College of the Sequoias
SharePoint Governance Plan

SharePoint Governance Plan / February 29
2016
This plan outlines the administration, maintenance, and support of College of the Sequoias SharePoint deployment. It identifies lines of ownership for our business and technical teams and identifies who is responsible for which areas of the system. The plan also establishes rules for appropriate use of the SharePoint environments. / Giant SharePoint /

Table of Contents

Overview

Audience

Background

Vision and Mission

Vision

Mission

Goals

Intranet Site will be a tool for:

Internet Site will be a tool for:

Service Delivery Requirements

Technical Requirements

Intranet & Internet

Internet

Intranet

Business Requirements

Internet

Intranet

Collaboration Service Definition

Objectives

Business Scope

Internet

Intranet

Operational Risks/Concerns

Collaboration Service Offerings

SharePoint Support Team Roles

SharePoint Service Team

Governance

Operations

Network

Departmental Power Users/Site Admins

Developers

Tiered SharePoint Support Roles

Customer Interaction and Feedback

SharePoint Physical Topologies

Physical Topology

Test | Development:

Intranet | Extranet | Internet

Management and Delegation

Development and Configuration Application Policies

Customization Policy

Browser Standards and Permissions

Site Provisioning and Templates

Site Collection Provisioning

Standards for all sites

Site Management

User Access

Development

Storage Quotas

Document Settings

Procedures

SharePoint Business Review Meetings

Change Control, Operational and Governance Committee Meetings

Education and Training Strategy

Key Terms and Definitions

Signoff

Version Control

Overview

Audience

This document is intended to be read and understood by all College of the Sequoias SharePoint Governance Committee members, President's Cabinet members and district SharePoint users. This document is also directed to anyone who is interested in the Vision, Mission and Goals of the District's use of the SharePoint environment users.

Background

On Monday, December 10, 2007, this item was on the Cabinet Agenda for further discussion. Since that time the Web Oversight Committee (the former SharePoint Governance Committee)has met and continueds to agree that the SharePoint Technology solution is a goodthe best solution to the goals that need to be accomplished by College of the Sequoias.

In theSpringspring 2012 semester, the District utilized the help of a “Third Party Firm” to bring to a conclusion the basic governance structure of the SharePoint deployment and operation plan. A technical author (Colin Spence) guided the team in completing the governance document for initial publication.

The overarching goal of this technology solution is two-fold: first, one that will work with both an intranet (on-campus) site and upgrade; and second, one that will enhance our current internet site and provide a portal structure for better marketing to various College constituencies. .

The Web Oversight Committee (formerly known as SharePoint Governance Committee) disbanded after the initial publication of this document. In spring of 2016, the Technology Committee assumed responsibility for the governance plan and began to review and update. It is the intention of the Technology Committee to review and update this document on a regular schedule.

Vision and Mission

Vision

A single system wherein members of internal constituencies (Administration, Faculty, and Staff) find information and software tools to support their workplace needs.

A single system wherein members of external constituencies (current or prospective students, community members, etc.) find information and software tools to support their learning or information needs.

  • Maintain aA system which enables users to quickly find current information through the use of clear site navigation, document classification, search capabilities, and appropriate content security.

Document governance needs are supported through records management, forms and document workflows, and reports –all while supporting the business processes of the District.

User's devices (i.e. computer, smartphone, table, etc.) will not be an obstacle when used with this system.

A system that is governed by internal constituencies wherein policies and procedures are clearly articulated.

Mission

Provide the vehicle for the creation, dissemination, and collaboration of information and document management to both internal and external constituencies.

Coordinate data and information used by various support and software systems of the College, thereby creating a more efficient and effective process for users.

  • Create policies and procedures for both the internet and intranet sites which provide clear direction, procedures, and processes to ensure content security, accuracy and currency.

Disseminate information to internal and external audiences always mindful of confidential and privately held content.

Store and classify key documents into the shared storage repository for both internal and external constituencies.

Provide tools (including training, documentation, and support) to incorporate document management procedures into employees’ responsibilities.

Ensure that the design of the environment can be supported through maintainable hardware, clearly documented software, and associated staff and fiscal resources.

Design a system which supports a variety of user devices.

Utilize best practices as defined in Microsoft TechNet Articles and as recommended by trusted experts.

Allow user access and system availability with minimum downtime.

Goals

  • Inform users of Incorporate document management procedures into employee trainingdocument management best practices and training recommendations.
  • Create Inform users of appropriate taxonomy and workflows for categorizing content.

Effectively govern the environment to ensure appropriate and current content by creating a governing board, referred to as the SharePoint Governance Committee, consisting of representatives from the Office of the President, Academic Services, Student Services, Administrative Services, as well as representatives of the student body.

Intranet Site will beis a tool for:

  • Processing key forms electronically, through a system which provides electronic notification and signatures, thereby advancing forms through appropriate processes.

Communicating with internal participants, thereby alleviating use of unneccessary emails by.

