Wednesday, November 19, 2008
What are the most valuable subjects for beginning users of SharePoint?
I am putting together the schedule for live online workshops that will run from January – March, 2009. I’m looking for your input on what you see as the most valuable subjects, the ones that will help you the most in your day-to-day work with SharePoint.
Here’s the short list so far.
- Site Planning – A structured approach to planning a SharePoint site
- A Beginner’s Guide to Content Types
- Getting Started with Security and Permission
- The Basics of Lists and Libraries
- Creating Dashboards in WSS
- Default Workflows in SharePoint 2007
- Automating Workflow with SharePoint Designer – Conditional and branching workflow
- Managing Display with Javascript and the Content Editor Web Part
- Displaying Multi-Media in the SharePoint Environment
- Create a Master Calendar in SharePoint
Please add your requests and comments so I can begin working on the final schedule for January – March, 2009. If you see one listed that you like, comment on that so I can get a feeling on how to prioritize the delivery schedule.
Your feedback is sincerely appreciated. It is what will help me deliver the most relevant topics… things that you REALLY need.
Thank you for your continued support and participation.
Mark Miller, Founder and Editor
EndUserSharePoint.com
Here’s my 2-cents worth (I’m going through this right now with our staff – true end-users):
(1) The benefits of breaking fee of the file folder/share folder paradigm of storing information.
(2) Examples of how to develop a taxonomy/metadata.
(3) As a follow-on to (2), and example of using this in Enterprise Search.
(4) Appropriate/suggested “baby steps” to get them started and then more accepting of using SP for other things.
Mike in Nebraska
Mike – Thanks. That’s EXACTLY the kind of input I’m looking for. — Mark
How about security? High level on inheritance requests, and AD group vs. SharePoint group.
I’ve been an avid follower of your blogs and appreciate a chance to have input on topics that can help our companys intranet deployment.
Good practices in establishing an infrastructure for our Intranet, This would touch on sites/site collections, taxonomy, knowledge management, but maybe discuss how to tie it together.
Many times I see a code snippet posted by someone and wondered where to implement (in a CEWP or Sharepoint Designer, or Visual Studio, etc) would be helpful.
I’ve started to look at PowerShell as a tool to do some magical stuff within SharePoint. Possibly some administration tricks would be neat.
Thanks for your help to us admins in the trenches…
Rod Hills
Please consider for this or future efforts:
“Beginning Developer’s Guide to SharePoint Administration”
As a beginning SP developer in a large enterprise I am frequently stymied by limitations placed on our SP site by our administrator, who considers the SP site to be his lowest priority.
I am scheduled to begin taking SP developer training, but I can’t apply my new skills to really improve my department’s site without top-level admin rights or sufficient knowledge to tell the administrator what needs to be done to give me the access I need. And my department will never approve full blown SP admin training.
Also consider:
“SharePoint Sites for Beginning Developers”
What if I am a beginning SharePoint developer, but my employer does not have SharePoint or won’t give me sufficient admin rights to do meaningful development? Where can I get access to a SharePoint site that would give me rights so I could build up my developer skill set?
If the above idea is not really feasible, please consider:
“Novice Guide to Setting up SharePoint Server at Home”
I know it is feasible to set-up a SharePoint server site on a home computer. But can it be done at an reasonable price? Say, under $2000 for all the software. Trying to track down the requirements for such a project is next to impossible. Most of the information available is geared towards experienced sysadmin types.
Thanks,
Phil Alley
Kansas City, Missouri
Phil – Interesting suggestions indeed.
We don’t normally do dev content at all, but the idea of a step-by-step walkthrough of how to setup a box at home is intriguing.
Let me talk to the EndUserSharePoint.com authors and see if anyone wants to tackle one of those subjects.
Rod – By any other name I’d call that ‘Information Architecture’. I think it is one of the most critical, overlooked issues in the entire spectrum of SharePoint.
I’ll begin the process with the Site Planning Workshop and see where we go from there.
Jeff – Security… yes, yes and yes. We’ll definitely be doing an entry level workshop on security and permissions.
I’d say Search is a definite must. I have been using it more in a test environment in our company and want to expand my knowledge on that.
Another topic I would find helpful is the Data Form Web Part using SPD. Not sure if that’s within the scope of these sessions, but good topic nonetheless.
Thanks!
How about pros/cons of managed paths?
I’d have to second the first comment from Mike!
Getting users to understand the benefits of moving to SharePoint has been rather challenging.
Providing them with example of what you can do with their sites is helpful..on a large scale as well as in baby steps.
How about tips on branding and tweaking CSS.
Wikis — Best Practices
Activating publishing feature on an existing non-publishing site — Best Practices — Data loss?
I’m with Mike in Nebraska on all of his points. Particularly how to leverage SharePoint to point to, describe, and locate file server documents. (We want to use SharePoint to store only documents that are actively being worked on.) Of course, centralizing SharePoint-stored documents and links to file server documents in one place would be a heck of a lot easier if I could use file:// in Libraries rather than only http:// — Is there an easier way than creating a List (which does allow file://) and then placing a link to the List in the Library?
LOoks great – I would like to see info on setting Search Scopes, how to get the best results from search, that kind of thing. Another one could be the use of InfoPath forms with SharePoint. My top choice from that list would be the workflows using designer
Fabulous initiative! I am flying fairly blind with this software (I hate to admit) and have been given no budget for training.
Of your list, I think Workflows in Designer and best practice around content types would be my top priority. I’m also very interested in best practice around document management and using collaboration tools within the sharepoint environment for business process improvement.
I would love some Info Architecture guideance, on how to break up VERY large DM & team site solutions across site collections.
We have around 5Tb of active documents, and will need to split this into multiple team sites and document libraries, but we DON’T want to break it up along Division and Deptartment lines as these change far to frequently.
Further we have hit upon the idea (rightly or wrongly) of trying an IA that is (patially at least) based upon the “things” in the Enterprise, rather than the transient teams, people and documents.Teams People and documents happen everywhere – and will be a natural part of all sites. By using the “things” we believe our IA will be fairly robust.
For example, we are looking at creating a set of “business system sites” and “product” sites etc which have team sub sites for each “release project”. If we do this, my question is how do we provide a navigation model (not search) that lets users browse to a list of “all product sites”, or “all business systems” etc across site collections, and how do we deal with a situation where some business systems are in site collection A, and others are in site collection B?
I think that SharePoint Licensing should be included as part of Site Planning. There are enough discussions throughout the web to support the need for clarification on the subject.
A lot depends on how basic you want to go. Although its probably more useful if the Publishing feature is being used, some information on the checking in, out, publishing and approval of list items, documents and pages would cover the very basic level.
Also how about the basic web parts that are used? List views, CQWP, CEWP and image libraries – how to add them and configure them.
@Phil Alley:
I think you’d be hard pushed to beat the Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers deal. I use this for my one man business and get more or less every Microsoft product for a annual subscription of £200 (not sure what the $ price would be). It’s tough to beat that price!
https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40016455
Also I have recently installed WSS on Vista using Bamboo Solutions installer. Absolutley great again and “free” when using MOSS only.
As for Mark’s question: A session on selling SharePoint inside the organisation would be helpful. I am thinking about how to idetify the low hanging fruit – low effort high impact pieces of work.
Durr. Last comment. WSS only NOT MOSS:
http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/bambooteamblog/archive/2008/05/21/how-to-install-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0-sp1-on-vista-x64-x86.aspx
Ben
We are trying to get some “quick, visible wins” with MOSS. interested in what Mike from NE stated as we have this same issue, best practice on searching ONLY large document libraries and advanced forms development.
I agree with comments so far which are mostly directed to managing site development and structures.
‘End Users’ need to understand how and where SharePoint can be used in MS Office and the differences between 2003 and 2007.
For example what happens when a document is checked out, why use check out.
Version management in libraries.
Using Outlook with SharePoint.
Exporting to Excel, how it works, how it interacts.
The basic daily interactions rather than esoteric MS Access and Excel manipulation of lists and data.
Mike
On SharePoint development the biggest difficulty I am facing is persuading users this is the tool to use for their daily work.
On libraries we devised and delivered defined library structures with the team site templates to promote common structures, and have spent a lot of effort on the change management process around this to get away from the chaotic file server scenario.
Change management is the major piece of our work, breaking habits of a lifetime and moving staff into this brave new world.
Mike B – A man after my own heart, and I say that in a good way. Let’s get down to basics. How is this ‘thing’ called SharePoint going to help ME!
From the replies so far, I think we’re all on the same page. Keep the ideas coming. I’m restructuring like mad, coming back to this post about every hour to see what’s new.
Thanks to all who have contributed.
Mark
This looks like a good list of topics. I am very interested in default workflows. Although they don’t have many options to configure we’ve had trouble trying to use them for our needs. Either they’re way to basic to use for any workflow we have or we have no idea how to configure them.
Looking forward to being enlightened!
@ Ben:
Thanks for the tips and the links. Much appreciated!
In the web-site link area I’ve provided a link to a graph I created recently after two weeks of a mid-level MOSS 2007 Std training class (the graph was done as a small part of a status report). These were users that have been using SharePoint for a little while but were lagging in adoption. I think this information would be useful for creating your SharePoint Beginners class.
