essential sharepoint 2007 delivering high-impact collaboration solutions

E
SSENTIAL
S
HARE
P
OINT
®
2007
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E
SSENTIAL
S
HARE
P
OINT
®
2007
D
ELIVERING
H
IGH
-I
MPACT
C
OLLABORATION
Scott Jamison
Mauro Cardarelli
with Susan Hanley
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Jamison, Scott.
Essential SharePoint 2007 : delivering high-impact collaboration solutions
/ Scott Jamison, Mauro Cardarelli, Susan Hanley
p. cm.
ISBN 0-321-42174-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Intranets (Computer networks)
2. Web servers. I. Cardarelli, Mauro. II. Hanley, Susan, 1956- III. Title.
TK5105.875.I6J35 2007
004.6’8—dc22
2007006429
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Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at R. R. Donnelley & Sons in Crawfordsville, IN.
First printing, May 2007
Scott
To my colleagues at Microsoft, who supported me tremendously
during the writing of this book.
Mauro
To my father, Romeo, the man who taught me to work each day as if it
were the one upon which I would be judged.
Susan
To my clients, who have generously shared interesting business challenges that we
were able to solve together using the tools and techniques in this book. And to my
father, who taught me about the importance of client relationships.
C
ONTENTS
Chapter 1 Your Collaboration Strategy: Ensuring Success . . . . . . . . .1
Key Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Business Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Measuring Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Content Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Chapter 2 Office SharePoint Server 2007: High-Impact Collaboration
Across the Extended Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Versions of SharePoint Products and Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Business Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Four Cs: Communication, Collaboration, Consolidation,
and Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
Portal Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Chapter 3 Introduction to the 2007 Office System as a Collaboration
and Solutions Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Microsoft’s Collaboration Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
2007 Microsoft Office System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: What’s New? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Comparing WSS 3.0 to Office SharePoint Server 2007 . . . . . . . . . . .69
SharePoint: The File Share Killer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
SharePoint: Access and Excel Killer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Chapter 4 SharePoint Architecture Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
Functional Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
Sites, Site Collections, Templates, and Shared Services Providers . . . .102
Understanding SharePoint Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
Physical Deployment Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Chapter 5 Planning Your Information Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Site Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Page Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
Metadata Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129
Maintaining Your Information Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
Chapter 6 Planning Your Move from SharePoint 2003 to 2007:
Upgrade or Rebuild? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139
You’re Ready to Deploy MOSS 2007—Now What? . . . . . . . . . . . . .139
Planning Your Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Upgrade and Migration Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

What Plan Is Best for You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Upgrade Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154
Chapter 7 Disaster Recovery Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Backup and Restore Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157
Using the Backup Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
Examining the Backup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
Using the Restore Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Scheduling a SharePoint Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
What’s Not Covered by a SharePoint Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
Contents vii
Chapter 8 Sites, Blogs, and Wikis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181
Getting Started with Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182
Working with Team Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Working with Wikis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Working with Blogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198
Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Creating a Highly Collaborative Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
Chapter 9 Enterprise Content Management: Documents,
Records, and Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
Getting Started with ECM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208
Document Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209
Records Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
Web Content Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245
Chapter 10 Enterprise Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247
Defining What Search Means for Your Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248
How SharePoint Search Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .254

Configuring Content Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257
Crawling Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .268
Improving Relevance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269
Issuing Effective Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .274
Ongoing Search Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .285
Chapter 11 Making Business Processes Work:
Workflow and Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
Getting Started with Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
Workflow Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .289
MOSS 2007: Out-of-the-Box Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291
Creating Custom Workflows: Office SharePoint Designer 2007 . . . . .301
Using Electronic Forms: InfoPath 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309
MOSS 2007 Enterprise: Creating Web Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .325
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .328
viii Contents
Chapter 12 Office 2007: Offline Options for MOSS 2007 . . . . . . . .329
Working Offline with the File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
Working Offline with Outlook 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .336
Working Offline with Groove 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .340
Working Offline with Access 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .348
Chapter 13 Providing Business Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349
Dashboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .350
Scorecards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .352
Excel Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .363
Report Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .375
Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .376
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .377

