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SharePoint 2010 or 2013 Roles, Responsibilities & Support Policies from a SharePoint Consulting Perspective

Posted by Errin O'Connor on Oct, 10, 2012 09:10

The purpose of this article is to share EPC Group’s consulting experience to standardize the nomenclature and define the responsibility of individuals who participate in SharePoint 2010/2013 projects, support and users of the overall SharePoint Enterprise Ecosystem. This is a great template to utilizes and keep in mind when thinking about your organization as a whole.

EPC Group’s goal for our clients is to develop a roadmap and “run-time” governance strategy for at least 36 months covering both SharePoint 2010 as well as SharePoint 2013 so that no gaps, major risks, or issues are left out of your organization’s SharePoint radar screen to ensure long-term success.

Introduction & Scope

This policy applies to all EPC Group Client SharePoint 2010/2013 initiatives, projects, support, usage and validation efforts.

Definitions

For a full list of definitions, (Your organization should implement a glossary or similar list of Definitions for your Enterprise SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013 deployment), refer to the following site: (portal.yourcompany.com).

Roles

It is the responsibility of all individuals who participate in the creation of validation and project documentation to ensure the consistent use of the Roles and Responsibilities defined in this document.

Role Description
Application Responsible Part of the System Owner group 

Responsible for the day-to-day support and maintenance of the software application in accordance with the approved policies and procedures.

Ensure compliance of an IT system with regulatory requirements.

The Application Responsible closely interacts with the User Responsible

Can also be nominated for Project roles as a SME

Business Analyst A Business Analyst (BA) analyzes the organization and design of businesses processes and assess their integration with technology
Database Administrator (DBA) Part of the System Owner group 

Individual responsible for a database system creation and maintenance in accordance with the approved procedures.

Can fulfill a project role as an SME

Design Lead 

(Design Responsible, Design Authority)

Responsible for managing the design process in a given IS project 

Approves the design documents and responsible for the implementation of the design

A project role

Developer 

(Programmer)

Individual responsible for the coding of a program, or script 

Individual responsible for a system’s configuration

A project role

Document Owner The person who takes the responsibility for creation, regular review and revision of a document.
End User In addition to using the system in accordance with approved procedures, end users may also be involved in the following activities through the life cycle: 

Input to user requirements and specifications

Evaluation of prototypes

Testing

Acceptance of system and handover

Input to development of SOPs for use of system

Reporting defects

Identifying opportunities for improvement

Functional Head 

(Department Head)

Management who is responsible for a company department or function 

May act as Sponsor and may participate in requirements gathering and approves validation documents as applicable

Infrastructure Responsible Part of the System Owner group 

Responsible for the day-to-day support and maintenance of infrastructure components in accordance with approved policies and procedures.

Can also be nominated for Project roles as a SME

IS Board Responsible for approving IS projects (depending on costs) 

Assures the IS departments follow the general directions set by the CIO.

IS Management Person or persons controlling and directing the affairs of the IS department.
IS Quality Management Delegate Individuals delegated by QA to perform designated QA functions. This may encompass day to day activities or specific to an IS validation. 

Is an independent function within the IS organization

Ensures compliance with the applicable regulations, company standards and procedures defined in the IS QMS. Coaches and supports the Validation Lead as needed.

Defends IS Quality Management System standards in audits

The IS QMD closely interacts with QA.

Process Owner (Data Owner, Business owner, Business process owner) The process owner is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the computerized system and its operation is in compliance and fit for intended use in accordance with applicable SOPs. The process owner also may be the system owner. 

Specific activities may include:

Approval of key documentation as defined by plans and SOP’s

Providing adequate resources (personnel including SME’s, and financial resources) to support development and operation of the system.

Ensuring adequate training for end users

Ensuring that SOPs required for operation of the system exist, are followed and are reviewed periodically

Ensuring changes are approved and managed

Reviewing assessment/audit reports, responding to findings, and taking appropriate actions to ensure compliance

Coordinating input from other groups (e.g. finance, information security, safety/HSE, legal)

Project Manager 

(Project Leader)

Plans and controls a project encompassing functionality, schedule, costs and quality 

Provides project updates to the project sponsor, steering committee and other management

Ensures intra-project team communications

Escalates issues and decisions to the appropriate staff and management

Delivers project documentation

QA 

(QA compliance, QA oversight, Quality Unit, QA Reviewer, QSE)

Reviews and approves validation documents and SOPs to ensure regulatory compliance 

