SharePoint Managed Metadata Overview
Guest Author: Sharon Richardson SharePoint.Sharon SharePoint has always had some form of metadata capabilities. However the latest version includes the first attempt at managing metadata. This post is a brief introduction and overview. First a quick (and very basic) primer on what is metadata. It is simply data about data – the stuff that describes a document (or any digital artefact). The title, author and date modified are all metadata properties. You can define your own properties such as category (what’s it about) or status (public, confidential). Metadata typically comes ...
Making Sense of SharePoint’s Workflow and BPM Capabilities
Guest Author: Ahmed Hafeez Edgewater Technology Workflow and BPM often get lumped together but it is important to understand the difference between them if you are to pick the right tool for your enterprise. While it is generally agreed that workflow is for modeling simple sequential processes and BPM solutions are more capable of handling complex tasks the distinction between the two needs to be further sharpened. According to David McCoy of Gartner BPM can be defined as “… a structured approach employing methods, policies, metrics, management practices and software tools to ...
The SharePoint Maturity Model, Version 1.0
Guest Author: Sadie Van Buren A Matter of Degree As SharePoint gains in popularity and adoption worldwide, an increasing number of resources are available to help organizations understand and navigate the different aspects of this platform. What’s missing is a cohesive way to analyze and understand the system as a whole. Yet many experts have observed that, although SharePoint implementations vary from organization to organization, there is a typical progression of implementation, upward through each functional area and across the areas together. I created the SharePoint Maturity Model to apply a holistic view ...
SharePoint Community Events Need You: How You Can Get Involved – Part 1
Guest Author: Christian Buckley http://buckleyplanet.net One of the best things about the SharePoint community is that people really want to get involved and share their experiences. At a recent SharePoint Saturday event in Boston, I had a great conversation with a developer who had been through a couple deployments, and asked how he could best share his experiences and add to the vast best practice knowledgebase that is the SharePoint community. At the most recent SharePointPalooza event, held in beautiful downtown Seattle, I met several local end users who shared their perspectives on productivity solutions, ...
How clear is your product documentation? Not as clear as it could be.
I went to "Family Morning" at my 5 year old daughter's school yesterday. I walked around the room, looking at the work she has done, reading the story she is working on and getting to know her new friends. Then I saw the chart that showed her how to pack up and it stopped me dead in my tracks. This is the ULTIMATE user's guide poster. It is 2 feet by 3 feet. There is nothing challenging about it. Each step is self explanatory, down to having a little picture to clarify the step. I almost started screaming out loud! This ...
How clear is your message? Not very, I’m afraid.
Look at the picture above and tell me what this company sells. 99 times out of 100 people will say "Fish", and they will be correct. I think about this a lot. I speak at many SharePoint events around the world, seeing the same SharePoint vendors, many who I have come to consider colleagues. The problem is, I still can't tell you what their product is. I know the name of their company. I know the people who work for the company. But if you paid me $1,000,000.00, I couldn't tell you the name of their product and what it does. Why ...
A New Way to Build Community in SharePoint
If you’ve been following me for any time now, you know that I’m all about community. I look for different ways I can participate, try to use the site for a launch pad of new ideas for SharePoint sharing, and introduce people to the ideas that are springing up around the community. This is one of those times… Geoff Varosky and the team who put on SharePoint Saturday Boston have come up with a plan to record the sessions that were delivered on September 25, 2010. Did you catch that?... [Read more]
Are Blackberries derailing your SharePoint deployment?
Guest Author: Daniel Dunne In my last post I detailed how the inability for mobile computer (laptop) users to quickly and painlessly access SharePoint content is a real deterrent to getting users to make use of SharePoint resources. It came down to the death grip that end-users have on the usage of email (over all other forms of communication) for relevant information, and how the robustness of the Outlook client reinforces that dependence. Consider what other physical resources in your... [Read more]
SharePoint: Integrate ASP.net controls with Forms – Part 3: Update the DVWP Form using a Drop-Down
Guest Author: Matt Bramer http://mattbramer.blogspot.com Now that we have a good base, we can move this form along into something useful. Essentially what we are going to do is have the Drop Down List display the correct Edit Form for that document. Let’s get to it, shall we? Create a parameter First we need to open up the DVWP’s Common Data View Tasks, by clicking on the chevron again and then clicking on Parameters… This will open up a confusing dialog box, if you’ve... [Read more]
Coming to you live, from SPTechCon Boston!
