Project Collaborate Framework for SharePoint Team Sites - Plan

=Team Site verses Team Site Collection= This phase covers the design of Team Site Collections. Individual Team Sites are covered in Phase 5 - Manage. For a definition of the difference between a site collection and a site see the Glossary of Terms. For an idea of the size of site collections this framework is suitable for see scope.

Existing Team Site Collections
Owners of existing site collections can still use the framework, here are some example scenarios:
 * If your collection is in good shape you might still want to check out the build phase to see what collection configuration settings we recommend to allow easy and efficient control and management of your collection - e.g. Site Collection Configuration
 * If your collection is in bad shape and you are considering starting from scratch again, obviously start with Phase 1 of the framework.

=Document/Don't Document= How you capture, share and review the outputs from this phase is up to you. We don't mandate that you write anything up in a formal Word document. Whether you want to scribble ideas on a whiteboard, produce a mock-up in PowerPoint or structure your thoughts in a mindmap is up to you. All that we recommend is that you at least think through and discuss the elements outlined below, since putting this effort in up front can save a lot of time further on.

=Activities=

Listed below are the major activities in this phase.

=Signing up to the forum =

We highly recommend you sign up for alerts from the Project Collaborate Framework for SharePoint Team Sites - Discussion Forum. The forum is where fellow Site Collection Administrators can help one another, share tips and tricks, and offer suggestions to improve your utilization of SharePoint for Team Sites.

=Identify Site Collection Stakeholders=

Why do you need stakeholders?
You must identify the appropriate group of people who need to be involved in the design of the site collection. This is an important group of people who will not only decide on the design of the collection, but will also be the ones who go on to manage the collection, educate about how the site is to be used and the advantages it can bring to the work of the group or department using it.

Types of stakeholder
Here are some types of people we recommend you include in this group:


 * Senior User Rep - this person can help with getting executive sponsorship identified and in place, help with identifying a business case if one is necessary, and for evangilising within the target user community
 * Operational or Project Manager
 * IT representative - this person will be the Business Analyst/Information Architect responsible for pulling all of the plans and designs together, helping with any technical aspects, and providing coordination with other IT groups where this is necessary
 * People who are good at organizing their cd collections, who are from the business group who will be using the site collection, who are IT literate (or even better SharePoint literate), who care and/or are responsible for the management of content/information - these are special people, every department has them, but their unique talents and passions are not always given as much credit as they probably deserve!
 * And last but by no means least - at least one person in this group needs to be a SharePoint User Expert

=Site Collection Design=

In a nutshell this activity is about identifying the needs of the group who will use the collection and determine how the collection needs to be set-up and configured to meet them. We will not go into the specifics of how to approach Business Analysis (BA) but this is essentially what must take place here.

Click on each of the steps below to see our notes.


 * 1) Identify the Current State
 * 2) Design the Future State
 * 3) Capacity Planning
 * 4) Designing a Template for Sub-sites
 * 5) Designing a Site Directory
 * 6) Designing Access Control

To see an example of a site collection that followed the design approach see our case study page.

=Review =

The review activity is critical and will be coordinated by the person responsible for producing the site collection design. We suggest three distinct review sessions take place:


 * 1) Review amongst all of the stakeholders identified in activity 1 - must do
 * 2) A peer review with fellow site collection owners within your organisation or alternatively with members of the SharePoint Site Owners Community of Practice - highly recommended
 * 3) A review session with the IT team responsible for the maintance and support of your SharePoint infrastructure. They will review in light of SharePoint Limitations plus capacity needs and will provide advice that can make a huge difference to the future ease of managing your team site collection - highly recommended

=Implementation Plan=

This is a good time to start pulling together ideas and plans for how you will implement the site collection, e.g.:

Executive Sponsorship
Identify executive sponsorship who will evangilise the positioning of your site collection within the work of the department that will be using it. They may also be required to agree budget and resources where necessary.

New Sub-site Requests
Think about how you will manage new sub-site requests. In the build phase we will be telling you how to configure your collection so that users cannot easily create sub-sites. We do this so you avoid the SharePoint Sprawl problem. You therefore need a process for managing how users will requests new sub-sites.

Communication
You need to think about how will you communicate about the your new site collection. Key here is the positioning of the collection in relation to other tools that maybe are being phased out because of the introduction of SharePoint, or will remain and will be used alongside SharePoint.

Think about providing clear communication about what is being phased out and migration will take place between the old and the new. Identify exactly how and where SharePoint will be used within the work of the department. Think about obvious questions that will be asked and have the answers worked out.

=Next Steps= Coming out of this critical phase you will have the blueprint for your new Team Site collection, with input from key stakeholders taken into account. Now you need to Request your site collection and get building!

=See also=
 * IPP (ECF Wiki)
 * Content Restrictions (ECF Wiki)