Responsible for the coordination of regulatory audits

May be responsible for supplier audits

Reviews and approves SOPs and all other controlled documents

Manages the change control process and approve changes to related systems

QA closely interacts with the IS Quality Management Delegate

Requestor Individual making a request
Regulatory Affairs (RA) Department ensuring that the company complies with all of the regulations and laws pertaining to their business.
Service Desk Coordinator Coordinates incident resolutions and incident escalation
Sponsor 

(Project sponsor)

Typically a member of a business area but IS management may also be a sponsor 

Initiates projects

Signs off on project funding

Receives periodic project status updates

Steering Committee A group, typically composed of senior managers 

Monitors project progress based on project reports provided by the Project Manager

Intervenes in project priority conflicts

Subject Matter Expert (SME) Qualified and experienced SMEs have a key role in performing reviews and assessments, and taking technical decisions, based on science based process and product understanding, and sound engineering principles. Different SMEs may be involved with different activities, e.g., during specification and verification. 

SMEs can take the lead role in the verification of the computerized system. Responsibilities include planning and defining verification strategies, defining acceptance criteria, selection of appropriate test methods, execution of verification tests, and reviewing results.

SMEs may come from a wide range of backgrounds as required, including business process, engineering, IS, supplier, quality and validation.

Super User 

(Power User)

Assists in the definition of user requirements. 

Can provide user training

Can provide the first line support for support system users

Possess superior skill in an application and may be provided with additional administrative rights to support the system

System Owner The System Owner is responsible for the availability, and support and maintenance of a system and for the security of data residing on that system. The system owner is responsible for the availability, and support and maintenance, of a system and for the security of the data residing on that system. The system owner is responsible for ensuring that the computerized system is supported and maintained in accordance with applicable SOPs. The system owner also may be the process owner. 

The System Owner acts on behalf of the users. A System Owner may:

Approval of key documentation as defined by plans and SOPs

Ensuring that Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) required for maintenance of the system exist and are followed

Ensuring adequate training for maintenance and support staff

Ensuring changes are managed

Ensuring the availability of information for the system inventory and configuration management

Providing adequate resources (personnel including SMEs, and financial resources) to support the system

Reviewing audit reports, responding to findings, and taking appropriate actions to ensure compliance

Coordinating input from other groups (e.g., finance, information security, safety, legal)

Test Lead The person responsible for the design of the test activities. This may be a series of tests at different levels (e.g. Module testing, Integration testing etc.) and may include the use of code reviews and walk-throughs. The test lead can ensure: 

The set of tests are structured to detect harmful failure modes of the system

confirm all individual tests / test cases adequately challenge the system for the likely failure modes and in case of intensive tests, instructions to the tester as to what objective evidence (screenshots, audit logs) are clear and adequate

Test Verifier 

(Test Result Reviewer)

Individuals responsible for the verification of test cases ensuring the test case is filled out completely; all attachments are initialed, dated and labeled correctly and included with the executed test case. Test Verifier may: 

confirm the testing is complete (i.e. No tests are un-executed)

confirm the tester(s) can be identified via their signature / initials and a legend

confirm that the test cases/script/specifications were approved by the authorized parties before execution

confirm that all defects uncovered during testing have triggered the appropriate defect management system

Write and sign test summary report

Tester Responsible for the complete execution of a test case, collection of required evidence (e.g. screen prints)
User Responsible Designated individual appointed by the Process Owner who is responsible for end user tasks on a system 

May coordinated the activities of other End Users

The User Responsible closely interacts with the Application Responsible and/or the (Super) User(s)

Validation Responsible In concert with the Business Owner and System Owner, assumes responsibility for the technical aspects of the Computerized System Validation and the Validation Documentation 

May participate in defending the validation status of the Computerized System to external auditor

As a team lead or as an individual contributor will ensure proper planning, execution and documentation of an IS validation effort on a Project

May Approve the (Project) Validation Plan and Validation Report

Contributes to the development of Validation documentation for an IS system.

People Organization

EPC Group Client’s It Operations

IT Operations oversees the teams of Quality Assurance, System Administration and Multi-Tiered Support

Standard On-call support is provided from 7am to 5pm CST.

Premium On-call outside of these times is available at an additional cost to the customer.

Farm Administrator

The Farm Administrator manages the operation of production, pilot, test, and development environments for SharePoint. They control the application at the Operating System (OS) and above and help execute approved change requests. The Farm Administrators have full central administration rights, full SharePoint services rights and provision security for the site collections. They assign permissions to the Site Collection Managers.

