| General Principles |
| Policies
are tied to the scope and intention of the site. Governance policies
will be more flexible for sites with more limited access than they will
for sites that are shared with a broad audience. | The
different audiences for sites allow you to adapt the governance model
according to business needs. While some policies will be enforced
across the entire organization, others may be determined by each site
owner. This means that there may be some content that will not be as
structured or searchable compared to other content that will be
consistently “managed.” | One
size does not fit all. Yes, we’ve got rules, but we’re smart enough to
know when it’s appropriate to deviate from a standard in order to
achieve a business objective more effectively. |
| Even
though SharePoint may be a new vehicle for collaboration, SharePoint
content is governed by all general policies pertaining to the use of IT
resources, including privacy, copyright, records retention,
confidentiality, document security, and so on. | Content
ownership, security, management, and contribution privileges are
distributed across the entire organization, including users who may not
have had content contribution, security, or records management
privileges in the past. All content contributors need to be aware of
organization policies for business-appropriate use of IT resources. | Existing
rules still apply—would you want your mother/boss/customer/client to
see this picture? Should your mother/boss/customer/client be able to
see this content? |
| Security Principles |
| Overall firm security policies about who can see what content still apply and govern the portal. | Users
need to think about where content is published to ensure that
confidential content is only shared on sites with limited access. | Publish to meet the “need to know” standards for your organization: No more, no less! |
| Role-based security will govern access control and permissions on each area of the portal (intranet and extranet). | Users
may have different permissions on different areas of the portal, which
has an implication for both governance and training. While most users
may not have content contribution privileges for tightly governed
intranet pages, every user has Full Control privileges on his or her My
Site. | You may not have the same permissions on every page of the portal. |
| Site Design Principles |
| Provide
a consistent user experience—users should be able to consistently find
key information on any collaboration site and search for the content
they need. | All sites will also follow a consistent baseline design template to ensure consistency and usability across collaboration sites. | Hey—it’s not about you, it’s about the user! |
| Design to minimize training requirements for end users—use the best (and simplest) feature for each business objective. | Any
user with site design privileges will be encouraged to participate in
training to ensure that they use the most appropriate Web Parts and
lists for each task. | Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. You don’t really need to try every new feature! |
| Ensure
that “findability” governs design decisions—optimize metadata and site
configuration to provide the best value for the end-user audience, not
just the content contributor. | In
situations where design trade-offs must be considered (more metadata
versus less, information above or below “the fold,” duplicating links
in multiple places), decisions should be made to make it easier for end
users rather than content contributors. “Findability” means designing
sites so that important information is easily visible and that
navigational cues are used to help users easily find key information.
It also means using metadata to improve accuracy of search results.
Both the “browse” and “search” experience for users will guide design
decisions in initial site development and modification over time. | Avoid building the roach motel—where content “checks in” but it never “checks out.” |
| Site
designers must understand the objectives of the recommended site design
standards and make changes only when they can be justified with a valid
business need. | Even
though site designers may have permissions that allow them to make
changes to site templates and other “controlled” site areas, they agree
not to arbitrarily make changes to the basic site templates based on
personal preference. Suggestions for changes to the standard site
templates should be elevated to the Governance/Steering Committee. | It’s all about Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Use your powers wisely. |
| All sites/pages must have a clearly identified content “owner.” | Users need to know who to contact if information on a page or site is out of date or inaccurate. | Make it obvious who owns the content on all pages and sites. |
| Content Principles |
| All content is posted in just one place. Users who need access to content should create links to the document ID for the document to access the content from its “authoritative” location. | This
means that the official version of a document is posted once by the
content owner (which may be a department, not necessarily an
individual). For the reader’s convenience, users may create a link to
the official copy of a document from anywhere in SharePoint but should
not post a “convenience copy.”
Users should not post copies of documents to their personal hard drives
or My Sites if they exist elsewhere in the solution. | Post one copy of a document. |
| Edit in place—don’t delete documents to create new versions. | Version
control will be enabled in document libraries where prior versions need
to be retained during document creation or editing. If prior versions
need to be retained permanently for legal purposes, “old” versions of
documents should be stored in an archive location or library. Documents
will be edited in place rather than deleted and re-added so that
document links created by other users will not break. | Someone may be linking to your documents. Update, don’t delete! |
| Site Sponsors/Owners are accountable, but everyone owns the responsibility for content management. | All
content posted to a site shared by more than a small team will be
governed by a content management process that ensures content is
accurate, relevant, and current. Site Sponsors/Owners are responsible
and accountable for content quality and currency and archiving old
content on a timely basis, but site users are responsible for making
Site Sponsors/Owners aware of content that needs updating. | We’re all responsible for content management. |
| Links instead of e-mail attachments. | Users should send links to content whenever possible rather than e-mail attachments. | No more e-mail attachments! |
| Copyrighted material will not be added to the portal without the proper licensing or approval. | Copyright
violations can be very costly. This is probably one of the most
frequently ignored principles on corporate intranets and one that your
corporate librarian (if your organization still has one) is going to be
particularly concerned about. | Don’t publish what we don’t own. |
