Mastering SharePoint Governance: Key Strategies for Optimal Office 365 Adoption

While SharePoint started as a document management and collaboration platform, it has evolved into a comprehensive tool for business process automation, records management, business intelligence, and project management. With continuous enhancements in Office 365, SharePoint now empowers organizations of all sizes—small, mid-sized, and large—to achieve significant business enablement.

Let’s dive into all things governance and strategies for a smooth Office 365 adoption.

The Importance of Governance in SharePoint and Office 365

As organizations increasingly adopt Office 365 or hybrid configurations combining SharePoint On-Premise with Office 365, a well-defined governance plan is crucial for successful implementation. Governance plans define rules, roles, and responsibilities for technology implementation and service utilization by end users. These plans should include ownership for both business and technical teams and outline processes for maintaining these rules.

Three Key Governance Areas

Governance is broadly divided into three major categories:

Technical Governance: Managed by internal IT, covering infrastructure, security, and compliance.
Information Governance: Often overlooked, this involves content quality, data management, and user accessibility.
Service Governance: Can be managed by IT, business teams, or a combination of both, focusing on service utilization and user policies.

A comprehensive governance plan tailored to the organization’s size and needs ensures that information governance, often neglected, is as mature as technical governance. This maturity is essential for maximizing the productivity suite’s capabilities and ensuring end users can easily find and leverage information.

Defining Governance Roles and Responsibilities

For each governance area, clearly articulate the following:

Ownership: Who is responsible for making the rules, policies, and processes?
Accountability: Which teams are responsible for implementing these rules?
Governance Team: Who ensures that governance is followed?

Office 365 Information Architecture

As Office 365 rapidly evolves, new services and features are rolled out monthly. This abundance of choices can sometimes confuse end users. Therefore, it’s important to align business strategies and objectives with the technology service offerings.

For instance, while videos can be uploaded to SharePoint Online, using services like Skype for Business or Office 365 Video might be more suitable depending on the use case.

Process Mapping Frameworks

Effective process mapping is crucial for successful governance. Incorporating best practices and industry-standard frameworks like SIPOC into the Business Requirements Document (BRD) helps stakeholders understand and critique the processes.

SIPOC is particularly useful for defining complex processes, process handoffs, dependencies, and data flows. Generic process flowcharts detail event sequences, aiding in identifying automation benefits and ROI.

For data-heavy projects, relational diagrams effectively communicate data paths and transfer points, though they can be complex and require careful consideration for stakeholder communication.

Governance in Action: Practical Examples

For project management, Office 365 offers various services like Planner, SharePoint Project Sites, and Project Online.

Governance should define when to use each service based on business needs, with clear roles, responsibilities, and policies around ownership, provisioning, maintenance, and training.

Ensuring Effective Content Management

Organizing and structuring content within SharePoint is vital. A well-defined governance plan outlines processes and rules for content creation, administration, and maintenance, ensuring information security, reduced operational costs, and easy information retrieval. Differentiating between publishing sites (requiring rigid controls) and collaboration sites (needing flexibility) is crucial.

Customized Governance for Maximum Impact

Governance should not be an afterthought. A tailored governance plan, implemented and enforced by a dedicated committee, is essential for maximizing the investment in SharePoint and Office 365.

Educating and empowering end users to use services that best suit their needs without rigid restrictions fosters collaboration and productivity. The complexity of the governance plan should reflect the organization’s size, maturity, infrastructure, and team structure.

By customizing governance to your organization’s specific needs, you ensure a successful and sustainable deployment of SharePoint and Office 365.

About Optimum: Strategic Process Optimization and Governance Consulting

Optimum is a nationally recognized IT consulting firm dedicated to delivering governance advisory services aimed at ensuring security, compliance, and organizational efficiency.

We specialize in SharePoint and Office 365 governance consulting, providing custom strategies and processes for content creation, distribution, administration, and maintenance. This ensures secure and accessible company information, minimizes operational costs, enables easy search and retrieval of information, and ensures compliance with regulations.

Reach out today for a complimentary discovery session, and let’s explore the best governance solution for your needs!