The Farm Administrator is an essential member of the SharePoint Team and frequently collaborates with other Farm Administrators and Site Collection Managers to resolve problems, assist with issues, or knowledge transfer. The Farm Administrator has the same access to all other hub farm instances and is an OS administrator for the local farm.

System Administrator

The System Administrator is a part of the Infrastructure group. The System Administrator manages the operation of production, pilot, test, and development environments for SharePoint. They control the application above the hardware to the Operating System (OS) level and help execute approved change requests. The System Administrator does not have central administration or SharePoint services rights and has no special administrative access within SharePoint. The System Administrator is not a member of the SharePoint Team but works with the Farm Administrator on requests. The System Administrator is an administrator at the OS level for the local farm.

The System Administrator follows the procedures for maintenance, backup, recovery, and overall change management.

The System Administrator provides monitoring of the system through:

Usage analysis and tuning.

Automatic monitoring and event notifications.

The System Administrator provides maintenance of the servers (service packs, hot fixes, etc).

The System Administrator provides support for hardware and software of the SharePoint location.

The System Administrator provides documentation on the installation and configuration of the system in its environment. The system must be documented well enough so that it can be reinstalled and reconfigured to last known good operating standards, should it become necessary to do so.

Site Collection Managers

Manages the site collection on the production environment for SharePoint. Site Collection Managers are those within the SharePoint Team with the specific goal of promoting new collaboration tools and other SharePoint applications within their location for the sites they manage to help improve efficiency and increase productivity.

They do not have access to the operating system, central administration or SharePoint services. The Site Collection Manager is an integral member of the SharePoint Team and frequently collaborates with other Site Collection Managers and Farm Administrators to resolve problems, assist with issues, or knowledge transfer.

The Site Collection Manager advocates and promotes SharePoint through leadership by example.

The Site Collection Manager is the liaison between the SharePoint Team leadership and the business.

In addition, they should be able to support the business in implementing any changes in methodology that SharePoint 2010 \ 2013 will bring.

The Site Collection Manager should also be:

Comfortable in working with new applications.

Able to quickly learn the capabilities of SharePoint tools.

Able to demonstrate strong functional knowledge of the tools to others.

The Site Collection Manager will be expected to network frequently in order to ensure they are well informed on the perception and progress of the sites. Such networking would involve interaction with the SharePoint Team, local users, and local management. Interaction with the Central Collaboration Teams would be via the SharePoint Team Meetings, local training sessions, and other communication venues such as brown bag lunch sessions.

Site Collection Manager must have the support and approval of local management.

Additional tasks could be delegated such as the following:

Creating sub-sites within existing sites.

Managing security of the SharePoint site.

Creating new workflows and managing site content.

Database Administrators (Sometimes the same role as other High Level roles already listed depending on the size of your organization)

The Database Administrator is a part of the hub Infrastructure group.Database Administrators are responsible for installation, configuration, backup, recovery and monitoring of the SQL Server databases required by SharePoint. They do not have central administration or SharePoint service rights and have no special administrative access within SharePoint. The Database Administrator is not a member of the SharePoint Team but works with the Farm Administrator on requests.

Quality Assurance (Again, this role may be combined with another role already listed depending on your available resources or skillsets)

A quality assurance function will create and execute test plans to certify all software changes. This team will be comprised of the Infrastructure Hosting Team and the Business Owner Developer team for the Site Collection.

System Administration

Manage the operation of Production and Staging. Controls the hardware and executes approved change requests. This team is comprised of the Infrastructure Hosting Team

Site Collection Administrators

Site Collection Administrators are persons with the specific goal of promoting the new Collaboration tools within their location, to help improve efficiency and increase productivity. This teal will be comprised of the Business Owners designated staff.

Multi-Leveled Support

The multi-leveled support organization is structured in 3 levels as follows:

Level 1 Support

The Service Desk is Tier 1 and it provides business operations basic service availability support between 6:00 A.M. – 12:00 A.M EST Monday thru Friday and 7:00 AM – 7:00 P.M. CST on the Weekends

The Help Desk is Level 1 and it provides basic service availability support via the ticket queue at each location.

The Help Desk at each hub location is Level 1 and is governed by the following policies:

Addresses user issues by monitoring the Help Desk queue.

The Help Desk has the knowledge of the network, the desktop, the corporate servers and the personal accounts status.

