SharePoint 2010 Or 2013 Roles Responsibilities Support Policies From A SharePoint Consulting Perspective
Successful SharePoint deployments -- whether on SharePoint 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, or SharePoint Online -- require clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and support policies. From our experience consulting on enterprise SharePoint implementations for over 28 years, EPC Group has found that technology is rarely the cause of SharePoint project failures. The root cause is almost always organizational: unclear ownership, undefined governance roles, ambiguous support responsibilities, and absent escalation procedures. This guide defines the essential roles, responsibilities, and support policies that every enterprise SharePoint environment needs, drawing from the governance frameworks EPC Group has implemented for Fortune 500 companies, healthcare systems, and government agencies.
Essential SharePoint Roles and Responsibilities
A properly governed SharePoint environment requires several distinct roles. While smaller organizations may combine roles, the responsibilities should still be explicitly assigned:
Farm Administrator / Tenant Administrator
- Manages the SharePoint infrastructure (on-premises farm or SharePoint Online tenant settings)
- Configures service applications, search, managed metadata, and user profile services
- Manages authentication, security settings, and compliance configurations
- Monitors farm health, performance, and capacity (on-premises) or service health and limits (Online)
- Applies patches, cumulative updates, and feature pack upgrades
- Manages backup and disaster recovery procedures
- Reports to IT Infrastructure leadership
Site Collection Administrator
- Manages a specific site collection (or group of site collections)
- Configures site collection features, content types, and managed metadata
- Manages site collection-level permissions and sharing settings
- Monitors storage quotas and usage patterns
- Reviews and approves site creation requests within their collection
- Enforces governance policies at the site collection level
- Reports to the SharePoint governance committee or IT management
Site Owner
- Manages a specific SharePoint site (team site, communication site, or project site)
- Configures lists, libraries, pages, and web parts within their site
- Manages site-level permissions, granting and revoking access as needed
- Ensures content within the site is current, relevant, and compliant with retention policies
- Serves as the primary contact for users of the site
- Typically a business user, not an IT professional
SharePoint Developer
- Develops custom solutions: SPFx web parts, Power Automate flows, Power Apps integrations, and custom APIs
- Builds and maintains custom page templates, branding, and navigation components
- Develops and tests solutions in development/staging environments before promoting to production
- Follows the organization's ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) practices
- Documents custom solutions and provides knowledge transfer to support teams
- Reports to IT development leadership
SharePoint Governance Committee
- Cross-functional committee including IT, business stakeholders, compliance, and security
- Defines and enforces governance policies: naming conventions, site provisioning, external sharing, retention
- Reviews and approves major changes to the SharePoint environment
- Resolves governance disputes and exceptions
- Meets monthly or quarterly depending on organizational complexity
Support Policies and Escalation Framework
Every SharePoint environment needs documented support policies that define how issues are reported, categorized, and resolved:
Tiered Support Model
- Tier 0 -- Self-Service: Knowledge base articles, training videos, and FAQ documents that enable users to resolve common issues independently. Target: 30-40% of all support inquiries resolved through self-service.
- Tier 1 -- Help Desk: First point of contact for SharePoint issues. Handles password/access issues, basic "how to" questions, site creation requests, and known-issue resolution. Target response: 30 minutes. Target resolution: 4 hours.
- Tier 2 -- SharePoint Administration: Handles site collection configuration, permissions troubleshooting, search issues, metadata/content type management, and integration problems. Target response: 2 hours. Target resolution: 8 hours.
- Tier 3 -- SharePoint Engineering: Addresses infrastructure issues, custom development defects, performance problems, security incidents, and architecture changes. Target response: 1 hour for critical. Target resolution: 24 hours or per project timeline.
Support Policy Essentials
- Change Management: All changes to the SharePoint environment (configuration changes, solution deployments, permission modifications) must follow the organization's change management process. Emergency changes require post-implementation documentation within 24 hours.
- Access Request Process: Define a standardized process for requesting access to SharePoint sites and content. Include approval workflows, access review schedules, and automatic expiration for temporary access.
