What’s new in SharePoint 2010 SP1
What's new in SharePoint 2010 SP1
With all the latest buzz on the release of SharePoint 2010 Service Pack1, here is what SharePoint 2010 SP1 adds:
Site Recycle Bin: With this new feature, administrators can restore site collections and/or sites that have been accidentally deleted by their owners. How often does this happen? Hopefully not too often. But when it does, having recoverable copies without getting out backups is a plus. We've had the Recycle Bin feature in SharePoint for lists, libraries, and documents for while now; this is a nice additional safety net.
Broader browser support: SharePoint 2010 SP1 adds support for IE9 in Internet Explorer 8 Standards Mode, as well as for Google Chrome.
Shallow Copy: This new feature allows you to move site collections to new content databases without having to move all the Remote Blob storage content. Thus, only the ownership information is moved, without having to copy the unstructured data in the file store. The Move-SPSite PowerShell cmdlet has been enhanced to allow this feature
StorMan.aspx (Storage Space Allocation page: StorMan.aspx has been reintroduced in SharePoint 2010 SP1. It was removed from the original version of SharePoint 2010. Now that it is back, it adds the ability to display better information to users regarding their quota information. That makes it easier for users to clean up their sites by deleting content they may not need.
Support for SQL Server "Denali" (aka SQL Server 2011) ): Given that SharePoint is heavily integrated with SQL, it stands to reason that new features in the forthcoming Denali version of SQL Server will only make SharePoint 2010 better.
Cascading filters in PerformancePoint Services: Filters values can now be passed from one filter to the next.
Best Practices in Developing Requirements for SharePoint Projects
This is one of my favorites blog posts from SharePoint Project Management Guru-Dux Raymond Sy.
I had the great opportunity to facilitate "Best Practices in Developing Requirements for SharePoint Projects" webcast for O'Reilly Media last July 28, 2010.
You can download the PPT presentation at: http://bit.ly/d1xbLN
Click the image below to watch the recorded presentation:
As promised, you can download the templates I showed at: http://www.meetdux.com/dl/req4sp.zip
In addition, I have compiled a list of valuable SharePoint resources related to the webcast:
- PM Resources for SharePoint 2010 Projects
- How SharePoint Can Deliver Project Transparency
- 5 Reasons Why SharePoint Ignorance is not Bliss
- Are you doing what it takes to Success at Implementing SharePoint?
- SharePoint Worst Practices: 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid
Lastly, if you want to join this session live, make sure you attend Best Practices Conference in DC from Aug 24-27, 2010
Disable “Delete this site” option in SharePoint
There were many a times some of our users always want to test us whether we had a good backup of SharePoint Sites and Data. Traditionally speaking even though you have all the backups required to restore a SharePoint Site, it makes sense to disable the option to delete the site in first place.
So how can we do this?
Sure. There are a couple of options for deployment. The best one is to package this feature into a Solution Package (wsp). There are plenty of articles on the web with instructions on how to do this, and there are a number of different methods and tools you can use.
Also I think this would be one of the Best practices which will save tons of time for the Administrators trying to restore a single site or subsite in SharePoint
However, the quickest and easiest (to explain) way to get this deployed is to create the feature manually, as follows.
Reasons Why Your SharePoint Users Hate You!
SharePoint User Adoption is key for a Successful SharePoint Implementation, you might not realize this, but your users hate you. That’s right. Hate you. They hate you because you are responsible for SharePoint and their experience sucks of late. What started out as a promising way to collaborate has turned into a burden. Your users know they should use SharePoint to better manage the vast amount of information and data they create. They love the power and ease of use of SharePoint, but after a litany of issues with their environment they have given up and gone back to using file shares and email. Here’s why they hate you and what you can do to make them love you again.
No one is in charge.... That's not right?
Your users need help. They have lots of questions, concerns, and issues. They want to know how to design their site, how to recover data, and if they should trust their site after that 2 hour outage yesterday. But there is no one to talk to. There’s no face of SharePoint, no one cares about them and their problems. Sites go down and come back up hours later with no explanation. Worse, users contact helpdesk for help. Three days later they find out that nothing can be done and their ticket is closed.
Maybe you know this is a problem and you are trying to solve it. Perhaps you are too busy managing the company’s Exchange infrastructure to focus on this little SharePoint niche. Maybe you don’t want users to know you are in charge. All those questions, accusations, and anger are too much to handle. Regardless, it’s time to step up and take charge. Here’s how:
- Create a FAQ wiki. Make sure users can ask questions and that you answer them.
- Take charge of helpdesk.
- Send an email to the entire company. Communicate 3 main things. You’re in charge. You care. You are looking into their problems and will communicate solutions soon. Let them know about your helpdesk improvements and your new wiki.
- Follow up.
- After reading the rest of this series and resolving issues 1 through 4, send out another email letting your users know what you have done. It’s a quick way to garner respect and possibly a way to build an empire.
I am Planning a SharePoint project – is it any different from typical software development projects?
I am Planning a SharePoint project - is it any different from typical software development projects?
A friend of mine asked me this the other day.. and I was glad that I was asked this question. (Let's just say my friend was relatively new to SharePoint but have had years of managing typical software development projects).
From a pure Project manager's view it can be seen that SharePoint projects are not different to any old IT project. BUT let me tell you that to successfully complete a SharePoint project you'll need to think and plan a lot more outside of a standard software development Project. If you are a Project Manager who is "New" to SharePoint and want to apply your traditional PM methodology to deliver a SharePoint project then please take a timeout and head over to Paul Culmsee's blog and read the series of posts on "Why SharePoint projects fail". Paul points out all the reasons why sometimes the best efforts of Project Managers and strict text book process does not help with projects that are driven by technology enthusiasts who know little about actual drivers for using SharePoint and required change for SharePoint project.
SharePoint Governance
- Microsoft Patterns and Practices SharePoint Guidance
- SharePoint Deployment Guide and Checklists, http://office.microsoft.com/download/afile.aspx?AssetID=AM102552101033
- SharePoint Governance Part 1, http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200611/ij_11_27_06a.html
- SharePoint Governance Part 2, http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200611/ij_11_29_06a.html
- SharePoint Site Collection Governance, http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200804/ij_04_07_08a.html
- Managing the Code when Customizing SharePoint, http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200806/ij_06_09_08a.html
- Governance or Guidance, http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5713949.html
- SharePoint Designer,
SharePoint Governance
SharePoint Governance
What is SharePoint Governance?
'SharePoint Governance' is a guideline on how SharePoint will be used within your organization. It is a set of all the rules and procedures as you will apply them to SharePoint.
Proper Sharepoint governance assigns responsibilities and access levels to various members of your organization to ensure SharePoint runs smoothly.
In short, SharePoint governance determines how SharePoint will run, who will do it and what equipment will be used.