Appendix A SharePoint User Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379
Tasks That Require WSS 3.0 (at a Minimum) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379
Tasks That Require MOSS 2007 Standard (at a Minimum) . . . . . . . . .380
Tasks That Require MOSS 2007 Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .380
1. Create a New Team Site or Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381
2. Create a List or Document Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .382
3. Apply Security to a Site or Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383
4. Apply Security to a List or Document Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386
5. Create a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389
6. Add Web Parts to a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .391
7. Add Files to a Document Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393
8. Save Files Directly from Office to SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .396
9. Add Metadata to a Document Library for Better Content Tagging .396
10. Recover a Document from the Recycle Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399
11. Build and Contribute to a Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401
12. Build and Contribute to a Wiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402
13. Expose List Data as an RSS Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404
14. Sign in as a Different User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405
15. Enhance a Site’s Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406
16. Work Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408
Contents ix
17. Document Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .409
18. Target Content by Using an Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .412
19. Find Content by Using a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .413
20. Manage “My” Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415
21. Create a List of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) . . . . . . . . . . . .416
22. Make Use of Business Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .418
23. Publish an Excel Workbook for Web-Based Rendering . . . . . . . .422
24. Publish an InfoPath Form for Web-Based Rendering . . . . . . . . . . .423
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .423

*The following Appendix is available for download at
www.awprofessional.com/title/0321421744.
Appendix B OS/Browser/Office Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . .PDF:425
Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PDF:425
Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PDF:425
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PDF:434
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435
x Contents
xi
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I’d like to thank Addison-Wesley for giving me another opportunity
to write a book, with special thanks to Joan Murray, Elizabeth Peterson,
George Nedeff, Sheri Cain, and the rest of the Pearson team for shaping
the book into something great.
I’d also like to acknowledge Mauro Cardarelli for his insightful contri-
butions to this book. His commitment to clients, passion for technology,
and understanding of business needs make him a fantastic consultant and
contributor to a book like this.
Likewise, this book could not have come to fruition without the expert-
ise of Sue Hanley. Her experience and perspective are invaluable to proj-
ects like this; every project team should be lucky enough to have her.
I’d also like to thank our team of early reviewers, including Andy Kawa,
Israel Vega, Arpan Shah, Bob German, Robert Holmes, Shelley Norton,
and Mart Muller. In particular, I’d like to thank Ken Heft for providing the
most insightful feedback I’ve ever seen, and Tom Rizzo for answering
numerous questions, lending his team when needed, and writing the fore-
word for the book.
I’d also like to acknowledge Bob Lincavicks and Jennifer Hefner, who
were instrumental in helping me get up to speed on MOSS 2007. Their

passion shines through every day and is infectious.
Finally, I’d like to extend a special thanks to Joel Oleson for letting us
use his blog posting on file shares versus SharePoint for file storage.
—Scott Jamison
F
OREWORD
Remembering back to the late nineties, I can still recall when we decided
to start building a product code-named Tahoe. For those of you who don’t
keep up on our code names here at Microsoft, Tahoe was the code name
for SharePoint Portal Server 2001. At the time, I was in the Exchange
Server group, which supplied the underlying storage technology to the
Tahoe team. Many folks, including myself, were nervous about how cus-
tomers and partners would accept the new technology, especially since it
provided portal, enterprise search and document management functional-
ity of which two of the three were completely new categories offered in
Microsoft software.
Fast forward to 2007, and we’ve just released the latest version of
SharePoint: Office SharePoint Server 2007. Three years of development
went into this release. We’ve added three new categories to the product:
enterprise content management, e-forms and workflow, and business intel-
ligence. The product has sold over 85 million licenses in the past 6 years,
making it one of the fastest-growing server products in Microsoft’s history;
tens of thousands of companies depend on SharePoint technologies every
day to achieve business goals. Much of the success of SharePoint has to be
attributed to the early adopters who saw the vision we were painting in the
2001 release and volunteered to help shape and mold that vision and the
product over time.
One of those early adopters is Scott Jamison. I first met Scott ten years
ago when he was doing consulting work and I was on the Exchange Server
team. Scott was a pro at developing Microsoft Office applications that con-

