(4 More) Steps of a Successful SharePoint Site Transformation
In my previous post, I outlined the 5 steps every administrator should review – and take action on – prior to a SharePoint migration. To round out that list, I have some additional suggestions to help you transform your SharePoint environment when moving to 2010. While my previous list focused on site and list transformation, the following are broader suggestions. They are not intended to be all-inclusive, but should help you improve your migration planning efforts:
- Simplify your environment.
Many organizations maintain more than one SharePoint farm – and usually more than one version of SharePoint. Use migration as a path toward consolidation – wherever possible – allowing you to decommission and repurpose hardware, and simplify your life. Reducing the number of farms you maintain may not be an option (based on the enterprise features you employ, and the size of your end user population), but migrating from earlier versions of SharePoint will lessen the administrative (and licensing) headaches.
- Tighten up your permissions.
Hopefully your migration is not the first audit of your permissions health, but either way – take this opportunity to do some deep analysis on users and administrators within your system and clean house. Some suggestions: make sure the right people have access to the right content, delete users who are no longer in Active Directory, and give people access through groups rather than direct access.
- Leverage new functionality.
SharePoint 2010 offers so many new features, such as Content IDs and Document Sets; all of the Service Applications such as Excel Services, Visio Services, and, of course, Managed Metadata Service; new social computing tools; and Sandbox Solutions, among others. Understand what is available in the platform, and – equally important – what custom aspects of your 2007 environment can now be displaced by out-of-the-box capability.
- Improve (or begin) governance.
One of the best practices that you will hear shouted from every SharePoint evangelist is the importance of governance. SharePoint is not a shrink-wrapped product. It takes thoughtful deployment, personalized configuration, and ongoing governance to ensure your organization gets the most out of their investment. Joel Oleson had a great post back in August 2006 on governance that is still very relevant, outlining things you should think about.
As you prepare your SharePoint environment for migration, it’s always best to begin with a plan in mind, and iterate with your team on how to move forward. Use tools like ControlPoint and Davinci Migrator to help clean up, organize, and orchestrate your migrations. And most of all, never rush the process – because fixing problems later takes longer, requires more resources, and costs the business more than doing it right up front. Good luck!