5060a 01

MCT USE ONLY. STUDENT USE PROHIBITEDEXPIRES 2/22/2007

Module 01: Introduction to the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Platform

Table of Contents Module Overview 1

Lesson 1: Overview of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 3

Common Collaboration Challenges 4 Discussion: Common Solutions for Addressing

Collaboration Challenges 6 Reasons for Solution Failure 8 Business Needs That WSS Addresses 10

Lesson 2: Collaboration Technologies Provided by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 12

WSS Technologies That Support Document Storage and Management 13

Demonstration: Exploring Document Storage and Management 15

WSS Technologies That Support Collaboration 17 Demonstration: Exploring Collaboration 19 WSS Technologies That Support Information

Management and Communication 21 Demonstration: Exploring Information Management

and Communication 23 Lab: Identifying How WSS Helps Address Collaboration

Challenges 25 Exercise 1: Identifying the Collaboration Challenges

in Your Organization 26 Exercise 2: Identifying the Windows SharePoint

Services 3.0 Features That Help Address Collaboration Challenges 27


Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious, and no association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation.

The names of manufacturers, products, or URLs are provided for informational purposes only and Microsoft makes no representations and warranties, either expressed, implied, or statutory, regarding these manufacturers or the use of the products with any Microsoft technologies. The inclusion of a manufacturer or product does not imply endorsement of Microsoft of the manufacturer or product. Links are provided to third party sites. Such sites are not under the control of Microsoft and Microsoft is not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. Microsoft is not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any linked site. Microsoft is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement of Microsoft of the site or the products contained therein.

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, Access, Active Directory, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Visual SourceSafe, Windows, and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Version 1.1


Module 01: Introduction to the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Platform 1

Module Overview

Windows® SharePoint® Services (WSS) 3.0 is a set of components and services that is included in Windows Vista™ Server. WSS 3.0 can also be downloaded and installed on Windows Server 2003. WSS 2.0 is available for free download and is also shipped with Windows Server 2003 R2.

You can use WSS 3.0 to create and manage enterprise-wide Web sites and documents. You can also integrate WSS 3.0 with Microsoft® Office desktop applications such as Word, Excel®, PowerPoint®, and Access®. Therefore, you can use WSS 3.0 to work across applications seamlessly. WSS 3.0 is also a development platform that extends itself to ASP.NET and provides features such as Web parts, custom lists, document libraries, content types, custom workflows, and site definitions. These capabilities of WSS 3.0 help you to share and exchange resources.

In this module, you will learn how the WSS 3.0 platform helps address collaboration challenges.


2 Module 01: Introduction to the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Platform

Objectives After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Describe the role of WSS 3.0 in addressing various business needs. • Describe the collaboration technologies that are provided by WSS 3.0.



Lesson 1: Overview of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

For most organizations, collaboration is a challenge. Organizations often adopt ad hoc solutions to address this challenge. However, these solutions often fail because they are either not implemented properly or completely. At the end of this lesson, you will have a better understanding of organizational collaboration challenges and how WSS can help solve them.

Objectives After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify common collaboration challenges that organizations face. • Identify common solutions to address workplace collaboration challenges. • Identify why some solutions fail to address collaboration challenges. • Explain the various business needs that WSS addresses.



Common Collaboration Challenges

With organizations spread across the world, there is an enormous need for interaction between employees, business partners, and customers. Employees need to share information and data; discuss appointments or event information; brainstorm and discuss ideas about a project; and add, assign, or track project-related activities. However, the conventional methods of data storage, communication, and information exchange pose several collaboration challenges.

Collaboration challenges Some of the collaboration challenges that an organization can encounter are:

• Sharing data. The conventional method to share data is by using shared folders. The two common problems in this method are: • Locating data from shared folders. Over time, as the folder structure grows, it

becomes increasingly difficult to locate the desired data.

• Securing data in the shared folders. Different folders within a shared folder may require different permissions. The folder structure may make it difficult to select multiple folders at one time and apply permissions.



• Collaborating through e-mail. Many organizations use e-mail to communicate and exchange documents. Over time, the e-mail thread becomes bulky and unmanageable. In addition, collaborating through e-mail is not secure.