The Help Desk can resolve basic computer-user issues.

No specific SharePoint expertise exists here, and SharePoint issues that cannot be resolved by the Help Desk will be passed to the next support level based on a decision tree outlined by the local Help Desk.

Level 2 Support

-Tier 2 Support is the SharePoint-specialist support team and Site Collection Administrator should be a Subject Matter Expert (SME).

-Level 2 Support is the SharePoint specialist support team which provides more advanced support at each location. Site Collection Managers are considered to be in Level 2 support.

-Level 2 Support team is the software development team that creates applications, Web Parts, and other customizations made through the EPC Group Client “Request for Change” (or similar) Process. Level 2 Support is also the SharePoint specialist support team and is governed by the following policies:

Level 2 resolution policies are based on the expert knowledge of SharePoint.

Level 2 Support has privileged access to the development, test, and pilot SharePoint environments.

Level 2 has specific access privileges to the production SharePoint environment.

Level 2 privileges allow for processing site creation requests and creating new sites.

Level 2 resolutions recommend specific scenarios that users themselves can perform.

Level 2 staff may also work with the Site Collection Manager to investigate sites for the duration of a support case.

Level 2 analyzes user requests and makes recommendations on issues and resolutions in the environments.

Level 3 Support

Tier 3 Support team is the software development team that creates Applications, parts and other customization per requestor’s specifications. The “Hosting Team” (Facilities (Hardware and OS), Application).

Note: When I refer to the “Hosting Team” here is typically refers to the internally “on-premises” hosted Private Cloud as EPC Group specializes in mid-size to Fortune 500 size implementations.

Level 3 Support the infrastructure and deployment of solutions and features to production farms.

Level 3 Support are the Farm Administrators and System Administrators which maintain the SharePoint farms as well as deploys packaged solutions to production servers and is governed by the following policies:

Level 3 resolution policies center on the deployment of solutions to Production servers.

Level 3 issue resolutions are complete when the completed product(s) are deployed and tested in the SharePoint Production Environments.

Level 3 applies application patches and hotfixes to the hub locations’ SharePoint environments.

Business Operations

The SharePoint Steering committee oversees the engagement of the businesses and the SharePoint Team in the promotion and adoption of best practices around SharePoint.

Global Champions (Power Users, Super Users, etc.) (Extreemly KEY!)

Global champion drives the process of aligning evolution of the SharePoint project with the evolving business needs and Company direction.

Global Champions will be comprised from a combination IT PM and Business Operations

“Key Stakeholders” and Business OWNERS

“Key Stakeholders” \ Business Owners manage the overall design and functionality integrity of SharePoint from a business perspective. The ITPM and Business Owners do not have to be IT experts, but the job function typically includes responsibility for internal communications, intranet portals, external communications, and external portals.

SharePoint Governance Council

The SharePoint Steering committee will be comprised of executive sponsor not from IT. The committee will meet regularly with defined success criteria and measurable goals based on implementation phase specifics.

The SharePoint Steering Committee will meet regularly to revisit structure, responsibilities and membership to ensure maximum effectiveness as well as potential scope changes for the portal due to changes in business conditions and technology.

The role of the SharePoint Steering Committee will be:

Aligning portal initiatives to overall corporate business goals.

Provide administrative and functional guidance to the portal management team.

Approve project scope and monitor and continually assess the portal project viability.

Resolve corporate conflict/issues.

Determine corporate standards.

Provide approval to proceed through each phase of the project.

Defining all governance, standards and policies.

Creating content publishing policies and assigning departmental ownership.

Driving portal branding/look and feel (some companies may assign partial or full ownership to marketing).

Navigational design/taxonomy.

SharePoint Team (Again this can be combined with other roles based on your organization, its size, your available skillsets and also other major IT initiatives going on within your organization)

The SharePoint Team drives the process of aligning each location’s SharePoint environment with evolving business needs and company direction. The SharePoint Team consists of the SharePoint Team Manager, SharePoint System Architect, SharePoint Application Architect, SharePoint Farm Administrators, and Site Collection Managers.

SharePoint Steering Committee (Extremely KEY!)

Note: My team and I at EPC Group wrote another article for the AIIM Community about 6 months ago regarding our Consulting Best Practices Approach to Building a SharePoint Steering Committee which can be found here:

http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/SharePoint-Consulting-Developing-a-SharePoint-2010-Steering-Committee

The SharePoint Steering Committee will be comprised of Senior Management and SharePoint Stakeholders. SharePoint Stakeholders are defined as those in the business units which rely on the SharePoint portal as a part of their business operation. The committee will meet regularly with defined success criteria and measurable goals based on project definition, design and timeline.