nected to the new set of server technologies Microsoft was introducing.
Scott believed in the collaboration vision in which Microsoft was investing,
and he saw the potential offered by that vision to help his customers
increase their business productivity. In fact, Scott worked with the original
WSS (which back then was the Web Storage System) which was the under-
lying platform technology for SharePoint Portal Server 2001.
xii
Any reader of this book will benefit from the history, teachings, and
best practices that Scott has internalized over his many years working with
Microsoft technologies. Scott has also tapped the experienced minds of
Mauro Cardarelli and Susan Hanley, both are industry experts who work
with customers every day to solve business issues through software. This
book will become a mainstay in your SharePoint library. You will find your-
self reaching for it whenever you run into a difficult situation or need extra
guidance on how to use the new SharePoint product set. As I was reading
this book, I was happy to see the breadth of coverage of the new function-
ality in SharePoint without sacrificing depth and expertise.
When you are done reading this book, you will have a better under-
standing of SharePoint and how it can help you achieve new levels of per-
sonal and business productivity. I guarantee that you will have earmarked
many pages where you learned new skills or ideas that sparked your inter-
est for follow-up. Enjoy the book, and enjoy the product. Both are labors
of love.
Tom Rizzo
Director, SharePoint Product Management
Redmond, Washington
March 2007
Foreword xiii
xiv
A

BOUT THE
A
UTHORS
Scott Jamison is a world-renowned expert on collaboration and informa-
tion worker technologies, with over 15 years of experience helping cus-
tomers solve business problems through technology solutions, most
recently at Microsoft as an architect. Scott has held numerous leadership
positions at various companies, including Dell, Microsoft, and a number of
smaller companies. Scott has worked with Microsoft teams on local,
regional, and national levels for years, recently participating as an architect
on the Office 2007 developer advisory council, helping design features for
Office SharePoint Server 2007. Scott is a recognized thought leader and
published author with several books, dozens of magazine articles, and reg-
ular speaking engagements at events around the globe. Scott received a
masters in computer science from Boston University.
Mauro Cardarelli is a recognized technology expert in Knowledge
Management and Business Intelligence-based solutions. He has over 18
years of experience in the IT industry, half of which have been spent work-
ing as a Microsoft-focused technology consultant. He has worked with a
number of Fortune 500 companies, and his solutions have been mentioned
in multiple Microsoft case studies. In 2006, he founded Jornata
(www.jornata.com), a business and technology services provider that helps
companies achieve exceptional performance through the effective use of
Microsoft technologies. His primary responsibilities at Jornata include
application architecture and development as well as client-focused
technology evangelism. Mauro is a frequent speaker and author on
Microsoft-related technologies. He received a bachelor of science degree
in electrical engineering from Tufts University.
Susan Hanley is an independent consultant and president of her own
firm, Susan Hanley LLC (www.susanhanley.com), where she specializes

in the design and development of portal solutions and knowledge manage-
ment consulting. Sue has more than 25 years of experience as a technolo-
gy consultant, holding leadership positions at Dell, Plural, and American
Management Systems, Inc. (AMS). Sue served as a member of
Microsoft’s Partner Advisory Council for Portals and Collaboration for
more than four years. She is a frequent writer and speaker on the topic of
building communities of practice and measuring the value of knowledge
management. In September 1997, she was recognized by Consultants
News as one of the key “knowledge leaders” at major consulting firms. Sue
has given top-rated presentations at many conferences in the United States
and Europe. Her byline articles have appeared in Knowledge
Management Review, Management Consultant International, DM Review,
Information Week, and The Cutter IT Journal. Sue is also a featured
author in several books on knowledge management. Sue has an MBA
from the University of Maryland at College Park and a BA in psychology
from Johns Hopkins University.
About the Authors xv
xvi
P
REFACE
Collaboration. Portals. Knowledge Management. Search. Document
Management. These are terms that are thrown around when talking about
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS). But what do they real-
ly mean?
Most books are designed to address the “how” behind SharePoint,
from either an administrative perspective or a programming perspective.
This book complements the typical SharePoint book with some of the
“what” and “why” of MOSS, provides insight into targeting needs with por-
tal and collaboration technologies, and helps you understand how those
needs might be addressed using MOSS.

