Apr 18

SharePoint Project Governance Lessons; Office 15 Cloud & Web Code Hints; Windows Phone Upgrade Confusion

By Chris DooleyNo Comments

SharePoint Daily LogoJust a few more days until I head home to Atlanta and the Share Conference 2012.  :-)  -  Dooley

Top News Stories
Evolution of SharePoint Project Governance: Lessons Learned (CMSWire)
Organizations have been talking about “effective governance” for years in relation to large-scale systems, but the emergence of governance in the SharePoint world is relatively recent and still fairly immature. What SharePoint Governance Used to Mean: When SharePoint was in its infancy, SharePoint projects were often driven by the information technology (IT) department and treated as desktop applications instead of as enterprise class software.

The End of Great Mobile (AIIM)
Remember the 90’s? Remember when the web was an awful user experience compared to just about the only thing the web ran on, i.e. a fully capable computer. Whether it was your desktop or your laptop, you pulled up those anemic, mostly static webpages next to relatively lively and actionable fat-client applications. The novelty of the web was pervasive, but the experience was lacking. Maybe that was part of what fueled the bubble and caused it to pop. Now I fear that we may be heading for a bubble of crap apps.

Microsoft Dropping More Office 15 Cloud and Web Code Hints (CMSWire)
Microsoft continues to leak information on what new features will ship with next year’s major Office release, the latest being more cloud support and web-type extensions. All Things Web: Keeping information out of the public domain is really, really, hard for Microsoft, not surprising when it has so many partners and such a vast product range. When the company is not casually name dropping the official titles of its next operating systems, or passing on interesting snippets about SharePoint release dates to partners, it has managed to drop some interesting news about the next version of Office.

How Far Can You Shift the Shape of Cloud Software? (The Register)
Deep in the bowels of the EU academics, businesspeople and bureaucrats are putting the finishing touches to a set of specifications that could change the way we handle software as a service (SaaS). The €1.08m CAST project, funded by an EC program called Eurostars, was created to develop a framework for making cloud-hosted software customisable. The academic and commercial partners behind the programme are tackling a problem that is becoming increasingly important for companies toying with the idea of SaaS: how much can you tweak it?

No Windows Phone 8 Upgrade for Current Handsets Tip Insiders (SlashGear)
None of the currently available Windows Phone devices – including Nokia’s new Lumia 900 flagship – will get an upgrade to Windows Phone 8 “Apollo” insiders have warned, the next tough-to-swallow hurdle for Microsoft’s platform. Despite comments earlier by one Microsoft evangelist suggesting all Windows Phone 7 devices would get an upgrade to the incoming major refresh of the mobile OS, other sources say that’s definitely not the case.

If Microsoft is Patient, It Can Win (InfoWorld)
I don’t live in a bubble. Daily, I go to a variety of periodicals to fill me in on the facts and opinions floating around the stratosphere. This week, I read Serdar Yegulalp’s post in the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog entitled “How Microsoft’s ‘silent majority’ hurts Windows,” which brought up serious concerns users have been expressing about UI changes in Windows 8 and Office 15. It highlights the term “user telemetry” and explains that many changes are based on data coming in from users’ actual behavior in Microsoft software, such as when search is used or which menus are accessed and in what order. Some people believe the term serves as a buzzphrase to give Microsoft carte blanche to do whatever it likes with the UI, regardless of users’ complaints.

 

Around the Blogosphere
SharePoint 2013 App Marketplace – The Smoking Gun (Furuknap’s SharePoint Corner)
You probably know that Microsoft released literally thousands of pages of documentation on SharePoint 15 (or SharePoint 2013, as I believe it will be called). Most comprehensive is the less intelligible open specification documentation, although that’s also where the good bits are. You probably also know that I’m highly focused on learning what’s new on any new SharePoint version and that I write a USP Journal series that details this research and the findings. In the first issue, now freely available to members of the USP Journal mailing list, I wrote about the new App store.

