Some firms reported that their Microsoft SharePoint implementations were ineffective. This failure is partly due to the fact that many firms rush towards installation without a clear knowledge of the issues that SharePoint should address within their organization. As a result, the SharePoint solution does not match the needs of the organization. Instead, it becomes a bottleneck, contributing to workflow inefficiencies as a result of a poor software installation process, which results in low adoption. A well-thought-out plan is required to properly install a Microsoft SharePoint setup that will promote productivity and yield the desired software ROI.
What is Sharepoint, and how can it be useful for project management?
Microsoft SharePoint is a secure intranet portal software that allows businesses to construct micro-websites that are exclusively available to internal employees. SharePoint allows businesses to access, organize, and share documents, files, and information across the organization, fostering collaboration and fostering a knowledge-sharing culture. The steps indicated here enable your organization to adopt SharePoint in a well-planned, iterative manner. If you know how to use sharepoint for project management, you’ll be able to fully understand your business objectives and develop a solid plan for promoting user acceptance.
Step #1 Planning your SharePoint Implementation
To get things done swiftly and correctly, you’ll need personnel skilled and experienced with SharePoint for Project Management to lead a successful project. Inexperienced staff may cause disappointment and loss of productivity, ultimately leading to poor implementation. Unless your firm has SharePoint expertise on staff, it may be preferable to hire the services of a seasoned SharePoint implementation team. Despite having an admin-friendly interface, SharePoint is a sophisticated tool that requires an experienced hand to start successfully. According to their exposure to different sectors, projects, and best practices, an experienced SharePoint implementation team will be able to swiftly execute the optimal solution to fulfill your needs within a certain deadline.
Step #2 Choosing the Right SharePoint Version based on your project objectives
Microsoft offers two versions of SharePoint: SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server and you must decide which version is best for your organization to deploy. This guarantees that you start with a version that is properly aligned with the goals of your organization, boosting the chances of a successful SharePoint adoption. For example, if you consider choosing SharePoint for startup by considering the scalability and future factors, SharePoint online would be a better solution. It is appropriate for enterprises that don’t have stringent data compliance criteria, don’t want many customizations, and don’t want to deal with the burden of managing on-premise infrastructure. On the contrary, if your firm has stringent data compliance criteria, the second version, SharePoint Server, is the better option. It enables you to store your data on local servers that are only accessible within your organization’s network.
Step #3 Designing site structure through set creation
A SharePoint solution is only successful if it supports and improves the way people operate in your organization. To create anything that will either support or improve the way people in your business operate, you must first identify their pain spots and sources of inefficiency. Because a successful solution requires consensus at every company level, the implementation team must have concentrated talks with key stakeholders, management, and representatives from each department. The conversation should elicit both immediate and long-term requirements. These requirements will aid in the development and scalability of infrastructure suggestions and high-level architecture design. After obtaining requirements from multiple groups, assess and rank them based on which will have the greatest impact on the organization’s process.
Step #4 Organizing documents and start building
It’s time to start building after assessing and prioritizing requirements. The implementation team drafts an information architecture, produces sites and libraries, adds users, establishes security groups, configures metadata and views, builds navigation, and so on. Use SharePoint’s out-of-the-box functionality as much as possible to avoid creating code. It will be less expensive to maintain and update to new features this way. If you must develop code, keep the following best practices in mind to ensure maintainability and scalability:
- To guarantee consistency across environments, deploy packages using batch scripts.
- To ensure consistency across environments, deploy your packages using batch scripts.
- To manage performance loss, create a baseline performance indicator for your SharePoint farm that you update each time you deploy new solutions and features.
- To secure consistency across environments, deploy your packages using batch scripts.
Step #5 Conduct Testing before use
Conduct user acceptance testing with a group of users from throughout the organization after the initial build and deployment. This stage is critical since it ensures that the developed solution meets expectations. It also enables the implementation team to collect early input and identify faults. To improve user experience, the input obtained during this stage should be incorporated into the SharePoint solution, and all defects should be repaired before the solution is released to the rest of the organization.
Don’t forget to check regularly
The job does not finish when your SharePoint solution is made available to the entire organization. You must have an in-house team dedicated to maintaining the solution, installing software updates and patches on a regular basis, collecting feedback, and making enhancements as demand develops. Failure to proactively manage and maintain your SharePoint solution may result in site sprawl, deterioration of quality, and user irritation.