What Is This Book About?
The Information Worker is central to Microsoft’s strategy to bring produc-
tive computing to the enterprise and beyond. Navigating the various client
and server products can be confusing and daunting. This book will help
you navigate these waters, providing direction and understanding.
Specifically, this is a book about Microsoft’s SharePoint platform, with a
particular focus on three commonly requested topics: end-user features,
proper collaboration strategy, and a business-focused discussion on how to
apply SharePoint’s key features. This book was written because collabora-
tion, knowledge and content management, and Web accessibility are three
of the most sought-after features in a corporate software solution. The key
product that is the basis for most Microsoft-based solutions in this area is
Office SharePoint Server. Because of this functionality, SharePoint is per-
haps one of the most important server products that runs on Windows
Server. If you want to deploy SharePoint in your enterprise or upgrade from
previous versions, or if you need a concise introduction to collaboration
solutions with SharePoint, you’re starting in the right place. This book pro-
vides a great user-level guide to Microsoft’s latest version of SharePoint,
along with usage strategies and some insight into the technologies involved.
This book is intended to be a tutorial as well as a handy reference.
This book does not cover methodology or process, nor does it provide
a one-size-fits-all approach to building applications. A central thrust of this
book is a handy introduction to the feature set, deployment, and cus-
tomization approaches that are available for SharePoint. But we also get
into the why of using SharePoint—what is the business need, and does it
get addressed? Because SharePoint supports a number of approaches and
techniques, you’ll want to get familiar with the choices (for example, “Do
I go with a teamsite, a blog, or a wiki?”) before choosing an approach that
fits your specific needs. This book helps you do just that.
What You Will Learn from This Book

To implement a collaborative system effectively, you’ll likely need to con-
sider a number of key questions:
■ Do I need a portal or collaboration strategy? If so, how do I create
one?
■ How do users perform the top activities that they’ll need to do?
■ What do I need to consider when I upgrade from previous versions
of SharePoint?
■ Where are documents stored currently? Where should documents
live?
■ How do users collaborate today?
■ What kind of hardware do I need? How do I deploy the product
properly?
■ How does the Web fit into my collaboration needs? What about
Office and smart client applications? How about Groove, InfoPath,
and Access?
■ Will I share information outside of my organization? Should I?
Who Should Read This Book
If you’re a developer, you probably already own a SharePoint programming
book or MOSS API guide (or are looking for one). This is not a book about
SharePoint programming. However, developers will find this book useful
when building solutions (in conjunction with an API guide) because there
are important business considerations that are critically important to every
MOSS-based solution.
Who Should Read This Book xvii
If you’re a project manager, consultant, or business analyst, you’ll find
that this book helps with all of the intangibles of a MOSS rollout. For
example, “What roles should exist to support MOSS?” or “What should my
offline/search/business data strategy be for MOSS?” This book also intro-
duces you to some key technical concepts and provides simple walk-
throughs of the key features that many businesses need to leverage.