I would stay away from:
Content Types/Site Columns
Shared Service Providers
Content Query Web Part
Anything to do with Designer or Visual Studio
Third-Party Web Parts
I would emphasize:
Permissions
Document Management Capabilities
Best Practices
Navigation/Information Architecture
Permissions
Web-page design (make info easy to find)
Alerts/RSS
Task Lists/Task Tracking
In all of my SP classes I emphasize thinking of the end-user first and determine what everyone’s favorite radio station is, or WII-FM. The ‘What’s In It For Me’ factor is always the most important thing to the users when they search for information.
Also, I tell my classes to focus on the CONTENT, NOT the use of the technology. Content truly is KING on SharePoint or any other collab platform.
Hope you found this helpful.
Also, I agree with MB above, the use of the CEWP and graphics was a HUGE hit at my current client regarding providing easy navigation for end users and emphasizing information that sometimes get hidden on the Current Nav bar.
Follow up to Lee’s post: Click his name, next to the number 28, in the above post. That will take you to the graph.
Nice work, Lee. I’ll play devil’s advocate here. Those are the subjects people are interested in, but is it necessarily what they really need?
From an instructor’s perspective, it’s a hard call because you and I both know content types are critical, but beginning to mid-level users have so little experience with using them, they don’t even know why they would want them.
It’s a hard juggling act. Thanks again for the graph. — Mark
I would agree that Wiki’s, for example, might not be a good beginning user topic. Not because beginning users wouldn’t easily understand them, but because it takes the focus off of SharePoint’s other more powerful capabilities. Wiki’s often become ‘brochure-ware’ and are not kept up.
I like to keep my classes focused on ‘content that moves and grooves’. SharePoint lists that change over time, the publishing and expiration of announcements and tasks, etc. I tell my classes that if information never changes on your SharePoint site, people will only visit a handful of times and then will never return.
I would keep the emphasis on the biggest-bang-for-the-buck items..and it’s different for every client. My client right now is HUGE into meeting workspaces while others are interested only in version control and calendars. That’s what makes our job so much fun….clients are like a box of chocolates….
Mark, The schedule looks good to me. For me the whole point of “Endusersharepoint” is that it does exactly what it says on the tin.
The approach that Dux Raymond Sy took with his Project Management book was great. It was SharePoint 101 with Project Management as the end game. Dessie, yourself and the extended community are contributing some excellent whistles and bells but I think they work best when they are used in a business context (ie. the SharePoint Dashboards workshop). I think there is a lot more scope for that type of approach – A finance dept site, customer or order management solutions (linking webparts to share clients/contacts/sales pipelines etc).
The workshops are great because they focus on real solutions to real problems. For me this is what makes the site unique (I take little interest in those ten a penny sites offering “pimp my site” web parts!)
How to create a department (R&D, Mfg, Supply Chain, Finance, and Marketing) home page that looks good, is useful, effective and serves as a portal to other important information in SharePoint. I would prefer to see some specific examples of how to use SharePoint to optimize business processes without IT involvement (no server side components or changes to settings). I would include building a business performance dashboard, travel request approval tool, action item list that is capable of rolling up items from lists located in other sub sites, escalation/tracking list that will send email notifications based on defined business rules. I’d also like to hear a good argument why we should use a doc library over our file shares. Most of the people I talk to care more about how quickly they can access the files and move them around in a folder structure over anything else. From their perspective SharePoint is clunkier and less responsive.
I would love to hear more about the CQWP, which I heard is very powerful. What can it do? How to make the displayed results look good?
I would love to know more about connecting web parts. (Does this qualify as beginner?)
Marie-Pier,
Yes, both of those subjects are beginner, 200 level, material. The CQWP is MOSS only, so I’ll have to think about that one, but will probably cover it.
While I’m at it, anyone who has posted here or in the future, let me know what you are running: MOSS or WSS. That will help determine which platform to teach on.
Thanks in advance,
Mark
Mark, We’re running MOSS.
As others have mentioned, I would like to see more discussion of metadata and using it to categorize documents and list items instead of the old fileshare directory-folder model.
I have read most of the input. It made me feel a lot better. We are in the same boat as most of the responders. Finding the training we need on the topics we need has been very hard, then throw budget into the mix….. I would like to see Master pages, themes, and CSS. We had a consultant come in and create this for us and now we want it changed. Workflows is also a topic we need help with. Any chance you will move into InfoPath and forms later?
Thanks,
Donna Graham
Just an update… I’m finalizing the schedule and have incorporated many of the ideas and requests you have asked for. At last count, I’ve got over 20 workshops available for the first 3 months of 2009.
It should be pretty exciting. — Mark