SharePoint Roles and Responsibilities

 

In any SharePoint implementation, identifying and defining the roles and responsibilities is the one thing that can make the biggest difference for a SharePoint service’s success and stability. I like to establish roles and responsibilities as one of the first tasks on a SharePoint project; its absence is a common thread for any challenged project I have come across, which usually involved skipping or skimping on this step.

The following describes the key stakeholders involved in a typical SharePoint deployment. After the stakeholder section, I share my standard roles and responsibilities template that I use as a baseline to organize a SharePoint operations team, as well as any teams it depends on.

Key SharePoint Stakeholders

Key SharePoint stakeholders exist in five groups that play distinct roles and have distinct responsibilities or needs. Those groups are the executive sponsors and leadership teams, operations and maintenance teams, frontline support teams, development and customization teams, and end-users.

The following list describes the focus for each stakeholder group:

• Executive Sponsors and Leadership Teams: This group drives SharePoint adoption by setting the organization’s priorities. They also seek to identify new opportunities that SharePoint can address and add value to the organization.
• Operations and Maintenance Teams: This group provides operational support and routine maintenance of the system by performing backups, usage monitoring and analysis, scheduled tasks, and keeping the system current with security releases and system upgrades.
• Frontline Support Teams: This group provides an effective support system with proper channels of escalation for SharePoint end-users. They handle application questions, requests, and other problems requiring issue resolution.
• Development and Customization Teams: This group develops solutions to customize and extend SharePoint in a manner that fulfils business opportunities, as prioritized by the executive sponsors and leadership group.
• End-Users: This group derives business value from adoption and usage of the SharePoint service and the group consists of all members of the organization who interact with SharePoint in some form.

Roles and Responsibilities

The following table lists the standard roles and a description of their responsibilities that I use to guide and define the operational roles and responsibilities for a SharePoint service.

Roles	Description of Responsibilities and Tasks
SharePoint Service Manager/Lead	Manage business expectations Capture business requirements Chair the SharePoint Service Strategy Committee
SharePoint Service Strategy Committee	Centrally govern the approach to the SharePoint service and its future directions
SharePoint Lead Architects	Translate requirements from the Strategy and Steering Committee into SharePoint solutions Design the SharePoint architecture Design custom solution architectures Provide architectural guidance to development teams Manages project risks, and escalate incidents to the team as necessary Develop and promote best practices for usage, operations, and development Approve custom developed and third-party solution packages Participate in SharePoint Service Strategy Committee Meetings
SharePoint Administrators	Configure SharePoint settings Disseminate general SharePoint information Manage file size limits and site quotas Manage usage confirmation settings Review and monitor usage reports Approve and activate custom developed and third-party solution packages Review and monitor System Center performance levels Monitor the size of content databases and create new databases as required Participate in SharePoint Service Strategy Committee Meetings
Search Administrators	Review and monitor search reports Maintain indexing schedules Maintain content source list Manage best bet results and keywords Participate in SharePoint Service Strategy Committee Meetings
Site Administrators	Provision sub-sites Administer and maintain site Manage security for site Manage site layout (look and feel), structure, and content Manage site recycling bin Provide first point-of-contact for end-user issues
SharePoint Developers	Build custom SharePoint web parts Build web applications based on ASP.NET technologies Participate in SharePoint Service Strategy Committee Meetings
SharePoint Web Designers	Customize and brand the SharePoint look and feel Modify and design SharePoint templates and master pages Participate in SharePoint Service Strategy Committee Meetings
Business and Technical Analysts	Communicate with the business to gather business problems and translate them into solution concepts/requirements Participate in SharePoint Service Strategy Committee Meetings
Windows Administrators	Manage the Windows Server operating system Manage system security Patch and upgrade the system Install SharePoint and SharePoint patches Deploy custom developed and third-party SharePoint solution packages Change service account passwords
SQL Administrators	Backup and restore databases Tune database index
Backup Resources	Manage backup schedules Manages backup reporting and alerts
Infrastructure Resources	Acquire, install, and maintain the hardware or virtual infrastructure Provision and maintain physical or virtual servers
Network Resources	Support network Engineer network
Active Directory (AD) Resources	Ensure appropriate leveraging of Active Directory Provide service accounts Assist with setting up the SharePoint authentication provider to use AD Assist in User Profile Service synchronization
Legal Resources	Assist with compliance policy creation and maintenance Audit and enforce compliance Review and guide portal content for legal compliance Participate in SharePoint Service Strategy Committee Meetings
Marketing Resources	Contribute organizational branding
Corporate Communications	Contribute communication strategy Collaborate with SharePoint Service Manager on communication strategy