Veronique Palmer

10 End-of-Year Things to do on Your SharePoint Sites

With one week left before most people go on leave, chances are most people are working all that hard anymore.  We’re all too tired and ready for a break.  If you don’t really feel like doing your day job, why not do some annual maintenance on your team sites?

1. Go to All Site Content and check what’s dormant.  If something hasn’t been touched in months or years, delete it.  At the same time, check if all the descriptions are in the lists and libraries that are left, and if not, put them in.

2. Check all the Announcements on each site; add a thoughtful Christmas message and your leave dates if you’re the primary site administrator.  Make sure old announcements have expiry dates on them.

3. Check all your how-to’s and user manuals, are they up to date?  Make a list of what to update in January, or do it now if you have the time.

4. Add “last updated” date to the top of each Site Page (for SharePoint 2010 users).  It’s a very handy way to see instantly when content is getting old and needs a review.

5. Check your permissions – are the people that should have access still there, or have a bunch of passer-by’s crept in.

6. Evaluate the navigation – is everything still structured for optimal navigation?  Or could your site do with some streamlining?  Consolidate links and don’t duplicate them.

7. Check that you don’t have any documents checked out to you.  Check them back in unless you’re planning on working on them over the holidays.  Let people know if you are going to do that.

8. Update your My Site profile.  Are all the details still correct?  Add any new skills you acquired.  While you’re at it, go update all your social profiles.

9. Check the List Templates under Site Settings.  If you’ve got a ton of custom lists and libraries that have been saved throughout the year, delete the ones no longer needed.

10. Do a final site stats – extract annual stats to see what the activity has been like.  If the uptake it really good, tell someone.  Well done you.  Make a note of trends and do more of that next year

tasks

12 comments

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    Shutters may also need to be repainted or replaced depending on their condition.

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  3. […] 10 End-of-Year Things to do on Your SharePoint Sites (Views from Veronique)With one week left before most people go on leave, chances are most people are working all that hard anymore.  We’re all too tired and ready for a break.  If you don’t really feel like doing your day job, why not do some annual maintenance on your team sites? […]

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  4. […] 10 End-of-Year Things to do on Your SharePoint Sites (Views from Veronique) With one week left before most people go on leave, chances are most people are working all that hard anymore.  We’re all too tired and ready for a break.  If you don’t really feel like doing your day job, why not do some annual maintenance on your team sites? […]

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  7. That’s really a great way to learn stuff Richard, good on ya! You should hang on to that and make it public sometime. You’re building a great body of knowledge for people just starting out. I think you should start a blog too and document your journey.

    Here’s another blog of mine you might find handy for your body of knowledge in case you haven’t stumbled across it yet :

    https://veroniquepalmer.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/tasks-for-sharepoint-2010-site-collection-administrators/

    I also store all kinds of useful and random sites on Pinterest, you might find something of value in there too :

    Yes Dux is incredible as is Bonnie. They all write such amazing stuff, I wish I could spend a week just reading all the blogs.

    My email address is veronique@letscollaborate.co.za – drop me a line any time. I’m going to mail you too shortly.

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  9. Veronique,
    I’d be glad to share my learning documents with you if you send me an email.
    There’s nothing fancy to my documents, what may be unusual is my intentional creation of the documents themselves:
    1) Learning Log. This now has your “10 things to do at year end” comment from your blog. It also has adding a sub-site with permissions only to that site. An example of a web site service for inventory purposes. Stuff like that.
    2) Unanswered Questions. How do I built a totally public SharePoint website? How do I build a private SharePoint site that has a few public sub-sites (like SharePointMom.com, etc.)
    3) Acronyms. This is something that I began two decades ago. If I had a new job I would write down acronyms for that company and business and learn them quickly. Although I don’t have my first SharePoint job yet, I am writing down all of my acronyms. I answer them when I can. It has 7 pages of acronyms ranging from “Exam 77-886” to “CAML” to “folksonomy management”, well, you get the idea.
    If you send me an email (you have mine, I don’t have yours) I’ll be glad to share them with you. It’s nothing fancy, just my growing body of SharePoint knowledge.
    My goal is to become a PMP with SharePoint certification, and to have fun along the way.

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  11. Hi Richard,

    Welcome to the roly poly SharePoint world! May you find great joy in it. There are tons of wonderful people in the global community that would help you at the drop of a hat. I have a list of go-to bloggers, maybe they would add value to you too :

    http://www.letscollaborate.co.za/SitePages/Bloggers.aspx

    I love your Learning Log idea, very novel. I’d love to see a screenshot of that.

    With regards to your suggestions, they are very valid, however my blog audience is business end users. I don’t write about the back-end or development part of SharePoint at all. Can’t be all things to all people. 🙂 I’d be happy to write about something that affects the front-end any time if I know it.

    Glad my blog is adding value to you, thanks so much for following it.

    ..V..

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  12. Veronique,
    As a SharePoint newbie (getting better every day) I keep track of acronyms, what I’ve learned, and SharePoint questions. One of my logs is named: SharePoint Learning Log. Today I added your post to that log, great points for a rookie.
    Perhaps you would add “verify all backups done properly”. Disaster recovery drill might also be useful. But like I said, I’m new to SharePoint but not new to the world of IT.
    I’m glad I get updates from your blog every day.
    Thanks for your good work.
    Richard

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