer. De finingwhat the monitoring policies are, including who will be noti fied whenthere is a problem with the server, or with an individual site will eliminateconfusion as to who owns the resolution of server problems – includingproblems with speci fic sites.disaster recovery and backupThe fundamental building block of disaster recovery plans are backups.Backups of the data, failover hardware, and redundant connectivity. Theway that backups are performed is essential to the SharePoint governanceprocess because it establishes expectations on what is recoverable or not.De fining the process for requesting recovery and the timeline for thatrecovery further establishes the kind of expectations from SharePointthat improve adoption. Be sure to consider a variety of disasters: natural( flood, fire, tornado, earthquake), server (of fline, dead), user accidents ( filedeletion, saving issues, crashes), and site (failure, corruption, error).storage and quotasCentralized SharePoint platforms must be concerned about total storage.SharePoint can rapidly become the new file storage platform within anorganization – and as a result consume massive amounts of storage veryquickly. One of the ways to combat this problem is to establish quotas forsites as they are created. Each site is given a small amount of storage andthey’re allowed to request more as they need it. The governance processshould include the amount of space initially allocated by type of sitebeing provisioned as well as the process for requesting more space.

TESTING & PROVISIONINGpre-launch testingPrior to launching, require site owners to test their own content. Set upschedules for them to review content every other day during the testingcycle.To make it as easy as possible to hear back from these testers, providean online form or similarly convenient way for site owners to providefeedback during testing. You need to get feedback fast to make changes,so don’t get bogged down in massive spreadsheets.It’s best to create test plans that test all necessary functionality, suchas links to other programs. Provide site owners with a speci fic checklistof exactly what functionality you want them to check. If you make theassumption they’ll just know what to do, you may be disappointed withthe results.testing planBuilding a strong user acceptance testing plan up front will help businessstakeholders see for themselves that the project objectives have beenmet, before the intranet is widely available.test environmentsThe fundamental building block of disaster recovery plans are backups.Backups of the data, backup hardware, and backup interconnectiongear. The way that backups are performed is essential to the SharePointgovernance process because it establishes expectations on what isrecoverable or not.

INFRASTRUCTUREfirewall best practiceIt is a best practice for firewalls to not allow servers to access the webdirectly. Including content from a third party site through a content editorweb part or through the RSS reader web part creates exposure for crosssite scripting attacks. Controlling what sites can be linked to from thesetools is a security and operational concern.It is typical to prevent outbound web connections from the server on port80 or 443. This is designed to prevent malicious sites from being run onthe server and to make it harder for any potential infection to report backon the infection’s success.load balancingLoad balancers keep alive pages that they expect to return a standardvalue to indicate that the server is operational. These pages often arecalled frequently and have a very low tolerance for a response time.Because of this the load balancers will need to be con figured to access ahealth page. Determining a policy for what goes on this health page andwhat criteria the load balancer should use to indicate that a server hasfailed can be essential for high availability applications. Developers mustknow if they are expected to handle situations where a single session istransferred between servers.defining environmentsDe fining the environments for development, testing, staging or useracceptance and deploying helps business uses and developers knowwhat resources they have available to test changes without impactingproduction.

DEVELOPMENT & CONFIGURATIONmaster page wireframeAn example of a basic wireframe mirroring the out-of-the-boxfunctionality and layout of a standard Master Page is shown below. Thisbreaks down the functionality to its most basic component on a page.User MenuHome LinkSite Title & LogoSearchGlobal NavigationTitleContent AreaCurrent Site NavigationWebPart ZoneRecycle Binafter drafting and validating the wireframeOnce the wireframe has been drafted and its end user functionality hasbeen validated, designers can apply branding and visual treatments tothe interface. Visual compositions may take several rounds to ensurethat visual design, functional design and stakeholder acceptance reachagreement. In fact, this phase should be carefully managed.

DEVELOPMENT & CONFIGURATIONmaster pagesMicrosoft Of fice SharePoint Server 2007 provides a template-likeapproach to branding where most of the user interface may becompletely redesigned to a detailed design requirement. ASP.NET 2.0Master Pages allow for a globally applied template background to all ofSharePoint’s user and administration screens. By modifying or creatingyour own custom Master Page via Microsoft Of fice SharePoint Designer2007, unique visual presence and functionality can be achieved.site definitions and site templatesIn SharePoint, site de finitions are file system-based resources from whichall sites are built. Site templates are a set of changes to be applied to a siteautomatically after the site is created from a site de finition. Understandingand communicating the difference between site de finitions and sitetemplates is important because site de finitions require unique identi fiersand therefore, coordination. Site templates, on the other hand, require theunderlying site de finition that was used to create them and as such, theircreation should occur only from approved site de finitions. Upgrade andconsistency are major factors in the decisions whether or not to use sitetemplates or site de finitions. Both will require some effort to upgrade, butsite de finitions will require more effort.building codeEnvironments with as many different components as SharePoint need alevel of consistency when software is developed and built. Simple thingslike patches on a computer used to build code can have dramatic impactson the overall solution. Dedicating a computer to the purpose of buildingall of the code to be deployed into production is a good risk managementapproach. There is the potential that for many different internal andexternal groups developing code for the SharePoint platform, having onerepository for all of code may not be the first choice. Each developmentgroup may maintain their own source code repository. One considerationfor governance is if your size of installation warrants a policy that requiresall code be built on a centralized build computer from a centralizedsource code repository.

PROJECT & OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENTdefining rolesDe fining roles within the governance team and within SharePointdeployment at large is a seemingly uncomplicated task that oftenbecomes dif ficult as staff rotates. Consider de fining roles around: projectmanagement, service owner, operational management, and development.Project Management:These roles include actions which must occur to manage the projectthrough to completion. Time and cost management of the platformproject, communication of objectives, ensuring the production ofdeliverables, guiding the timelines, and management of expectations areall critical actions that should happen from a project management role(s).Service Owner:These roles are for managing the ongoing life of a centralized governanceand platform. Service Manager or owner roles are the advisory or steeringcommittee roles which will guide the SharePoint governance over thelong term. Explaining what actions are expected out of these roles as wellas the frequency of commitment can be helpful.Operational Management:These roles are responsible for the day-to-day care and feeding ofthe system including backups and restores, monitoring, and capacitymanagement. These do not have to be dedicated roles but are insteadroles which already exist within your organization. They should be de finedas a part of the SharePoint governance in order to make it clear whatkinds of operational management support is expected.Development:These roles may seem odd for a centralized platform. The platform itselfmay largely be out-of-the-box functionality of SharePoint. However,integrating SharePoint into your environments, handing secure sign on,creating site de finitions, and many other tasks may best be centralized sono one user must bear the burden and consistency exists throughout thesolution.

PROJECT & OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENTcommon site classification typesEnterprise:A plan for enterprise sites has the highest level of governance associatedwith it. Enterprise sites tend to be focused on communication – onthe dissemination of information and not so much on collaboration orworking together. Because it will be accessed by the entire organization,it’s essential that it match the relative appearance of the other sitesand that it be available most of the time. Out-of-band patches andupgrades to core functionality implemented through code will needto be minimized. Taxonomy and the need for a consistent approach toorganization of information is necessary as we

Server 2007 Governance Checklist Guide! Included in this Microsoft Ofce SharePoint Server 2007 Governance Checklist Guide is a collection of hand-selected checklists and tips that provide comprehensive governance information to ensure that your IT organization is following the same standards for SharePoint governance as the experts.