• Losing corporate knowledge. When information is not secured properly, the possibility of employees carrying it with them increases. This can lead to the dissemination of corporate knowledge to competitors and can have serious business implications.

• Controlling document versions. When multiple people review documents, the probability of each person having a different version of the same document increases. This can lead to the inability to track the latest version, which can result in inconsistencies in documents.

• Removing unused content on intranets. In the absence of a monitoring system, it is difficult to detect used and unused content on the sites. This leads to an accumulation of unwanted content.

• Updating employees. Keeping the employees up to date on documentation changes or organizational changes, such as events, is difficult. It is impractical to have users regularly check all the Web sites and update themselves of the changes.



Discussion: Common Solutions for Addressing Collaboration Challenges

For an organization to operate efficiently, it must implement best practices, guidelines, and tools that help employees, customers, and stakeholders to collaborate easily. In this discussion, you will describe some of the solutions that your organization has implemented to overcome collaboration challenges at the workplace.

Discussion questions Read the following questions and discuss your answers with the class:

Q: How do you locate data stored in shared folders?

A: Some common solutions are as follows:

• You can access the folder hierarchy and search the documents.

• You can use shortcuts to identify the frequently used shared folders

• You can follow folder-naming conventions that clearly indicate the purpose of the folder.



Q: How do you secure shared folders?

A: Often, end users do not have the ability to secure shared folders. However, they may create shared folders and not secure them correctly. Typically, an administrator ensures that user permissions are diligently assigned and regularly audited.

Q: How do you ensure that collaborating over e-mail is secure?

A: Although e-mail communication is not very secure, you cannot avoid or suitably substitute it. Therefore, organizations define some best practices and guidelines for its employees. These guidelines ensure that people adhere to a set of preventive measures and secure their e-mail transactions.

Q: How do you prevent losing corporate knowledge?

A: It is difficult to protect corporate knowledge. When employees leave, they can take and misuse information about the organization. Therefore, organizations usually store critical information on central servers that are protected with a series of firewalls and credentials. In addition, organizations usually ensure that only authorized employees have access to data, and the organizations also audit this access periodically.

Q: How do you ensure version control of documents?

A: Organizations use various proprietary applications to maintain version control. Some of the commonly used applications include Visual SourceSafe® (VSS) and Source Depot.

Q: How do you delete unused Web content on intranets?

A: When you create a new Web page, the unused intranet content is typically overwritten. Most organizations do not have a process to monitor unused content. Some organizations have employees who monitor the intranet pages, ask the various teams for updated content, and post the new content.

Q: How do you notify team members of any updates and modifications to documents?

A: In most organizations, team members are not notified when the content changes. In some cases, team members learn about updates through newsletters that are manually created and circulated.

Q: How do you ensure that the files you upload are not infected by virus?

A: Ensure that anti-virus software is installed and is regularly updated for new virus signatures. Each time a file is uploaded, you must scan it for any virus infection.



Reasons for Solution Failure

Usually, the solutions that the organizations implement fail to address the problems. For a solution to be effective, it requires the synergy of the people to implement, support, and use it.

Reasons for failure The following are some of the reasons for the failure of solutions:

• Nonintegrated solutions create segmented information. Often, users need to connect to various servers or sites to retrieve information and collaborate with their coworkers. Nonintegrated systems hinder data transfer and are also time-consuming.

• Implementation of multiple custom applications requires a development team. This requires in-house development teams or contract developers, which can be expensive, complicated, and time-consuming proposition.

• Data consistency is difficult to maintain. With multiple solutions residing in different locations, it is difficult to maintain data consistency. If an update is not replicated across all the locations, it can result in loss of data integrity.



• A secure mechanism is unavailable for sharing information. Solutions do not provide secure and convenient mechanisms for sharing information with external stakeholders. In such situations, the chances of information security being compromised are very high because of the risk of data being attacked by hackers.

• Users are slow or refuse to adopt newer solutions. This is probably because the solution is difficult to use, or the users are unable to see its business benefit. As a result, they continue with their old practices such as distributing data through e-mail messages or sharing their files through channels that are not secure. This can lead to data loss or corruption.