The Steering Committee is chaired by the SharePoint Team Manager. Membership includes CIO, Applications Manager, Director of Corporate Communications or their equivalent. Membership may also include key line of Business Directors and Managers.

The SharePoint Steering Committee will meet regularly to revisit structure, responsibilities and membership to ensure maximum effectiveness as well as potential scope changes for the corporate and local portals due to changes in business conditions and technology.

The role of the SharePoint Steering Committee will be:

Aligning portal initiatives to overall corporate business goals.

Provide administrative and functional guidance to the SharePoint Team.

Approve project scope, monitor, and continually assess portal project viability.

Resolve business conflict/issues.

Determine corporate standards.

Approve all governance, standards and policies.

Approve content publishing policies and assigning departmental and functional ownership.

Approve portal branding/usability/look and feel.

Approve changes to the SharePoint Governance Document.

Power Users

Power Users serve as the centralized, primary role for ensuring that content for a particular site is properly collected, reviewed, published, and maintained over time. The Power Users must have good working knowledge of SharePoint, but the primary expertise is business-focused.

SharePoint Roles

Operations Roles

Permissions and responsibilities in the operations roles are persistent throughout all farms.

Roles and responsibilities defined below are specific to SharePoint Products and Technologies and third-party tools used for operations and maintenance of SharePoint Products Technologies.

Role Responsibilities and Tasks Group Permissions Trustee
SharePoint Team Manager Responsible for all SharePoint Product and Technology Efforts. 

Leads SharePoint Steering Committee.

Leads SharePoint Team.

Major SharePoint Technology Decision Maker.

SharePoint Team Full Control – full control given at the web application policy level for every web application in all farm locations. 

Admin Control – full control to all central administration and SharePoint services in all farm locations.

May or may not have system administrative or SQL administration rights.

Application Manager/Infrastructure Architect
SharePoint 

Application Architect

SharePoint Development Team Lead 

Third Party Configuration

Line of Business Integration

Governance Model/Best Practices Enforcement

SharePoint Team Full Control– full control given at the web application policy level for every web application in all farm locations. 

Admin Control – full control to all central administration and SharePoint services in all farm locations.

Has system administrative or SQL administration rights in non-production systems.

SharePoint Team Manager
SharePoint 

System Architect

AD and Exchange Integration 

Profile Synchronization

Patch Management (Validation

and Testing)- Responsible for SharePoint farm infrastructure design, installation, guidelines and best practices.

Governance Model/Best Practices Enforcement

System Administrators day to day support

Search Administration

Farm Administrators day to day support

Third Party Configuration

SharePoint Team Full Control– full control given at the web application policy level for every web application in all farm locations. 

Admin Control – full control to all central administration and SharePoint services in all farm locations.

Has system administrative or SQL administration rights in production systems.

SharePoint Team Manager
Active Directory Manager Active Directory Management 

DNS Management

Exchange Management

Infrastructure Team Will not have access to portal or site configuration settings and will not be able to make any changes to the application. SharePoint System Architect
Network Engineer Firewalls 

WAN

WAN Optimization

Remote Access Management

External Access Management

Load Balancing

Infrastructure Team Will not have access to portal or site configuration settings and will not be able to make any changes to the application. SharePoint System Architect
SharePoint Solution Manager Responsible for SharePoint services, policies, procedures, and governance/best practice enforcement. 

Liaison between business users and SharePoint Team.

Day to day support for Site Collection Managers.

Serves as SharePoint champion for all locations.

SharePoint Team Will not have system administrative or SQL administration rights. 

Local Full Control– full control given at the site collection level

SharePoint Application Architect 

SharePoint System Architect

SharePoint System Administrator Responsible for SharePoint farm infrastructure change requests. 

Responsible for day to day maintenance of SharePoint farm OS operations and uptime.

Infrastructure Team Will not have access to portal or site configuration settings and will not be able to make any changes to the application. IT Manager
SharePoint 

SQL Database Administrator

SQL Server database backup and recovery, SQL configuration, SQL upgrades and monitoring. 

Responsible for databases, site collection, and site backups.

Infrastructure Team Will not have access to portal or site configuration settings and will not be able to make any changes to the application. 

