Final Thoughts: SharePoint Saturday Denver #SPSDenver

Post Date: 11/17/2011
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I’m just a few days removed from flying out to the Rocky Mountains to join many industry thought leaders, SharePoint users, AvePoint partners, and enthusiasts at SharePoint Saturday Denver, #SPSDenver. Clayton Cobb (@warrtalon) and the crew did a fantastic job, and once again produced a top-notch SharePoint Saturday (AND SharePoint Friday!), rounded out by what might be my favorite #Share*event*, #ShareSki at Loveland Ski Area.

During the event, when I wasn’t giving Mark Rackley (@mrackley) a hard time about being from Arkansas, or playing with Todd Baginski’s (@toddbaginski) son in the speaker lounge, I was catching up with old friends, making new ones, attending sessions, even giving a session of my own. One of the sessions I was able to attend was given by Paul Stork (@PStork): Users, Profiles, and MySites: Managing Changing SharePoint User Populations, which gave a great overview including ‘gotchas’ on SharePoint Security, User Profile information, AD synchronization, and more. Unfortunately, I had to duck out early from Gary LaPointe’s (@glapointe) SharePoint 2010 and PowerShell - Tips, Tricks, and Random Goodness and missed plenty of others that I’d have liked to see but was able to learn a thing or two nonetheless. I also had the opportunity to present a session entitled: Enforcing SharePoint 2010 Governance. Trying to cut through a lot of the talk around people, policies, and process – my talk focused on common challenges and practical tips for actually enforcing established policies with OOTB SharePoint capabilities, introducing where other solutions like scripting, custom solutions or 3rd parties might be able to help out. You can access my slides here. Definitely a hot button issue right now with the global SharePoint community, I fielded several questions regarding my presentation as well as the general topic of SharePoint governance. Here are the most important takeaways, from my point of view: 1. Governance is the agreement between business and IT that ensures IT solutions achieve business goals. Neither side can work independently of the other. 2. Ant Clay from 21 Apps has given the most complete description of SharePoint Governance that I’ve seen to date in his blog, here. I definitely encourage everyone to keep all of these five pillars in mind, no matter how far along you are in your governance planning. 3. You can’t have a policy that you can’t enforce. Technology is the 4th key player in Governance, in addition to the People, Processes, and Policies, which cannot be ignored. This is oftentimes how we implement, monitor, and enforce governance policies, so understanding the technology up front will help us to set even better expectations for the business going forward. Whether you were out at SharePoint Saturday Denver or not, you likely have thoughts around just what SharePoint governance is – and should be – today. What are your biggest challenges with governing SharePoint today? ​

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