SharePoint SuperUsers The stealthy, wealthy pool of expert SharePoint knowledge National Laboratory IT Summit 2009 Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory

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SharePoint SuperUsersThe stealthy, wealthy pool of expert SharePoint knowledge

National Laboratory IT Summit 2009

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.

Phyllis TeagueIT Communication & SharePoint End-User

Support

SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit 2

Topics

Sandia’s SP implementationSupport situationSharePoint-savvy superusersQuestions


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 collaborati

on network

Yucca-Mtn-

specific installatio

n


SharePoint support at Sandia

One server managerTier 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


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 sitesCompeting 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


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


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)


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)

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/cks/default.aspxhttp:/sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/cks/default.aspx


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 groupsHold brown bag sessions (or similar) to

demonstrate advanced SharePoint techniques


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


CENTRAL REPOSITORY OF EXPERT SHAREPOINT KNOWLEDGE

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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


What's required

Expert SharePoint knowledge

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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


1. Create a SharePoint knowledge base

14SAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

SharePoint "Knowledge Base" site

Knowledge base site built on the SharePoint knowledge base application template

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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


2. Create a SharePoint wiki


SharePoint wiki

SharePoint wiki built on the SharePoint wiki site template

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3. Other options

SharePoint superuser blogAdvanced SharePoint FAQs, posted by

expertsCustom 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



about 150 end-user questions posted per

year

answers provided by SharePoint experts (mostly volunteers)


SUPERUSER VOLUNTEERS

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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


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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



SHAREPOINT USER GROUPS

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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!


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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


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26unbox.html


Screenshot of user group site from Microsoft

Microsoft’s demo of a user group built on the SharePoint user group site template


BROWN BAG SESSIONS

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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


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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 partsSAND Number: 2009-2768C | 2009 National Laboratory IT Summit

Many potential single-topic sessions for brown bag SharePoint demonstrations

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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


We is better than me* —What superusers ultimately have to offer

*Thanks, Wikipedia, for a cool slogan.


QUESTIONS?

Documents

SharePoint SuperUsers The stealthy, wealthy pool of expert SharePoint knowledge National Laboratory IT Summit 2009 Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory