| I'm currently too busy with SharePoint to blog about SharePoint. Or update my other extranet site very frequently. Seriously, I'm doing all sorts of things at the moment in SharePoint, but it's all on another side of a firewall from here.
And if you think about it, being too busy working in SharePoint is a really, really good thing.
-BB |
| A launch date for the SharePoint 2010 SDH Employee Intranet Site Collection has been set:
April, 1st, 2012
And no; I was not even involved in the discussion that lead to the decision to introduce a new employee intranet in a large enterprise environment the morning of April Fool's Day. I had nothing to do with the setting of that date. In fact, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the entire SDH organization doesn't start to suspect that it may be a prank.
Below is a screenshot of the expanding SDH SharePoint Tasks list which includes everything involved in the production launch of the SDH site collections and beyond.
This view shows some of the active work at the moment...
(I know you can't see it, so click the pic to enlarge, yo!)
-BB
|
| I like to hit as many birds with a single shot as possible. I say shot because I’ve never been able to kill a bird with a stone. I guarantee you will always have better luck hitting birds with a shot gun that shoots bird shot rather than pitching gravel up in the air. I know what I’m talking about here. I was dove hunting on opening day in North Texas some years ago when the birds were plentiful and flying around everywhere early that morning of September 1st. I remember that morning well, where we first thought we were in for stormy weather as the sun began to rise, with all the dark clouds that were swiftly moving all about. But as the sun began to illuminate the sky at bit more, us hunters began to realize that these were no thunder clouds; they were clouds of flying dove. They were blackening the sky there were so many of them! So I just started shooting. Everywhere. It was the only time I shot two birds with one shell. I bagged my limit in under 5 minutes. At least that’s how I remember it.
How does this relate to SharePoint or St. David’s HealthCare? I have no idea. But I’ll work it in…
I spent the first part of the day creating the framework for the Site Content Manager training site. I built MS Word templates for each of the 13 training modules. These are located in the SharePoint Site Content Manager Training Documents document set in the SharePoint Support & Training site, and they serve multiple purposes. For instance, during Site Content Manager training, the trainee will upload these documents from this location into the training site document library they build and configure during their training lab. But in a support and self-help capacity, these documents serve as a resource for anyone within SDH seeking a resource for the tasks covered in Site Content Manager training. See? That’s at least two birds.
I met with the team as well as the site content owner of the SNAP site to discuss the features I built out for that solution. I used the Bruce Burns Blog to demonstrate what the SDH SNAP blog would look like once the list is populated with entries. I explained I was not finished with the branding, but that their SNAP Blog was ready to go and I could always work in design revisions moving forward. I plan on keeping all SDH blog site design code centralized within a blog.css. A few additional requests for the site were added during the meeting – a “Best Practices” site page, with unique permissions. Through further questioning I was able to determine that a separate Best Practices document library was in order as well, since the page would be used to access PDFs.
It was also requested that the Rotation Calendar form be revised somewhat. There is no need for the All Day Event, Recurrence, or Workspace options to appear on the calendar form. I took a look at the OOTB list content type columns for this form and those three columns are greyed out. I see no immediate way to remove them. I will have do some digging around to see what can be done, but it may be best to create at least one new calendar list content type for SDH.
Tomorrow I plan to focus on screenshots for training modules.
-BB
|
| The good folks I work with at St. David's HealthCare recently asked me to design training for individuals choosen to become content managers of their new site collection I built out for them. Shortly thereafter, I came up with a unique idea for hands-on SharePoint training. (I say it's unique, but I haven't even bother to look to see if anyone else is doing anything similar.)
Here's my idea in a nutshell: Creating a site template which includes all training material needed. For each person being trained, a new site is deployed using this template. The trainee is given Site Content Manager permissions at the site level so they have the ability to do everything at this level within their own training subsite. I previously created a custom Site Content Manager permission level granting anyone with these permissions the ability to build lists, libraries, site pages, etc., sans the ability to manage permissions, created subsites, or mess with SDH branding. This should prevent Site Content Managers from doing any time-consuming to fix damage within a site. Hopefully.