How This Book Is Organized
This book is organized into four key sections:
■ The first section, chapters 1 and 2, helps you determine what kinds
of business needs are addressed by portals, collaboration solutions,
and knowledge management systems and how you should think
about SharePoint-based solutions within your organization.
■ The second section, chapters 3 and 4, is a great introduction to the
MOSS feature set and architecture.
■ The third section, chapters 5–7, helps you evaluate and plan your
information architecture, upgrade strategy, and disaster discovery
needs.
■ The forth section, chapters 8–13, provides great information on spe-
cific MOSS feature sets along with guidance, recommendations, and
examples.
Appendix A provides a list of the top SharePoint user tasks, while Appendix
B is available for download at www.awprofessional.com/title/0321421744
and provides a summary of how SharePoint behaves with various operat-
ing systems, browsers, and Office versions.
Key Points
At each chapter’s conclusion is a section called Key Points, which summa-
rizes the key facts, best practices, and other items that were covered in the
chapter.
Thank You
Thank you for reading this book. Our goal was to write the most concise
yet useful business-centric guide to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007. Enjoy!
xviii Preface
1
CHAPTER 1
Y

OUR
C
OLLABORATION
S
TRATEGY
:
E
NSURING
S
UCCESS
You’ve decided to make an investment in Microsoft Office SharePoint
Server (MOSS) 2007. Congratulations—you have a powerful software plat-
form in your hands, capable of delivering high-impact collaboration solu-
tions. Now how do you make it work optimally? MOSS is simple to set up
and use but difficult to get right, mainly due to its sheer power.
If you’re a developer, you probably already own a SharePoint pro-
gramming book or MOSS API guide (or are looking for one). This is not a
book about SharePoint programming. However, this book is the ideal com-
panion to your development guide. It will give you some of the “why” of
MOSS and help you understand your organization’s business needs and
how they might be addressed using MOSS. Developers will find this book
useful when building solutions (in conjunction with an API guide) because
there are important business considerations that are critically important to
every MOSS-based solution.
If you’re a project manager, consultant, or business analyst, you’ll find
that this book helps with all the intangibles of a MOSS rollout. For exam-
ple, “What roles should exist to support MOSS?” or “What should my
offline/search/business data strategy be for MOSS?” This book also intro-
duces you to some key technical concepts and provides simple walk-
throughs of the key features that many businesses need to leverage.

Specifically, this chapter provides a critical foundation for your MOSS-
based solution and lays the groundwork for the rest of the book. It includes
a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of the Office SharePoint
Server 2007 architecture; a discussion of strategies for moving from the
current version of SharePoint Portal Server (2003) to the new 2007 ver-
sion; a review of information architecture best practices; and explanations
of how to optimally leverage MOSS’s collaboration, offline, search, busi-
ness process, content management, and business intelligence features.
This book also includes an appendix for end users describing how to exe-
cute the top 20 end-user tasks in MOSS.
So put away Visual Studio and Office SharePoint Designer for a
moment. Take a breath and a step back. Start thinking about why your
organization needs MOSS and how you know you’ll be successful after
your solution is deployed. Software is expensive to purchase and integrate.
If you want to build a successful solution, you need a carefully defined
plan. A MOSS solution, especially one that serves as your corporate
intranet, is implemented to provide the single interface that integrates all
enterprise information and applications.
MOSS provides a convenient and often personalized way for your
entire organization to find the information and tools each individual needs
to be more productive. However, the use of the MOSS solution cannot
often not be mandated in the same way that the use of a new accounting or
payroll system can be mandated to process an invoice or generate pay-
checks. MOSS users usually have other options for accomplishing the tasks
MOSS enables. For example, MOSS may provide a convenient summary of
financial information about a project that might also be available by looking
at existing reports generated by the financial system. The MOSS solution
may be more convenient and efficient but not necessarily required to sur-
face the project financial information. The MOSS solution may also include
“subportals” or online collaborative team spaces where users can efficiently