SQL Administrative rights

IT Manager
SharePoint Solution Analyst Tests custom code and third party tools in non-production systems 

Defined requirements for proposed solutions to determine whether the solution is Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS), requires custom development or requires feature extension

SharePoint Team Full Control– full control given at the web application policy level for every web application in virtual lab environments 

Admin Control – full control to all central administration and SharePoint services in virtual lab environments

Has system administrative or SQL administration rights in virtual lab environments

SharePoint Application Architect 

SharePoint System Architect

Local Group Roles

End-User Roles

These roles will be managed by the Farm Administrator.

Users may belong to more than one group to add additional permissions.

Users may also be removed from lower level roles as higher level roles permissions may encompass the permissions of the lower level role.

Roles Responsibilities and Tasks Training Permissions Trustees
Site Collection Manager (IT) Manage Features and Solutions for site collection. 

SharePoint site provisioning for site collection

Instructor led with good understanding of site administration, security, content creation, feature deployment Access defined at the SharePoint application level. No access at the system level. Farm Administrator
Site Collection Owner (Solution Manager in Development, IT in Production) Site Collection Owner
Content creation
Manage content.Sub-site management
Instructor led with good understanding of site administration, security, content creation Access defined at the SharePoint application level. No access at the system level. Site Collection Manager 

Farm Administrator

Site Owner(Solution Manager, IT and End User) Site Owner
Content creation
Manage content.
Instructor led with good understanding of site administration, security, content creation Access defined at the SharePoint application level. No access at the system level. Site Collection Manager 

Farm Administrator

Developer (IT Dev is the SharePoint Team). This group exists on all sites at time of creation but is removed prior to go-live. Manage the site layout and structure. 

Create custom workflows.

Create custom Web Parts, solutions and features.

Responsible for building the framework and features of the portal.

Modify SharePoint templates as needed.

Write ASP.Net code.

Participate in design tasks as needed.

Participate in development and testing as needed.
Create custom forms.

Instructor led training with CBTs. MS training for Visual Studio, ASP.Net and SharePoint Designer Developers Full control of non-production systems. 

Access defined at the SharePoint application level. No access at the system level.

Access does not exist in the production environment.

SharePoint Application Architect
Member Content creation (documents, lists).
Contribute to collaboration sites (blog, wiki).
Initiate workflows.
CBT with good understanding of document libraries and lists Access defined at the SharePoint application level. No access at the system level. Site Owner
Approver Approve content (documents, lists). 

Initiate workflows.

CBT with good understanding of content approval and workflows Access defined at the SharePoint application level. No access at the system level. Site Owner
Reader View content N/A N/A Site Owner

End User Permissions

End user Permissions based on the user roles for the Production environments are listed below.

List Permissions (This is an example for SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 to keep in mind!)
Permissions Site Collection 

Manager

Owner Developer Member Approver Reader
Manage Lists – Create and delete lists, add or remove columns in a list, and add or remove public views of a list. Y Y Y N N N
Override Check Out – Discard or check in a document which is checked out to another user. Y Y N N N N
Add Items – Add items to lists, add documents to document libraries, and add Web discussion comments. Y Y Y Y N N
Edit Items – Edit items in lists, edit documents in document libraries, edit Web discussion comments in documents, and customize Web Part Pages in document libraries. Y Y Y Y Y N
Delete Items – Delete items from a list, documents from a document library, and Web discussion comments in documents. Y Y Y Y N N
View Items – View items in lists, documents in document libraries, and view Web discussion comments. Y Y Y Y Y Y
Approve Items – Approve a minor version of a list item or document. Y Y Y Y Y N
Open Items – View the source of documents with server-side file handlers. Y Y Y Y Y N
View Versions – View past versions of a list item or document. Y Y Y Y Y N
Delete Versions – Delete past versions of a list item or document. Y Y Y N N N
Create Alerts – Create e-mail alerts. Y Y Y Y Y N
View Application Pages – View forms, views, and application pages. Enumerate lists. Y Y Y Y Y Y
Site Permissions
Manage Permissions – Create and change permission levels on the Web site and assign permissions to users and groups. Y N N N N N
View Usage Data – View reports on Web site usage. Y Y Y N N N
Create Sub-sites – Create Sub-sites such as team sites, Meeting Workspace sites, and Document Workspace sites. Y Y Y N N N
Manage Web Site – Grants the ability to perform all administration tasks for the Web site as well as manage content. Y N N N N N
Add and Customize Pages – Add, change, or delete HTML pages or Web Part Pages, and edit the Web site using a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible editor. Y Y Y N N N
Apply Themes and Borders – Apply a theme or borders to the entire Web site. Y Y Y N N N
Apply Style Sheets – Apply a style sheet (.CSS file) to the Web site. Y Y Y N N N
Create Groups – Create a group of users that can be used anywhere within the site collection. Y N N N N N
Browse Directories – Enumerate files and folders in a Web site using SharePoint Designer and Web DAV interfaces. Y Y Y Y Y Y
View Pages – View pages in a Web site. Y Y Y Y Y Y
Enumerate Permissions – Enumerate permissions on the Web site, list, folder, document, or list item. Y Y Y Y Y N
Browse User Information – View information about users of the Web site. Y Y Y Y Y N
Manage Alerts – Manage alerts for all users of the Web site. Y Y N N N N
Use Remote Interfaces – Use SOAP, Web DAV, or SharePoint Designer interfaces to access the Web site. Y Y Y Y Y Y
Use Client Integration Features – Use features which launch client applications. Without this permission, users will have to work on documents locally and upload their changes. Y Y Y Y Y N
Open – Allows users to open a Web site, list, or folder in order to access items inside that container. Y Y Y Y Y Y
Edit Personal User Information – Allows a user to change his or her own user information, such as adding a picture. N N N N N N
Personal Permissions
Manage Personal Views – Create, change, and delete personal views of lists. N N N N N N
Add/Remove Personal Web Parts – Add or remove personal Web Parts on a Web Part Page. N N N N N N
Update Personal Web Parts – Update Web Parts to display personalized information. N N N N N N