Once completed, I will pilot the template for training within a computer lab training facility to lead the first group to be trained as SDH Site Content Managers. My goal is to ultimately develop this template to where training can ultimately be conducted 100% online through the SharePoint hosted SDH Employee Intranet, built as a subsite of the SharePoint Support & Training site solution in place (I am still working to develop this, as well). I'll see how it goes after pilot class has been conducted. I conduct the first onsite training course using my template.
Just a few of the things I have done with this template today...
Created a site page for every training module - each one of these site pages will have detailed instructions for building out the site with libraries, lists, calendars, etc.. I will also have Word documents of each module. Created a view of the Site Pages library which only shows the training module pages Created a custom web part that shows the training module view created above Placed this new web part in the right sidebar zone on each module's site page - this provides a direct link to each module on each site page used for training
|
| Here's where I am right now:
- I am currently working in Austin for St. David's HealthCare as a SharePoint Developer until at least March 31st, 2012. My contract was originally set to expire December 31st, 2011.
- I spent the first two months of the contract building out the farm, web application, and site collections for all Austin-area St. David's HealthCare medical facilities and market organizations using SharePoint Server 2010 Standard Edition. (I'm trying to talk them into upgrading to the Enterprise license so I can wow them with InfoPath forms and InfoPath Forms Services)
- I have successfully created a comprehensive plan and site-based solution for SharePoint Governance and I am leading the SDH SharePoint Governance Committee in establishing roles, policies, production launch, training, security, etc..
- I am building out a site for the Specialty Nurse Accelerated Program (SNAP). SNAP has requested a location for blogging, and knew SharePoint had this feature built in. I had never done a SharePoint Blog Site before, so I figured I better dive into it. So here we are!
- I am currently putting creating the curriculum for SDH SharePoint Site Content Owner training. I made an outline for that today, and here is what I came up with...
SharePoint Site Content Manager Training Outline
Document Library - Creation Simple and detailed instructions for creating a document library are located on the site’s home/landing page (built into the training site template) Name & Description, Navigation, Document Version History, & Document Template
Document Library – Settings and Configuration Title, description and navigation Versioning settings Advanced settings Create column (Category) Add from existing site columns (Resource Type)
Document Library – Uploading Open with Explorer
Document Library – Views View Name View Audience Column configuration Sort Filter Group By Style Folders Item Limit
Site Assets Library Overview Upload image files
Site Pages Library Overview Create new Site page
Site Page - Design Overview Formatting Text Layout Markup Styles Inserting images Inserting links
Web Parts Overview Insert TrainingDocs list web part Configure TrainingDocs list web part Change to custom list view created above
Custom List Create new Custom List Name & Description Navigation
Custom List – List Settings & Configuration Title, description and navigation Versioning settings Advanced settings Create column Add from existing site columns
Calendar Create new Calendar Name & Description Navigation Group Calendar Options
Calendar – List Settings & Configuration Title, description and navigation Versioning settings Advanced settings
Calendar – Connect to Outlook Configuring views in Outlook to SharePoint Calendars
Did I forget anything? Hopefully this outline covers nearly every basic that any SharePoint Site Content Manager needs to know.
-BB
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Welcome, reader of the Bruce Burns Blog. Bruce is a SharePoint and Communications specialist with years of experience working within various technical, financial, and healthcare organizations in the Austin, Texas area. This blog should mostly be about SharePoint, but who knows? Bruce has never been one that could think inside a box too long. You can expect to gain a few insightful gems of information along the way that may have nothing to do with SharePoint, but they will be vital to your life, nonetheless. While Bruce wrote everything above this sentence in 3rd person, I assure you I never speak that way in person. |
|
|
|
|