An actual Technical question

[El_Squid]

Shockingly, I have an actual IT related question.

Some background: I am leading a project to develop and deploy a SharePoint 2010 Intranet site for the company (roughly 400 users). We started toying with the idea a couple of years ago and my guys set up a test SharePoint 2007 site (single server MOSS), which is still a bit of a Fraken-Dinosaur creature, but now we are in a serious push to get this thing deployed.

What are your experiences/comments with SharePoint 2010? Any suggestions? (We are still going for a single server deployment)

Secondly, any suggestions on getting a VM deployment up for testing purposes?

[nunob]

I haven't messed with 2010 yet but I have some experience on 2007 and WSS 3.0 When I implemented at my current company I built templates that I locked down so I could control what folks were creating and using. I also grabbed a team member from each department and utilized them for information as to their needs and to train them so on day one it wasn't a here it is have fun good luck call with questions sorta moment.
As far as a test server I used Hyper V and built a 2008 enterprise server that I use. I build everything there test it and try to break it then move it over or recreate on the production server.
My first experience turned into a bit of a nightmare because I started building groups and setting special permissions for people and it just kinda became a disaster to manage permissions so I would suggest really planning out your group and group memberships ahead of time it made my current implementation a lot smoother.
Training for end users will be huge and any chance to get people involved in the planning process will increase the adoption rate when you go live.

Anyhow not sure I answered anything at all for you but I hope it helps.

[El_Squid]

Actually, you have been very helpful, nunob. Particularly, by validating my belief that the initial design of the roles and groups will be critical to the administration/maintenance of this site. Our CIO's vision is to give all the departments Team Sites for their use and enjoyment, with control over their content, etc. The curious thing is that we are getting a lot of pushback on that idea from our Media/Communications department (and from an uber-micro-managing VP), who seem to think that giving users control over their content heralds the end of all life as we know it.

Do you have any advice/experience on publishing applications to SharePoint? I was hoping to completely move away from Client-Server deployments and move every In-House App to being hosted through SharePoint.

[nunob]

I have only used some of the original application templates, I believe they were called the fab40, from Microsoft. I actually used the IT Call center one and then tweaked it to make the solution for my last employer. My understanding is that the fab40 have been deprecated in 2010 so you can't use them as like a base template and expand from there. I have looked at some of the applications out there from various vendors but cost has always been at the forefront at my current employer so I have had to tweak from templates to try to make it work. It is amazing though what you can do once you get a plan in your head and see different ways to utilize things like the workflows which I really like. I suspect you already have a book or two on it? I used this for end users. Of course you will want something for 2010 instead of 2007 and WSS 3. Users can learn enough from a book based on the Windows SharePoint Foundation they don't really need a full on about the 2010 server. As they get comfortable they can move on into other more advanced features.
Facinating to get push back from the media folk in my experience everyone loves sharepoint once they learn a few things about it. The ramp up time is not long for the basics if you just plan to allow them to use the what you see is what ya get version instead of sharepoint designer which is a whole different beast.

[El_Squid]

Our Media Dept folks are Information Commisars; they don't want anything to get disseminated to the Agency without it being vetted by them first. If allowed to, they would be a huge bottleneck to all communication in the Agency. I believe it stems from the micro-managing style of the VP who oversees them. She tends to obssess over minutiae and overload herself. It seems like she has no trust in her subordinates, from the Division and Dept heads on down to line supervisors.

I long ago stopped worrying about it. I figure it has to be harder on her to try and keep tabs on everything everyone may, or may not, be doing.

[nunob]

Well I think there is a setting so she can approve things in lists and shared documents and stuff so she can continue to micro manage away. Not sure what limitations and all there are on it because I never use it.

[slgrieb]

I'm reluctant to jump in because I have very limited experience with Sharepoint 2007, and 0 experience with Sharepoint 2010. Still, I think that Sharepoint provides a really high degree of control that is simpler to manage than Group Policy Objects, though the basic administration model is the same. In short, I think you can create any number of user groups with any desired level of access. Controlling user content depends on the group(s) they belong to. I think your VP can micromanage her heart out, if you set up the appropriate groups and group members. If your boss really wants to control all the content, I think that makes setting up user groups and membership pretty straight forward.

There is God, and all things flow from the mouth of God, and nothing happens without God's approval. Here's the point where things could go either way. God might decide that keeping up with every sparrow that falls is a huge pain in the ***, and decide to give up some control, or just say no to every request.

My experience with corporate management is that your bosses tend to relent on micro-management when it's too time consuming and delegate responsibility. Meaning they take credit when things go well, and look for someone to crucify if it goes badly. Got any annoying and *****ious subordinates you could use as pointman?

[slgrieb]

Why in the heck does a m b i t i o u s get my post autocensored?

[Platypus]

Because A m b i t were once creating spam & got themselves blocked. So did Lenovo in the past but they got unblocked.

[slgrieb]

Thank you! Interesting response as well.

[El_Squid]

Yes, SharePoint allows you to specify user rights down to the document level, making the setting up of groups a very critical job. Do it right from the git go and life is a breeze, or create a complex hairball of user groups and roles and pay for it for ever.

I especially like being able to specify whether a site inherits the parent's security settings or has its own. This is what we have been using to create sites for individual departments with their own unique sets of Owners/Members/Visitors, et cetra separate from the company-wide sites. Then, we give ownership to designated personnel in each department, so they can manage their own groups. Dangerous to some degree, but it does off-load maintenance to the users. Just have to make sure the automatic backups are running flawlessly.