0. Lessons Learned from a SharePoint Implementation - Cradle to Grave
Richard Darzynkiewicz

1. Welcome to SharePoint Saturday Houston
Thank you for being a part of the 5th Annual SharePoint Saturday for the greater Houston area!
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Special thanks to our Title Sponsor, ProSymmetry

2. Thanks to all our Sponsors!

3. Information
Speaker presentation slides should be available from the SPSHOU website within a week or so
The Houston SharePoint User Group will be having it’s next meeting Wednesday April 15th. Please join us at

4. SharePoint - Cradle to Grave

5. Overview
I’ve been an IT Solution Architect for United Space Alliance for over fifteen years
Our company implemented several SharePoint farms starting in 2007 for various uses
USA has shrunk from almost 12,000 employees to less than 50 over the last few years
In December 2014, we turned off our last SharePoint farm
This presentation contains lessons learned and best practices from startup to shutdown

6. RIP SharePoint

7. SharePoint in the Cradle
Plan what you will use it for (build a roadmap)
Demo it out (kick the tires)
Get strong stakeholders (execs would be best)
Know what it will cost (we had a million dollar plus Decision Package)

8. SharePoint Roadmap (circa 2010) ... ? BI
T B D SP
2010
Apps
New MS EA
ECM
Web
SPOC
Ends
User and Group Drives
Unofficial and Draft Content
IDS and BD
Pilots
= where we
are today
= decision
points

9. SharePoint Infancy Find some low hanging fruit (quick wins)
Start documenting your processes (better yet, have your customers do it!)
Train your developers (train your trainers)
Find points of contacts (Software Development Leads, Office of Primary Responsibility, etc.)

10. One of Our Document Libraries

11. SharePoint Adolescence
Use SharePoint to manage the SharePoint projects (eat your own dog food)
Build a Governance system (not just a document)
Identify some customer pain points (but don’t automate a broken process!)
Know when and not when to customize (upgrades will be affected)

12. Richard’s Top 10 (OK, 12!)
Only DRAFT information is allowed in SharePoint
Be aware of what the classification is for the information that you are working on and check that the Access Control List on the location where you are working coincides
A CURF is required for every individual who has elevated permissions in SharePoint
Do not enable “All Authenticated Users” on any resource in SharePoint
Every new site shall be registered by the SharePoint Team (workspaces are excluded)
Design the site to avoid breaking permission inheritance

13. Richard’s Top 10 (OK, 12!) No Personal Sites are allowed in SharePoint
Wikis, Blogs and Forums must be moderated (requiring review prior to posting) if it is open to all USA Employees
The default SharePoint Groups shall be renamed to more clearly indicate the location or the general membership of the group
Organizational Charts are not allowed in SharePoint
Leave Thursday evenings for SharePoint maintenance, software installs, promotions, etc
The default SharePoint MasterPages, PageMasters, Themes and CSSs shall be used

14. SharePoint Childhood Create mandatory training (and remediation!)
Start looking for 3rd party tools (for automation)
Team Blog (how did we do that?)
Start monitoring performance (don’t let the customers tell you SharePoint is down)

15. “Connection Dropped” Errors

16. SharePoint Early Adulthood
Start planning for upgrades (it is inevitable)
Get support beyond the MSDN forums (get to know your Microsoft Rep!)
Recognize team members (awards, etc.)
Not everyone can get a tab at the top of the page (categorize your site types)

17. “Next 100” link missing

18. SharePoint Adulthood
We needed full-time Librarians (but didn’t get any)
Become “Leading Edge” not “Bleeding Edge” (let others do all the R&D)
Climb the Capability Maturity Model ladder (CMMI)

19. CMMI Certification

20. SharePoint Old Age Monitor disk usage (and delete old sites)
Audit your processes (surprise tests!)
Rebrand your image (finally customize that Master Page?)

21. SharePoint Age = Super Dog Years? .

22. SharePoint in the Grave
We exported SharePoint content into file shares (I know, really!)
We found that MOSS 2007 had a reserved word (folder names)
We found authoritative data in the collaboration areas (I know, really!)
Quality check your transfers (as a CYA)

23. Quality Check of Files Moved

24. Conclusion
You may not have all these steps, or have them in the same order (not all SharePoint implementations are equal)
If I have given someone an idea that they can take back, I have been successful (I hope!!)
Enjoy the rest of the conference, thanks for attending my talk

25. Contact Me richdarz@live.com www.linkedin.com/in/richarddarzynkiewicz
The Houston SharePoint User Group will be having it’s next meeting Wednesday April 15th. Please join us at

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