  • Strategically creating using bBulletin/dDiscussion bBoards.
  • Storing information and data which is used by and shared with internal constituencies--but for which access for external audiences is not appropriatefor internal use.
  • Creating personalized workspaces with alerts and metricsinformation that pertains to the job function and interests of the employee.
  • Facilitating collaboration among between users via Microsoft Office applications for a more efficient and effective work environment.
  • Providing workspaces which can be utilized by Committees and dDepartments for documentation (i.e. meeting agendas, schedules, minutes, working documents, proposals, decisions, process and procedures)

Collaborating, storing, and archiving Program Review processes, procedures, information, data, and work products.

  • Housing sStrategic and tTactical plan repositories which can be accessed, monitored, and modified by appropriate constituencies.

Providing a user-friendly dashboard system displaying key performance indicators based on user’s job function.

Internet Site will be a tool for:

  • Providing external constituencies (current and prospective students, alumni, accrediting agencies and community members) with current and useful information via an intuitive navigation interface.
  • Hosting all departmental sites.(including those currently hosted by third party vendors) without losing the functionalities of the current sites.
  • Communicating and marketing District events and services.
  • Accessing District self-service tools (such as Banner Web, The Blackboard Learning SystemLearning management system, the District email system) by creating a single-sign-on portal system.

Service Delivery Requirements

Technical Requirements

Intranet & Internet

  • Advertised Availability
  • The SharePoint environment will be up and running at all times, with maintenance downtime scheduled to minimize user disruption.
  • Disaster Recovery Time
  • COS has limited resources available to enable a system to continue operation, possibly at a reduced level (also known as fault tolerance), in place for the SharePoint systems. The severity of the error/disaster will dictate the length of the outage. The outage could be from one to several days.
  • Workload Requirements
  • Ability to handle 100 transactions per second
  • Ability to handle 10,000 concurrent users under normal working habits
  • Validation of Benchmarks - Performance benchmarks will be taken by the System Administrator and used for future analysis against future performance measurements on a quarterly basis. The target page load time is 7 seconds. An allowance of 10 seconds greater than the target load time will be considered within tolerance.
  • Planned Maintenance Windows – When normal maintenance is required it occurs during a twohour window starting at 6 p.m. Pacific Time on Sundays. Planned maintenance will not be considered when evaluating actual uptime as discussed below. Longer or emergency maintenance will be communicated to the SharePoint Governance committee members no less than one week prior to the emergency maintenance when feasible.

Internet

  • Uptime target:
  • 99% = 3.65 days of downtime per year
  • Support:
  • Each page has a link to the webmaster for comments and bug reports.
  • Comments and bug reports are reviewed weekly[k1] by the Webmaster or designee. Work tickets are created if deemed necessary.

Intranet

  • Uptime target:
  • 99% = 3.65 [k2]days of downtime per year
  • Support Calls -
  • Help desk phone line is staffed (730-3780) from 7:45 – 4:45 Monday – Friday (Fall and Spring Semesters) 7:30 - 5:00 Monday – Thursday, 7:30 – 11:30 - Friday (Summer Hours). Help desk is closed on all District holidays.
  • In the event the help[k3] desk operator is not available a user may leave a message with contact information and a brief explanation of the support need. The operator will then respond when available but normally during the same business day.
  • Users can also send an email with contact information and a brief description of the support need to
  • If immediate resolution is not made, a ticket is created and assigned to the qualified technician based on severity[k4].
  • Assigned technician will coordinate with ticket[k5] holder within one business day of initial ticket submission.
  • Resolution not occurring with 4 working days will be elevated to a supervisor.

Business Requirements

Internet

  • Search Requirements - All documents and pages in the SharePoint sites and site collections containing pertinent published business data are searchable and available from any search boxes embedded within the SharePoint System
  • File Types: Web Pages, Microsoft Office Documents [k6](Excel, Word, Power Point, Etc.), Adobe PDF
  • Scope:
  • Anonymous user - Published and Approved documents in the entire site collection
  • Authenticated user - All content user is permitted to view in entire site collection[k7]
  • Upload file size limit: 50MB limit which will be limited upon uploading. If a file is larger than this, the system will notify a user to that the upload was unsuccessful, and the user will be asked to reduce the file size and try again.
  • Filter types: Document type, modified data, and social tags[k8]
  • Authentication –
  • Anonymous read only access is available for content published and approved on Internet facing [k9]sites
  • When access to Banner, Blackboard, CCCApply, and email is available[k10], the authentication mechanism for those subsystems is employed.
  • Expiration –
  • Content is reviewed by content owners on the following schedule[k11]:
  • Annually for long term content
  • Prior to registration for semester long content
  • Weekly for all sporting and theater events
  • Daily for front page
  • Warnings are given to those content owners that have not verified [k12]content on the following schedule
  • First day of the fall semester
  • First day of the 6th week of the fall semester
  • First day of the 12th week of the fall semester
  • First day of the spring semester
  • First day of the 6th week of the spring semester
  • First day of the 12th week of the spring semester
  • Midpoint of summer semester
  • All content that hasn't been reviewed in the previous academic year will be unpublished one week prior to the beginning of the fall semester. Warnings will be given to the PIO two weeks prior to the beginning of the fall semester of those pages scheduled to be unpublished[k13]
  • Editing / Design Usage Policy –
  • The site look and navigability will be consistent across sites.
  • Level 0 through Level 2 will utilize the district standard templates
  • Level 3 will utilize a standard template or approved by the public [k14]information officer.
  • Site collection depth is limited to 3 levels unless exception is made by the PIO[k15]
  • Auditing - Auditing is enabled across [k16]sites for the purpose of tracking deletions and changes.

