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SharePoint Online Governance: Best Practices for Success

Posted on October 2, 2024

SharePoint governance is essential to the efficient management & upkeep of a SharePoint environment. Ensuring the efficient and effective utilization of the platform involves establishing and enforcing a set of policies, procedures, and guidelines. Without effective governance, SharePoint can easily become chaotic & unmanageable, posing a risk to security and creating problems with compliance and inefficiencies.

Key Takeaways

  • Understanding the importance of SharePoint governance is crucial for successful implementation and management of the platform.
  • Establishing clear policies and procedures helps in ensuring consistency and compliance across the organization.
  • Defining roles and responsibilities is essential for effective management and accountability within the SharePoint environment.
  • Implementing effective change management is necessary to handle updates and modifications to the platform without disrupting operations.
  • Ensuring data security and compliance is a critical aspect of SharePoint governance to protect sensitive information and adhere to regulations.

Organizations can ensure the security, compliance, and alignment of their SharePoint environment with business goals by putting strong governance practices in place. Because it offers a defined framework for platform usage, a SharePoint governance plan is crucial. Absence of governance could result in platform abuse by users, which could compromise security and cause data breaches and other infractions. Governance also guarantees SharePoint’s alignment with the organization’s overarching business goals & objectives. Organizations can make sure SharePoint is being used to its full potential & increase productivity and efficiency by setting clear guidelines for platform usage.

Clearly Outlining Policies and Processes

Creating explicit policies and procedures for the proper use of the platform is one of the first steps towards becoming an expert in SharePoint governance. This involves creating guidelines for essential aspects such as user access, content management, and site structure. Organizations can guarantee consistent & effective use of SharePoint by implementing these policies and procedures. Avoiding Frequently Made Mistakes. This method can assist in avoiding common pitfalls with SharePoint Online like inconsistent naming conventions, data duplication, and other problems. Organizations should put in place clear guidelines to set themselves up for success with SharePoint and steer clear of these typical mistakes.

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Effective Communication Is Essential

It’s essential to inform all SharePoint users of these guidelines in addition to developing policies and procedures. This can be achieved through training sessions, documentation, and other forms of communication. Organizations can encourage the consistent and efficient use of SharePoint by making sure all users are aware of the governance policies and procedures.

Roles & responsibilities for platform management are defined, which is another crucial component of SharePoint governance.

This includes assigning accountability for duties like content management, platform administration, and user access control. Organizations can make sure that there is accountability for managing SharePoint by outlining these roles and duties. Apart from defining roles and responsibilities, it is important to provide training and support to those responsible for managing SharePoint. By doing so, you make sure they have the information required to correctly perform their duties.


Organizations can guarantee that SharePoint is managed efficiently & in compliance with governance policies by giving the required support to those in charge of the platform.

Change Management

Another essential component of becoming an expert in SharePoint governance is change management. It is inevitable that the SharePoint will need to change as organizations grow and change. This could simply involve making adjustments to user access, updating already-existing content, or introducing new features. Organizations can guarantee the controlled implementation of these changes by putting in place efficient change management procedures. Having a defined procedure for requesting and approving changes to the SharePoint environment is essential to effective change management.

This can assist in making sure that changes are being made in accordance with governance policies, but also for legitimate reasons. A procedure for testing & approving modifications prior to their implementation in the production environment is also important. By doing this, problems like data loss and system outages may be avoided.

Security & Compliance

Any organization using SharePoint must take data security and compliance seriously. Sensitive data is being stored in SharePoint at an increasing rate, so it’s critical to make sure that it’s safe from security threats and unauthorized access.

Also, it is important for organizations to verify that their utilization of SharePoint adheres to pertinent regulations and industry standards. Using strict permissions and access controls is one technique to guarantee data security and compliance in SharePoint. This involves specifying which content on the platform is accessible to whom and making sure that these permissions are routinely checked and updated as necessary. Organizations should also think about putting encryption and other security measures in place to safeguard sensitive data stored in SharePoint. This can be done in Microsoft Purview.

Monitoring

Following the establishment of governance policies & procedures, it’s important to keep an eye on them and monitor their effectiveness. This involves monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) pertaining to various aspects such as content management, user adoption, and overall platform utilization. Businesses can learn more about the effectiveness of their governance initiatives and pinpoint areas for development by keeping an eye on these KPIs.

To make sure that their SharePoint environment is still in compliance with governance policies, organizations should audit it on a regular basis in addition to monitoring KPIs. Assessing user access rights, content management procedures, and platform configuration as a whole are a few examples of what this can entail. Organizations are able to spot any instances in which governance policies are not being followed and take necessary corrective action by regularly auditing their operations.

Ultimately, a dedication to ongoing development and adjustment is necessary for SharePoint governance. Organizations must constantly review and update their governance policies and procedures in light of changing business needs and technological advancements. Among other things, this may involve updating content management policies, modifying user access permissions, or altering the platform’s fundamental setup. Organizations should collect input from SharePoint platform users in addition to updating governance policies & procedures.

This can assist in locating any areas of discomfort or potential productivity or efficiency barriers caused by governance policies. Organizations can modify their governance procedures to better suit the needs of their users by considering the input provided by these users.

Conclusion

In summary, SharePoint governance is a critical skill to have if you want to make sure the platform stays safe, legal, & in line with business goals. Organizations can make sure that their SharePoint environment continues to be a valuable tool for boosting productivity & efficiency throughout the company by establishing clear policies and procedures, defining roles and responsibilities, putting in place efficient change management procedures, guaranteeing data security & compliance, keeping an eye on success, & continuously refining and adapting governance practices.

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