share documents to minimize email traffic and ensure that everyone on the
team always has the latest version. But users might still e-mail documents
back and forth to collaborate, resulting in an unorganized collection of doc-
uments and correspondence that is not reusable by other team members.
These are some of the many reasons why it is so critically important to have
a clearly articulated business strategy for your new MOSS portal or collab-
oration solution. Practical experience indicates that technology has only a
small impact on the success of MOSS solutions; organizational and political
(process and people) strategies have a much greater impact. As a result, a
comprehensive MOSS strategy is vital for success.
You should consider several key elements in your MOSS strategy:
■ Who are the key stakeholders? This might include the CIO, a
knowledge officer, or key business leaders in areas such as corporate
communications, marketing, and human resources, among others.
■ What are the critical business objectives for the key stake-
holders? In other words, what keeps these executives awake at
night? How can the MOSS solution address these key business
objectives?
2
Chapter 1 Your Collaboration Strategy:
Ensuring Success
■ How will the organization as a whole measure the business
success of the MOSS initiative (or initiatives)? In other words,
which key business goals does the MOSS solution address?
Remember, successful portals do not just need to be free of software
defects. Successful portals must be designed to have an impact on
key business objectives, or the challenges of ensuring user adoption
cannot be overcome. A successful MOSS solution may also include
more than one departmental portal that may be consolidated (or
not) as an enterprise portal. It may not always be appropriate to

have a single portal project, but all portal projects need to be meas-
ured by business success.
■ What governance processes need to be in place to ensure that
all of the MOSS users are aware of and accept their roles and
responsibilities with regard to the MOSS solution? The gover-
nance model for MOSS solutions should include a statement of the
vision, guiding principles, policies, roles and responsibilities, and
procedures for using MOSS in the given environment.
■ How do you plan for both the design and ongoing mainte-
nance of the content in MOSS? Accurate and relevant content is
the foundation of a MOSS solution. A good strategy needs to
include a plan to ensure that content remains relevant over time.
■ What type of rollout strategy should you pursue? What types
of communications and training do you need to provide for
users? A rollout strategy needs to prepare both users and content
for the new MOSS solution. It also needs to include a communica-
tions plan to make sure that users are aware of and, ideally, eagerly
anticipating the business value of the new MOSS solution. In addi-
tion, the strategy needs to include a plan for launching the new solu-
tion and training users. Training needs to be specifically targeted to
each stakeholder or user community to ensure that users are opti-
mally prepared to leverage the new solution.
Key Stakeholders
In many organizations, the Information Technology (IT) group is separat-
ed both physically and emotionally from the organizations they are
designed to serve. Given that the success of MOSS solutions is critically
dependent on business user adoption, it is imperative that business stake-
holders take an active role in portal design and governance planning. One
Key Stakeholders 3
way to ensure that your MOSS project will fail is to have IT build the solu-

tion without engaging a broad spectrum of potential users. Early portal and
collaboration projects were primarily driven by IT organizations, and many
of these early initiatives failed to gain acceptance by users because they
were essentially IT projects. Today, more and more portal and collabora-
tion projects are driven (and funded) by business users. Many intranet
projects are sponsored by the corporate department responsible for inter-
nal communications. One or more business units may fund and drive an
external or customer portal initiative. As a result, it is critically important
for IT to work with the sponsoring business unit as well as all key stake-
holders to ensure that the inevitable trade-offs that will be made during
the MOSS design and development are made in favor of the business
stakeholders as often as possible. MOSS provides an important opportuni-
ty for IT and business owners to collaborate. IT managers who fail to take
advantage of this opportunity put their projects and potentially their
careers at risk.
Who should your key stakeholders include? Clearly, the executive for
the sponsoring organization is an important key stakeholder. This individ-
ual will likely be your project sponsor. For intranet portals, this is often the
Director of Marketing or Internal Communications. For extranet portals,
this may be a key executive in an operational business unit. Your stake-
holders should also include representatives from your major organization-
al units, both internal and customer-facing. When you look to identify
stakeholders, recognize that there are different types of stakeholders, all of
whom should be included in the development of your strategy and ongo-
ing governance model. Many of these stakeholders will also be included in
your requirements definition process. Business executives should be
included in the stakeholder community to provide overall direction and
validate that the MOSS deployment is critical to achieving business objec-
tives. IT managers should be included to ensure that the solution meets IT
standards for operations and development. Content providers (internal

