Is your business ready for the change to a new version of SharePoint? This presentation goes beyond the technical requirements to consider how best to approach the tasks of planning, training, and testing the new system from a business perspective.

1. SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013

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Speaker Stats
Joy Adkins
SharePoint Applications Administrator
Oklahoma Administrative Office of the Courts
Working with SharePoint for 6 years as
Business Analyst, Trainer, & Administrator
joy.adkins@live.com
@JoyKnows on Twitter

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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…

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Why the Right Questions Matter
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

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Why the Right Questions Matter
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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Implement & Test Again
 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

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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

30. SharePoint Best Practices Conference 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
joy.Adkins@live.com
@JoyKnows on Twitter