- Content Lifecycle: Establish policies for content creation, review, archival, and deletion. Define retention periods based on content type and regulatory requirements. Implement automated retention policies using Microsoft Purview.
- Training and Onboarding: New employees receive SharePoint training during onboarding. Site owners complete governance training before receiving owner permissions. Annual refresher training ensures ongoing compliance.
Modernization: From SharePoint 2010/2013 to SharePoint Online
If your organization is still running SharePoint 2010 or 2013, it is critical to plan your migration path. SharePoint 2010 reached end of support in April 2021, and SharePoint 2013 reached end of support in April 2023. Organizations still running these versions face significant security, compliance, and functionality risks:
- No security patches or bug fixes from Microsoft
- Increasing incompatibility with modern browsers and devices
- Inability to leverage modern features: modern pages, SPFx, Power Platform integration, Copilot
- Compliance gaps as regulatory frameworks evolve beyond what legacy SharePoint can support
- Growing difficulty finding consultants and developers with legacy SharePoint expertise
EPC Group has managed SharePoint migrations from 2010/2013 to SharePoint Online for organizations with millions of documents and tens of thousands of users. Our migration methodology preserves metadata, permissions, version history, and workflows while modernizing the user experience and governance framework.
Why EPC Group for SharePoint Governance and Migration
EPC Group has been a leading SharePoint consulting firm since the platform's inception. Our founder, Errin O'Connor, authored the bestselling Microsoft Press books on SharePoint enterprise architecture and large-scale SharePoint migrations -- the definitive guides used by IT professionals worldwide.
With over 28 years of Microsoft consulting experience, EPC Group brings unmatched depth in SharePoint governance, role definition, support policy design, and enterprise migration. We have implemented governance frameworks for organizations in healthcare (HIPAA), financial services (SOC 2), government (FedRAMP), and education, ensuring compliance while enabling productivity.
Need SharePoint Governance or Migration Help?
EPC Group can assess your SharePoint environment, define roles and governance policies, and execute a migration from legacy SharePoint to SharePoint Online. Contact us for a free SharePoint assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SharePoint 2010 or 2013 still supported by Microsoft?
No. SharePoint 2010 reached end of support on April 13, 2021. SharePoint 2013 reached end of support on April 11, 2023. This means Microsoft no longer provides security patches, bug fixes, or technical support for these versions. Organizations still running them are exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities and compliance risks. EPC Group strongly recommends migrating to SharePoint Online or SharePoint Server Subscription Edition.
Who should be a Site Collection Administrator?
Site Collection Administrators should be IT professionals or technically proficient business users who understand SharePoint configuration, permissions, and governance. They should not be end users without training. Most organizations assign 2-3 Site Collection Administrators per collection for redundancy, with one primary and one or two backups. The role requires completion of governance training and annual recertification.
How do I establish a SharePoint governance committee?
Start by recruiting representatives from IT (SharePoint administration, security, development), key business units (the largest SharePoint users), legal/compliance, and executive sponsorship. Define the committee charter: meeting frequency (monthly recommended), decision authority, governance policy scope, and escalation procedures. The committee should own the governance document and meet regularly to review exceptions, approve changes, and address emerging issues.
How long does a SharePoint migration take?
Migration timelines depend on data volume, complexity, and customizations. A small organization (under 1 TB, minimal customizations) can migrate in 4-8 weeks. Enterprise migrations (10+ TB, custom solutions, complex permissions, multiple farm environments) typically take 4-12 months. EPC Group uses phased migration approaches with pilot groups, parallel operations, and rollback capabilities to minimize risk and disruption.
Do governance roles apply to SharePoint Online the same way as on-premises?
The governance roles are similar, but the responsibilities shift in SharePoint Online. There is no farm administrator role because Microsoft manages the infrastructure. Instead, the SharePoint Online Administrator (a Microsoft 365 admin role) manages tenant-level settings. Site Collection Administrators, Site Owners, and the Governance Committee function similarly. The key difference is that compliance and security configuration is now managed through the Microsoft Purview compliance portal and Microsoft 365 admin center rather than on-premises server settings.