departments such as Human Resources, Finance and Accounting, Legal,
and so on) should be included because the portal will become a critical
communications vehicle with the rest of the enterprise. End users (“rank
and file”) should be included to ensure that the MOSS solution rollout
addresses more than just executive objectives and concerns. Remember
that while the executive sponsor may have the “grand vision” for the solu-
tion, the solution end users are critical to the ultimate success. End users
need the solution to be easy to use in the context of their work and need
4
Chapter 1 Your Collaboration Strategy:
Ensuring Success
to be able to see what’s in it for them. For example, the key stakeholders
for a portal project to support a university should include administrators,
faculty, and students. In addition, if the portal is externally facing, the “cus-
tomer” community might be represented by examining the perspective of
an applicant to the university.
Once you’ve identified your key stakeholders, it’s important to engage
them in the process of defining business objectives for the MOSS rollout.
Take Action
Getting buy-in from key stakeholders is important in a MOSS rollout. Be sure to
do the following in your planning process.
■ Be inclusive rather than exclusive as you identify key stakeholders. It’s
important to gather as much business user support for your solution as
possible.
■ Be sure to include “end users” in your key stakeholders. At the end
of the day, these are the people who will help make your solution
successful.
■ In addition to traditional department or business executives, try to
include employees who may not have the title but who are influential
in the business. These people tend to have broad networks across the

enterprise and can help drive your success because they are trusted
by others.
Business Objectives
In successful MOSS implementations, IT and business owners carefully
frame the MOSS project with clearly defined business goals and objectives
that are used to guide the decisions that need to be made during the solu-
tion design and ongoing operations. More often than not, the key issues
influencing the success of a MOSS solution are organizational and politi-
cal. Technical issues rarely derail a MOSS project. As a result, it’s particu-
larly important to document why you are building the MOSS solution
in the first place and to ensure that all key stakeholders agree on the
objectives.
The first business objectives that should be considered as part of your
MOSS strategy are the overall business objectives for your organization,
such as improving profit margins, increasing revenues, cutting costs,
Business Objectives 5
improving customer or partner relationships, and so on. Your goal should
be to tie the specific objectives for the MOSS rollout to one or more strate-
gic objectives of the corporation. Doing so enables you to ensure that your
MOSS project stays front and center in the organizational agenda and min-
imizes the risk of becoming “number 11” on the organizational Top 10 pri-
ority list. In other words, you want to avoid becoming the project that gets
done “in our spare time,” pretty much ensuring that the MOSS project is
not a career-making experience for the people working on it.
In addition to these organization-specific business objectives, another
set of common business drivers cause companies to implement MOSS.
Some or all of the following business objectives will probably resonate for
your organization. If you can tie these specific objectives to your overall
enterprise strategic objectives, you will be in even better shape to ensure
that the right amount of attention and focus are directed to your

project.
■ Provide easier and timelier access to the information employees
need to get their work done
■ Provide easier and more effective mechanisms to move work
between business entities, such as self-service for customers or part-
ners, enabling outsourcing by providing business partners with
access to a collaboration environment or business data on an
extranet
■ Provide an organized “one-stop shop” for information by making it
easier to find authoritative information
■ Improve the ability to share and exchange information across the
organization by providing an electronic publishing method that is
easy for users to leverage
■ Improve the “time to talent,” the speed with which new employees
become productive
■ Maximize the reuse of best practices across the enterprise, enabling
the organization to replicate successful business practices in all
geographies
■ Reduce training costs for enterprise applications by providing a con-
sistent user interface to all applications
■ Improve time to market for proposals and contracts by providing
easier access to reusable assets
■ Improve organizational learning by providing easier access to criti-
cal information and organizational memory
6
Chapter 1 Your Collaboration Strategy:
Ensuring Success