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SharePoint SuperUsers

SharePoint SuperUsers. The stealthy, wealthy pool of expert SharePoint knowledge. National Laboratory IT Summit 2009. Phyllis Teague IT Communication & SharePoint End-User Support.

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SharePoint SuperUsers

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  1. SharePoint SuperUsers The stealthy, wealthy pool of expert SharePoint knowledge National Laboratory IT Summit 2009 Phyllis Teague IT Communication & SharePoint End-User Support Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  2. Topics • Sandia’s SP implementation • Support situation • SharePoint-savvy superusers • Questions SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  3. Sandia’s SharePoint installation • Three separate corporate-level installations of WSS • Several workgroup-level installations • “Wild West” approach: • Anyone can have a SharePoint site • No rules for how the site must be designed or managed other than protecting sensitive data • SharePoint is wildly popular at Sandia • Nearly 1,500 top-level sites on the internal restricted network alone! Internal restricted network External collaboration network Yucca-Mtn-specific installation SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  4. SharePoint support at Sandia • One server manager • Tier I support via the help desk (staff do not have access to the SharePoint console) • One full-time Tier II support person (has access to the SharePoint console) • One superuser who routinely provides part-time, Tier III end-user support (that’s me!) • Several other superusers around Sandia • All (or most) are known to the server manager • We mostly don’t know each other SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  5. SharePoint support is sometimes difficult … • … especially for off-normal SharePoint problems: • Problems resulting from Office 2003/2007 mixed environment • Users with SharePoint Designer who have broken their sites • Competing help desk priorities make it difficult for analysts to research off-normal issues • Hard to find the reliable blogs that deal with SharePoint issues at the site level • Requires much research time to acquire deep SharePoint knowledge from the blogs SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  6. Researching such issues is sometimes difficult and often time-consuming • Microsoft’s SharePoint information addresses SharePoint developers or SharePoint newbies — and almost nothing else in between • Advanced SharePoint knowledge is mostly found in blogs rather than knowledge bases • Support staff have to know … • which potential solutions may work in their environments • whether the solution applies to individual sites or must be applied to the SharePoint server SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  7. One possibility? Enlist your superusers! • SharePoint superusers are a stealthy, wealthy pool of expert SharePoint knowledge: • They’re passionate about SharePoint • They routinely push SharePoint sites to their limits • They come up with very clever customizations • They continually break and repair their own SharePoint sites • They know where to find the advanced end-user information • They know which SharePoint bloggers provide the best, most accurate information (and which do not) SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  8. BTW, enlisting superuser volunteers is also catching on in other technical fields • A recent article in the New York Times talked about Verizon doing the same thing (Sunday, April 26, 2009) SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  9. How can superusers participate in site-wide SharePoint support? • Transfer their expert knowledge and resource lists to a central knowledge repository • Resource lists are THE MOST VALUABLE information superusers possess! • Volunteer to help other SharePoint users directly (on occasion) with more problematic or advanced issues • Run SharePoint user groups • Hold brown bag sessions (or similar) to demonstrate advanced SharePoint techniques SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  10. Working with superusers still requires some involvement of traditional support staff • Traditional support staff can … • Help conduct campaigns to identify SharePoint superuser volunteers • Maintain a list of volunteer names and connect SharePoint users with those volunteers • Moderate superuser knowledge entries • Help create and occasionally attend SharePoint user groups • Help set up and participate in any superuser-sponsored brown bag demos SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  11. Central Repository of Expert SharePoint Knowledge SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  12. What's required • Central knowledge repository requires … • a place to store the knowledge entries • a site-wide campaign to announce the effort & encourage superusers to self-identify • a formal SharePoint support person (or two) to moderate entries as needed • Use SharePoint itself to create the central knowledge repository Expert SharePoint knowledge SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  13. 1. Create a SharePoint knowledge base • Use Microsoft’s “Knowledge Base” SharePoint site template • Install the application templates on your SharePoint server so you can create a top-level kb • Give superusers write access • Give read access to everyone • Appoint one or more SharePoint support staff to moderate entries SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  14. SharePoint "Knowledge Base" site Knowledge base site built on the SharePoint knowledge base application template SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  15. 2. Create a SharePoint wiki • Most SharePoint experts are eager to contribute to community knowledge • Wikis tend to be self-policing by the expert community • Wikipedia is an excellent example of expert, well-moderated contributions SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  16. SharePoint wiki SharePoint wiki built on the SharePoint wiki site template SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  17. 3. Other options • SharePoint superuser blog • Advanced SharePoint FAQs, posted by experts • Custom SharePoint lists: • Such as “Hey, did you know …?” lists for snippets of information • Sandia’s custom list: “Ask Dr. SharePoint” • Customers ask questions • Experts answer questions • Answers remain in the list for research SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  18. about 150 end-user questions posted per year answers provided by SharePoint experts (mostly volunteers) SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  19. Superuser Volunteers SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  20. Connect volunteer superusers with regular users • Regular support staff maintains list of superusers willing to work directly with other SharePoint users (on occasion) • Superusers can provide support on issues that take longer than a quick call to the help desk: • Consultation on how to organize site • Site branding advice • How to use SharePoint’s advanced features • Less-usual problems that need research SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  21. One downside to using volunteer superusers • Once people find out the contact information of SharePoint experts, they call them directly instead of calling the help desk • You can help superusers set boundaries around providing direct help SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  22. SharePoint User Groups SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  23. User groups are a tried-and-true method to share expert information • Regular SharePoint support staff can help superusers create and publicize the user group • Superusers can set the agendas and provide the demos and resource lists • Especially those resource lists! SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  24. SharePoint superusers are good candidates to run User Groups • SharePoint experts are nearly always passionate about sharing their knowledge • User groups are good ways to do this without interfering in regular job duties • Microsoft offers a user group SharePoint site template • NOT installed with application templates • CANNOT be used to create a top-level site • Must create a subsite instead SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  25. Screenshot of user group site from Microsoft Microsoft’s demo of a user group built on the SharePoint user group site template SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  26. Brown Bag Sessions SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  27. Short, one-topic sessions are easier for volunteer superusers to conduct • Can be done over lunchtime • Not so hard for volunteers to schedule • Attendees don’t have to reschedule normal work • Traditional support staff can provide handouts and computers on which to do the demos SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  28. Many potential single-topic sessions for brown bag SharePoint demonstrations • For SharePoint beginners: • Navigating SharePoint • Permissions (site, list/library, item) • Common problems of SharePoint beginners • Site themes • SharePoint and RSS • Customizing the top navigation and the Quick Launch bar • Advanced topics • SharePoint workflows • Content types • SharePoint master pages • Modifying SharePoint stylesheets to create a custom “skin” • Displaying data with connected web parts SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  29. We is better than me* —What superusers ultimately have to offer • We know where the answers are (yes, those resource lists)! • Because we’re passionate and geeky, we actually read all those blogs — and we subscribe to their RSS feeds • Because we’ve broken our sites several times over, we actually know how to fix them without rebuilding the site at the central server • We sit around thinking, “I wonder if SharePoint can do this?” And then we go find out. • We think SharePoint is about the coolest workgroup technology we’ve seen in a long time, so we’re good evangelists for it • We don’t know everything about SharePoint, but we know a great deal about common problems and how to solve them *Thanks, Wikipedia, for a cool slogan. SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

  30. Questions? SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

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