Software

Standard Installation

The standard installation will be based on the software requirements outlined in the SharePoint and Project Server Best Practices Document.

Web/Application Server

The server hosting the SharePoint and Project Server web application components must reside on a dedicated server separate from the database server.

Database Server

All SharePoint environments will require a dedicated SQL database server(s) that’s (are) separate from the web application server.

ADD-On Software

Additional software may be procured or developed and added to the standard installation following software development and deployment policies. This includes:

Web Parts, applications, list and library templates, site templates and other features and solutions, including out-of-the-box offerings which have been made available to the enterprise.

Web Parts at farm level, site collection level or at site level.

Software, feature and solutions requests must go through the SharePoint Support Request. All solutions, software, third party integration tools acquired or developed will be required to be added to all web front-end and applications servers following approval from the SharePoint Team.

Policies

All persons are subject to the policies within this document and are also subject to the provisions of applicable EPC Group Client Policies, including provisions for discipline for violation of this policy.

People

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance team constructs test plans and conducts tests for all candidate Applications and Web parts.

QA Manager certifies candidate component as PASS or FAIL.

Maintains regression test plans.

System Administration

The System Administration team has full access to the administration of the Project Server Farm.

System Admin team follows the procedures at the hosting Data Center for maintenance, backup and recovery and overall change management.

Auditing of security logs

Monitoring: Usage analysis and Tuning; automatic monitoring and event notifications.

Maintenance of the servers (service packs, etc.)

Set and manage quotas for sites

Provide self-support for hardware and software.

Document the installation and configuration of the system in its environment. The system must be documented well enough so as to be reinstalled and reconfigured to last known good operating standards, should it become necessary to do so.

Document and maintain a document of Scheduled Tasks.

Document the installation and configuration of the system in its environment. The system must be documented well enough so as to be reinstalled and reconfigured to last known good operating standards, should it become necessary to do so.

Application Administration

Has full access to the administration of the SharePoint Farm.

Auditing of security logs

Set and manage quotas for sites

Multi-Tiered Support

The SharePoint National Help Desk, Tier 2 Support, plays the leading role in addressing user issues by monitoring the National Help Desk queue as well as the EPC Group Client SharePoint Bulletin Board.

The forum of the SharePoint bulletin board is a free exchange of ideas and experiences.

The Tier 2 Support staff, as well as the SharePoint Champions will monitor the bulletin boards to ensure that no disinformation gets propagated on the bulletin board.

Multi-tiered support organization is structured in 3 levels as follows:

Tier 1 Scope and Resolution

The National Help Desk is Tier 1 and it provides 24/7 basic service availability support and is governed by the following policies:

This desk has the knowledge of the network, the desktop, the corporate servers and the personal accounts status.

It can also triage all computer-user issues. No specific SharePoint expertise exists here, and SharePoint issue resolution is based on a decision tree provided by Tier 2.