Intranet

  • Search Requirements –
  • File Types: Web Pages, Microsoft Office Documents (Excel, Word, Power Point, OneNote, Project, and Publisher[k17].), Rich Text Format (RTF), Text (TXT), MOBI & ePub eBook formats and Adobe PDF
  • Scope:
  • Authenticated user - all content user has permission to view in each individual site collection.
  • Upload file size limit: 80MB[k18]
  • Filter types: Document type, content type, author, and modified date.
  • Authentication –
  • Required for all site activity.
  • Areas are restricted based on user authorization
  • Active Directory authentication is the standard method for the district intranet site collections.[k19]
  • Expiration[k20]–
  • Content for internal consumption [k21]will be reviewed and confirmed on the following schedule:
  • Daily for front page content[k22] by the Public Information Office
  • Weekly for Sports and Theater events/scores by the Public Information Office
  • Biweekly for committee sites by individual committee chairperson
  • Other document repositories are reviewed as needed
  • Content not reviewed by the associated schedule will be flagged and a notification sent to the content owner[k23].
  • Editing / Design Usage Policy –
  • The site look and navigability will be consistent across sites.
  • Level 0 through Level 1 sites will utilize District standard templates[k24]
  • Level 2 and below will utilize standard District/SharePoint templates for the purpose of the individual site
  • Alternative templates can be used if approved by the SharePoint Governance Committee[k25]
  • Auditing - Auditing is enabled on all sites[k26].
  • Site Templates[k27]–
  • District templates are designed and maintained by the Webmaster in conjunction with the PIO office.
  • Site templates are available to all site owners.
  • Versioning[k28]–
  • Major versioning is enabled for all level 0-2 site pages
  • Major and minor versioning is enabled for all other libraries
  • Version retention will cap at[k29]5 major and 20 minor instances.
  • Content Types
  • The intranet allows the upload of most common [k30]file types. However, by default, some file types are blocked to protect the system from dangerous malware and viruses. Some example of blocked file types include: .bat, .cmd, .com, .dll, .exe, .jse, .msi, .pst, .url, .vbs and many others. For more information please see the following link:
  • Managed Metadata [k31]- is allowed and coordinated through the District Document Librarian.
  • Workflows - are allowed, however must be reviewed by the webmaster to ensure security and stability.[k32]
  • Web Parts - available for site page design. Third party web parts must be reviewed and approved by the webmaster and the SharePoint Governance Committee[k33] prior to use.
  • My Sites –In SharePoint there is ability for a user to create a custom page wherein information used by the particular user can be accessed off of one page – through proper setup. This feature similar to a Facebook page is not implemented but is considered for future enhancement.[k34]

Collaboration Service Definition

Objectives

The primary objective of this Governance Plan is to establish a set of policies and procedures that allow IT[k35] to meet the stated Vision, Mission and Goals for the system, and to deliver on the performance and availability commitments to the user communities.

Additionally, roles and responsibilities are defined for the fulfillment of these policies and procedures, and tools will be are identified to facilitate these processes

Business Scope

Internet

Any individual that is interested in COS information will be the target audience for the public side of the SharePoint environment. This includes students, potential students, parents, other college staff, potential employees and professors.

Intranet

The target audience is full and part time employees. This includes Faculty, Classified, Confidential, and Management.

Operational Risks/Concerns

The risks of the SharePoint System and the Governance Plan are outlined below[k36]:

  • As the use and adoption of the SharePoint system grows the resulting loss of data due to hardware failure, malicious destruction of data will negatively affect the district’s ability to conduct business.[k37]
  • Due to the limitations in staffing, a clear path of higher level technical support is hard to chart.
  • As the size of each site grows, the available space for critical sites diminishes.
  • Budgetary constraints could affect the overall acceptance and vision.[k38]
  • Ongoing training and support for the site administrators will hinder their primary duties.[k39]
  • Without ongoing end-user training, adoption of the system will be slowed.
  • Without clear management of new site creation, "sprawl" could occur detracting from the user experience
  • Without regular analysis of usage patterns, site modifications, end user concerns (as expressed in help desk tickets) and other sources of data (end user surveys), the system may not meet the needs of the user communities.
  • SharePoint default management tools are minimal and difficult to use, so a third party suite of tools will most likely be required.[k40]

Collaboration Service Offerings[k41]

Service offerings including a set of collaboration and productivity tools are used to connect and engage the user community. Tools native to the SharePoint product that are implemented include[k42]:

  • team sites
  • document libraries
  • shared lists
  • blogs
  • wikis
  • discussion groups
  • InfoPath forms
  • Library alerts
  • Workflows

Through the use of Microsoft InfoPath, Standard Web forms and fillable PDF documents, key electronic forms are distributed and processed.