SharePoint Replication – The Right Way to Save Time, Money and Possibly Lives (ITPro)
Picture this: you’re sitting in your office, attempting to close a big deal with a potential client when the power goes out, the phone is dead and you’ve completely lost contact. There goes that deal, and it could have been your big break! But the reality is that you are not the only one in the building who had a potential client on the phone – everyone else in that office just lost contact as well. In that second, everyone has become disconnected with time and money lost in the balance.

SharePoint Multilingual Sites – Determine Top 10 Languages to Deploy (SharePoint Joel’s SharePoint Land)
Where do I start? The users demand support for multi lingual. First step I see is to start supporting the language packs… but which ones? You need to figure it out. You may not be best served by simply installing all of them. What would happen if MS decided to stop supporting one of them? I’ve found a few places that make me sound smart when I recommend languages to support… It doesn’t have to be a guessing game. 1) Active Directory mailbox language info 2) Language Usage Report on the Intranet 3) Looking at Top languages of the Internet world (Useful for Internet Sites).

V5 Master Search Center (Matthew McDermott’s Blog)
I am really enjoying learning about Responsive Web Design and happily applying this to my current client. There is a whole bunch of information available all over the web. Companies like Template Monster have begun to roll out some beautiful examples of templates focused on the concept. (They have some other cool free HTML5 designs too, they are not responsive though.) In doing my research I found Kyle Schaeffer’s site and his V5 Responsive Master. I like the clean look, and as a starting page, it provides a good start. As a “search guy” the problem I find with most (if not all) Master Pages provided on the Web is that none that I have found address the Search Center. The authors stop short of a “complete branding solution” by simply rendering a home page and a few publishing pages. (Many I have found will not even render the other default publishing pages like Press Releases.) I don’t mean to be critical of Kyle’s work, I think he did a great job, I mean to call attention to the failure of designers in general who ignore (or just don’t know SharePoint well enough to pay attention to) the Search Center.

Using Microsoft Project as a Dynamic Tool (The Bottom-Line PM)
Now that Microsoft Project seems less terrifying and more approachable, in concept at least, there’s another stumbling block. When I consider the word “project,” the first thing that springs to mind is a middle-school science project, all spiffy for the science fair. The project is the finished product. And to an extent, taken in the context of business, it’s the same kind of thing: a successful project is your desired end-point. So then you have this tool named Project. And I tend to tie my associations with “end product, final results” to that tool. My first impulse is to reduce Project, in my mind, to a presentation tool.

 

SharePoint Job Listings*
Senior [SharePoint] Program Manager – Bellevue, WA
The HR Development and Collaboration Tools team is looking for a talented program manager to help define and deliver complex projects and provide product support. You will be a member of a team to develop and maintain systems that provide business-critical support to internal departments (Human Resources and Collaboration Tools). You will have an opportunity to work and make an impact in a fast-paced multi-platform environment as part of a team of developers, program and project managers, and testers. Passion for technology is critical to your success, and at Expedia we look for people who are excited about applying that passion to address complex business issues.

SharePoint System Applications Administration 3 – RTP, NC
Responsible for ensuring the performance and reliability of ERP systems. Performs troubleshooting for hardware, software and system problems that involve ERP modules. Participates in projects to implement or enhance ERP systems and applications. Works with database administrator and ERP development team in defining user requirements, coordinating system-wide updates and installing upgrades and patches for ERP systems. Provides recommendations for enhancements/changes that may involve custom design, optional and third party products to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ERP systems. Maintains ERP systems security through user profile management, creates and updates access permissions and maintains user accounts. Monitors and maintains performance metrics for system features, recommends and takes corrective/preventive actions. Participates in the design, development and implementation of test and production objects. Performs configuration, change management and testing activities as required. Consults users on technology changes that will impact work processes.

 

Microsoft Updates
Importing SharePoint 2010 Site Definitions in Visual Studio 2010 (MSDN)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 provides a project type that enables you to import a site definition and add code. You can then deploy this site definition to the SharePoint Solutions Gallery and create new sites based on the site definition

 

SharePoint Events*

 

SharePoint Training*

* Please contact Chris Dooley (chris.dooley@bamboosolutions.com) to be included in SharePoint Daily™.

 

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