Tier 2 Scope and Resolution

Tier 2 Support is the SharePoint-specialist support team and is governed by the following policies:

Tier 2 resolution policies are based on the expert knowledge of SharePoint paired with a limited set of privileged access.

Tier 2 privileges allows for processing site creation requests and creating new sites.

Tier 2 resolutions recommend specific scenarios that users themselves can perform.

Tier 2 staff may ask a site collection owner to grant him/her a temporary owner’s role on the investigated sites for the duration of a case investigation.

Tier 2 resolutions normally do not require deployment of new software code or underlying infrastructure. If new software components are required, then the process of deploying new software is followed.

Tier 2 analyzes user requests and makes recommendations on new Web parts and Applications

Cases that require an extensive development or a procurement of software are then escalated to Tier 3.

Tier 2 Support has privileged access to the Staging/Test equipment.

Tier 2 has specific access privileges to Production.

Tier 3 Scope and Resolution

Tier 3 Support team is the software development team that creates Applications, parts and other customization per requestor’s specifications and is governed by the following policies:

Tier 3 resolution policies center on the development of solutions through new software or custom components.

Development objectives are selected from the collection of issues escalated to Tier 3 from Tier 2.

The selection criteria, priority and schedules are set by the management team (IT and Product Champion).

Tier 3 issue resolutions are complete when the completed product(s) pass Customer Acceptance Test before deployment to Production.

Tier 3 resolutions are packaged, detailed and integration tested and given to the Systems Support team to deploy to production servers during pre-defined maintenance window

Site Collection Administrators

Site Collection Administrators advocate and promote SharePoint through leadership and example.

Experiences shared on the EPC Group Client Bulletin Boards, as well as through local venues will help others follow. Site Collection Administrators may post “How to” answers directly to other users or to the Bulletin Boards.

The Site Collection Administrator should have good knowledge of the business processes in their location or domain, and should be able to present the value that the new tools will bring to both the business process owners and the end users. In addition, they should be able to support the business in implementing any changes in methodology that the new applications will bring.

The Site Collection Administrator should also be:

comfortable in working with new applications

able to quickly learn the capabilities of SharePoint tools

able to demonstrate strong functional knowledge of the tools to others.

The Site Collection Administrators should be well respected within their location, and able to lead the change within their location with a positive attitude at all times.

The Site Collection Administrators will be expected to network frequently in order to ensure they are well informed on the perception and progress of the project, with a good understanding of the real issues. Such networking would involve interaction with the central Project Team, local users and local management. Interaction with the central Project Team would be via Site Collection Administrators Meetings. Local interaction could take the form of weekly or 2-weekly Lunch and Learns, site presentations and local meetings with management.

Site Collection Administrators must have the support and approval of local management. An agreement must be in place to allow them to dedicate an agreed amount of their working time to the role.

Additional Tasks that could be delegated:

  • Creating sub-sites within existing sites
  • Managing the user base of the SharePoint site
  • Customizing the navigation (that is, the Quick Launch and Top Link bars) of a site
  • Creating new workflows & managing site content types

Summary

We hope this will assist you in thinking of the big picture of a SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013 implementations roles and responsibilities. If you think though each element of this you’re going to also be integrating with Active Directory, External Data Sources, Existing .NET or business critical applications that may exist, as well as your organization’s reporting tools.

You may find (more than likely you will) that Microsoft PerformancePoint (2010/2013) and its integration with SharePoint will allow for seamless reporting both for data residing inside as well as outside of SharePoint. If you then mix in the seamless integration with Team Foundation Server (TFS) for code management (testing, etc.) and the Enterprise Content Management \ Records Management (ECM\ ERM) with industry leading workflow and mobile compatibility this document (EPC Group blog post) will soon start to bleed over to your organization’s Governance documents, run-time support and records management policies.

We will continue to build on this in future blog posts for which we are trying to paint the picture of all sides of a SharePoint implementation from a SharePoint Consultants “In the Consulting Trenches” perspective or that real-world side when multiple curve balls are thrown in and a solution must still be achieved.

Errin O'Connor
About the Author

Errin O'Connor

With over 25 years of experience in Information Technology and Management Consulting, Errin O’Connor has led hundreds of large-scale enterprise implementations from Business Intelligence, Power BI, Office 365, SharePoint, Exchange, IT Security, Azure and Hybrid Cloud efforts for over 165 Fortune 500 companies.

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