business impact of the sharepoint upgrade bpc 2013

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SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2013Monday, May 20, 2013

2SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2013

Speaker Stats

Joy Adkins

SharePoint Applications Administrator

Oklahoma Administrative Office of the Courts

Working with SharePoint for 6 years as Business Analyst, Trainer, & Administrator

[email protected]

@JoyKnows on Twitter


Organization Stats

• Oklahoma Administrative Office of the Courts

• 77 District Offices - Approx 1000 users

• Supports Court Clerks and Judiciary Statewide

• Implementation Phases:

Internal Rollout to IT

Upgraded from 2003 to 2007 Enterprise

Added Project Server 2007

Upgraded from 2007 to 2010 Enterprise

Rolled Out to End Users Statewide

Supporting Collaboration on Largest Projects


Best Practices

Treat it Like a Project

Choose the Right Upgrade Approach

Ask the Right Questions

Set Realistic Expectations

Test It First!

Identify Problem Children

Prepare the Users

Implement & Test Again


Why Treat the Upgrade as a

Project?

Cross-Departmental Impact

System Administrators

Application Administrators

Developers

Users

Fundamental Architectural Changes

Service Applications

UPS uses Forefront ID Manager

Managed Passwords


Why Treat the Upgrade as a

Project?

Social Features Impact on Biz Determine Which are Appropriate

Impact on Search Results

AD Data Accurate? Complete?

Touches Major Systems: Active Directory

SQL Server

MS Office Integration

Project Server

Rework can be Costly

The System Admin

can’t do it alone.


Upgrade Options

In-Place

Database Attach

Consultant Help

Research only:

Hybrid

Pros:

Same Equipment

Uses Your Current Settings

Can be Fastest Option

Cons:

Meant for Demo/Test

Picks Speed Over Best Practice

Farm Down Whole Time

Not Reversible if it Fails

Option Not Available for 2013


Upgrade Options

In-Place

Database Attach

Consultant Help

Research only: Hybrid

Pros:

Can Build to Best Practice

Side-by-Side Environments

Test DBs Against Envir 1st

Minimize Downtime

Cons:

More Knowledge Required

Must set up Envir Features

(email, AD) to test properly


Upgrade Options

In Place

Database Attach

Consultant Help

Research only:

Hybrid

Pros:

Relieves Knowledge

Crunch

Help You Make Better

Decisions

Can Speed Upgrade

Cons:

Still might have Major

Trouble such as DB

corruption

Sometimes More Costly


Upgrade Options

In Place

Database Attach

Consultant Help

Research only: Hybrid

(Upgrade test environment in-place, production with DB Attach)

Pros: Sample of What In-Place

Would Do

Head Start on DB Attach Settings

Quick Knowledge Transfer While Keeping Best Practices

Cons: Time Intensive

Still need to test DB Attach

Not True Replacement for Experience


Why the Right Questions Matter

You ask:

Do you have any customizations?

They hear:

Do you have custom-coded applications?

Ask Questions about What’s been done

Previously in Ways the Business Users will

Understand…



Better Question:

What are some of the things you’ve done to make SharePoint work better for you in these areas?

Look & Feel

Email notifications

Workflows

Filling out forms

Searching

Playing videos or displaying pictures



Customizations are the #1 Upgrade Issue

Look & Feel○ Inexperience Web Designer, Customized Master Pages,

SPD Use

Email notifications○ Customized Alert Language

Workflows○ SPD or Visual Studio Use

Filling out forms○ InfoPath

Searching ○ Metadata & Content Types, 3rd Party Add-ins

Playing videos or displaying pictures○ 3rd Party Add-ins

Listen for these

keywords in users’

answers.


Realistic Expectations

Consider the Scope of the Change

Hardware

Patch Levels

Infrastructure Change

Application Look & Feel

Business Process Changes

New Optimization Options

Expertise Level Required

This is not just an

Office Upgrade.


Realistic Expectations

Tradeoff:

The more the Upgrade Time Line is driven by business deadlines, the greater the resources that will be needed to meet those deadlines

• May need to call in help from:• In-House Quality Assurance Team

• In-House Training Team

• Microsoft Support

• Consultant/ Microsoft SharePoint Deployment Services


Test It First!

Test Environ should be Close as Possible to Production

Develop Test Criteria List from User Interviews

Test Basic Functions, then Known Problem Children

Don’t Assume Navigation Works Because You See Links

Links should Go to Test Environment(relative links)

No Such Thing as a Perfect Clone

If Some Things Don’t Work? Identify Mission Critical

Find workaround for Non-Critical


ID the Problem Children (Risk

Mitigation)

Custom Master Pages

Custom Development

SPD Workflows

Meeting Workspaces/Sites

Custom Email Alert Templates

Fab 40 Templates (Knowledge Base = Biggie)

Improperly Retracted Features


ID the Problem Children (Risk

Mitigation)

CodePlex Solutions (Search, Pic Display)

Site Owners not Identified (who’s testing?)

Groove/ Workspace

My Site Links in Office Clients

Recurrent Meeting Workspaces

Solutions using web services to fetch

Security Group Membership


Prepare the Users

How Does This Affect Me?

List & Library Navigation Changes

Social Features

Business Process Changes

Notify Early – Give Quick Reference –

Follow-up Support



You Will Miss Something One-off solutions on single sites

Multi-content libraries where some work & some don’t

Infrequently Used Custom meeting workspaces

Infrequently Used Sites

URL Switch may have Odd Behavior Until IIS Reset, Clear Browser Cache

Some Solutions may have to be Reworked in 2010

Office Integration Issues on Upgrade


Best Practices

Treat it Like a Project

Choose the Right Upgrade Approach

Ask the Right Questions

Set Realistic Expectations

Test It First!

Identify Problem Children

Prepare the Users


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SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2013Monday, May 20, 2013

[email protected]

@JoyKnows on Twitter

business impact of the sharepoint upgrade bpc 2013

Technology

practices

practices

practices

users implement

project choose

problem children

adkinslive

upgrade approach