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You need to work out a folder tree before you actually create anything in Sharepoint. Talk to the people who will be using the documents, and organize a structure that helps support the work. You may organize things along technical topic lines, or along project-related lines, or along work division lines like the difference between network support and database design. Try to organize the tree structure in a way that matches the work processes at your company.
Possibly the most important thing you can do is post some kind of TOC or index document that provides links. No matter how hard you try, there will be people who can't understand the way you've organized things. Other people will understand it but they won't use Sharepoint very often so they'll forget where things are located. I put up a spreadsheet at the root level that gives links to each individual document, and links to the different folder levels. Plus, it has various criteria columns that are filtered, so that someone who doesn't know the document title or the folder it's in can sort the spreadsheet entries and zero in on it that way. If you do something like this, you will have to keep this document constantly updated. Set up alarms in Sharepoint so you will know if anyone else adds or renames or moves anything, so you can keep your indexing up to date.
Get it nailed down solidly with your superiors, well in advance, that you are the person who owns the Sharepoint structure and keeping documents in their proper places is not anybody else's business. That may mean you wind up doing a lot of librarian work putting documents into the folders, but you can't afford to have too many people involved. The degree of organization is always inversely proportional to the number of people who are allowed to change things.
There will be some upset no matter what you do. If you move things around, some people will get upset because their bookmarks won't work anymore, or just because they're set in their ways. There will be complaints and grumbles about how you could have done it "better" - which almost always translate as "the way I would have done it."
Sharepoint has a workflow feature that is useful in carrying out reviews of documents. You can use it to send content to various groups for their input, and Sharepoint will track for you who has done the reviews and who hasn't.
From: Nina Rogers <Nina -dot- Rogers -at- DrakeSoftware -dot- com>
Subject: Organizing Sharepoint site?
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 3:29 PM
I have been tasked with organizing our department's Sharepoint site
(since it will mostly be used for document storage and management, and,
as tech writer, I'm all about documents). I'm new to Sharepoint and was
wondering if any of you have experience in the early stages of
organizing such a site-developing libraries, deciding what will go on
the main page and what won't, etc.
I think I have a handle (or at least a hint on one) on how to do the
basic tasks in Sharepoint; I'm floundering, however, on how to start
organizing the site.
I don't have any specific questions to post here because I'm not sure
what to ask yet. I guess I'd just like to hear from others who have been
in this position, and to find out anything you learned the hard way (or
otherwise) that might help me go about this task.
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