Ok SharePoint fans, it’s that time again. MetaVis Technologies is providing a 100 inch monitor and we’re setting up for live blogging and tweeting from the floor of the SPTechCon Conferernce starting next Wednesday. If you are attending, you are welcome to register below so that we can follow your tweets from the conference, or you are more than welcome to be a full-on live blogger. We did this at SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas last October and had 30 people pushing live content... [Read more]
SharePoint: Question of the Day
Author: Eric Alexander, Moderator, Stump the Panel Today’s topic from Stump the Panel comes from Ninel. He writes: I was told to create a blog site, but the blogger does not want to have categories. I was able to remove the Categories web part from the left navigation panel, but when creating a new post I have to select the category. Can I remove this and not have categories at all? Yes this can be done, but before I go into the solution, I wanted to take a minute to say that this... [Read more]
The SharePoint50 Project: Top SharePoint Journalists
We continue this week with the Global 360’s SharePoint50 Project by announcing the names of the Top Influencial Journalists when it comes to purchasing decisions about SharePoint. As with most of the recipients of this award, I was pleased but surprised to see my name on the list. Thank you to everyone who participates and contributes to the site. I share this award with you because that is what EndUserSharePoint is: A group of authors offering insights, time and energy as their contribution... [Read more]
Is there any real value in SharePoint Saturday?
I came home after SharePoint Saturday Boston a few weeks back and my wife questioned my participation in the “good ‘ole boys club” a couple weekends each month. I opened my email around the same time and a colleague said he didn’t understand the value of going to SharePoint Saturdays. This made me stop and think… hard: Why DO I participate in SharePoint Saturday? What is the real value of giving up one or two weekends a month? From a Speaker’s Perspective Let’s... [Read more]
The Most Powerful SharePoint Secret
Guest Author: Richard Young Lightning Tools So what’s up with Discussions? I know SharePoint has a lot to offer and it can take companies time to make use of all it has to offer but 9 times out of 10, small, medium and large companies that I talk to don’t make any use of discussions. Obviously, opinions are subjective, so I only want to pass on some of the common thoughts of various SP administrators with these companies. The most common view is that the functionality is limited... [Read more]
Criteria for Selection of the SharePoint50
“A note from Mark Miller: There have been some questions online, and to me through email, requesting detailed information on the selection of the SharePoint50. Debbie Rosen from Global 360 talked with Nick Hayes, President of Influencer50, about what was looked at during the selection process.” Debbie Rosen, Global 360: How did the SharePoint50 become the 50? Since we have published the first SharePoint50 list we have had several people ask us how the list was developed. As I wrote... [Read more]
Define Content Types for Records Management – Part 2
Guest Author: Michal Pisarek In the previous article I talked about a whole range of tips on how to define Content Types. In this article I am going to take us through the Content Types and metadata that we will use in our solution. If you are reading the rest of the series, keep this article somewhere handy because we are going to refer back to it often as we construct our solution. If you are at all confused then please leave a comment and I will get back to you. There is a lot to cover here... [Read more]
SharePoint: Integrate ASP.net controls with Forms – Part 2: Adding a DVWP Form to the page
Guest Author: Matt Bramer http://mattbramer.blogspot.com If this post doesn’t make any sense, please read over the first post in this series. I’m going to keep building on each post and then tying them together at the end. Now that Mark Miller has allowed the cowboy to run wild, let’s jump into setting up this DVWP (Data View Web Part) Edit Form. I always add a Web Part Zone to every custom page that I create. Adding these zones allow you to easily modify the page by clicking... [Read more]
Project Management With SharePoint Task Lists
Guest Author: Mark Gerow Fenwick & West Like many law firms, project management is finding its way into the lexicon of attorneys and staff at Fenwick & West. Driven by clients’ desire for more predictable legal costs, law firms are beginning to look beyond the billable hour to alternative fee arrangements. While AFAs can take many forms, they share one thing in common — they transfer the risk of cost overruns from the client to the firm. The need to better manage the... [Read more]
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