Planning for SharePoint 2010
Yesterday, I (and just about everyone in the SharePoint community) posted a link to the SharePoint 2010 sneak peek videos. So, unless you live under a rock, are sitting on some beach with no internet access [but then how would you be reading this?] or (like my wife) don’t give a hoot about SharePoint, you have seen the videos. First impressions? I’m guessing your thought process was something like this…
· Holy bleep! We need to get to this version ASAP…
· Looks like there is some infrastructure work to be done to prepare for this…
· Wow, there are so many features that are directed toward the individual user…
· Actually, there is a lot of stuff here that I might not want users to do…
· How am I ever going to control this?!...
· Holy bleep! When users see this, they will want to go to this version ASAP…
· There is a lot of planning and policy work to be done here or it all falls apart…
· Ugh!
First piece of advice? Breathe. Soak in all the snippets; recognize that there will be lots more data but we are still months away from this being real.
Second piece of advice? Learn. Follow this stuff as more information is made available and map it to what your users do and don’t do today.
Best piece of advice? Plan. Trust me when I tell you that this next version, more than any other product release I have ever seen, will demand governance. If you have governance today, start thinking about how things change in the “new world”. If you have nothing, time a strong governance policy with the upgrade.
July 14, 2009 - I am going to make a bold statement… the upgrade from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 will be harder than SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007. Why? Because it is a business (rather than technology) problem… one that will be solved in a conference room in front of a whiteboard rather than in the server room on a development machine. Share the link to the videos with business users; maybe even watch them together. Start the dialog now. Have a plan, write it down and live by it.