• Cost of training information workers is often high. Therefore, organizations resort to training smaller groups. These groups then need to transfer their knowledge to everyone in the team. This often leads to gaps in knowledge transfer, which subsequently leads to implementation gaps.



Business Needs That WSS Addresses

After identifying the collaboration challenges and their solutions, the need for an integrated solution is apparent. WSS provides a reliable and a highly scalable platform to meet the growing demands of an organization.

Business needs that WSS addresses WSS addresses the following business needs:

• Reduce e-mail transactions. With WSS, you can avoid sending documents by e-mail. Features such as task tracking, issue tracking, workflow, meeting workspaces, document workspaces, wikis, and blogs keep you updated and informed.

• Reduce exposure to litigation. For example, your legal department requires you to maintain all versions of your legal documents. The WSS document library supports versioning, which allows you to keep versions of your documents secure.

• Enable Web access to business applications. By implementing WSS, you can use Web parts to embed information from other systems in one location. This saves the user’s effort in exploring and extracting information from different systems.

• Provide a search tool. The search tool helps you find information quickly and effectively.



• Reduce complexity and cost of operation. WSS helps reduce the number of applications and services to a single solution. This helps you to remain focused, provides faster response, and reduces the need to manage and back up multiple solutions.

• Provide backup and restore functionality. WSS reduces management overhead for backup and retrieval jobs and therefore you do not require third-party solutions.

• Provides advanced security and administrative controls. WSS provides multiple authentication methods and out-of-the-box security that is highly customizable. Using administrative controls, you can ensure that WSS is easily deployed and delegate many low-level administrative functions to users without compromising security.



Lesson 2: Collaboration Technologies Provided by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

The collaboration technologies that WSS 3.0 provides include document storage and management, collaboration, information management, and communication. At the end of the lesson, you will have a better understanding of how these features help you meet your business needs.

Objectives After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Explain the WSS 3.0 technologies that support document storage. • Explain the WSS 3.0 technologies that support collaboration. • Explain the WSS 3.0 technologies that support information management and

communication.



WSS Technologies That Support Document Storage and Management

WSS 3.0 enhances the conventional storage platforms. Document storage and management capabilities of WSS 3.0 include creating, storing, tracking, maintaining version control, deleting, and restoring documents.

Document storage and management features in WSS The following are the document storage and management features in WSS:

• Document library. It is a repository within the site where you store and maintain documents. You can customize the default Shared Documents library or create your own library. You can further secure your libraries by applying custom permissions. User permissions for document libraries are discussed in Module 2 of course 5060A: Implementing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

• Content types. These are reusable collection of settings that you apply to your documents and sites. Some of the content types include document, picture, and form. For example, if you want to create a document that collects customer details, you select the Form content type, which provides controls such as text boxes, check boxes, and buttons.



• Version control. This ensures document integrity and consistency. It is available to all libraries and lists. Version control helps maintain a history of documents with each change. This enables you to restore your documents to a previous state, if required.

• Recycle Bin. It stores all the deleted items and provides a means to restore those that were accidentally deleted. By default, the Recycle Bin can hold deleted items for 30 days.

• Workflow management. This tool helps you to conceptualize and design the processes and information flow in your organization. Windows SharePoint® Designer helps you to create custom workflows by dragging and dropping components known as activities onto a workflow design surface. For example, you need to design a workflow process for all documents that require approval from the senior design engineer. You can use the SharePoint Designer to depict the process flow.

• Picture library. It provides a simple way to share and organize digital pictures. For example, WSS can help create a centralized picture library for the marketing team members who can view, share, edit, and download corporate logos or other marketing graphics.

• Tasks. These help you manage and monitor the activities in your organizations. Parameters such as priority status, percentage completion, and alerts help you determine the status of the activities.

• Task tracking. This helps you monitor tasks, such as creating or editing a document, performed by users. Monitoring such tasks include tracking issues, contacts, and documents.

• Issue list. It tracks enterprise-wide issues or problems. You can assign, prioritize, and follow the progress of issues from start to finish.



Demonstration: Exploring Document Storage and Management

In this demonstration, you will see how to edit and track a document; add a content type; and edit a project task tracking and issue list in the document library. This demonstration will also show how to view version history for a document and the steps to restore a deleted document.

For more information: The detailed steps illustrated in this demonstration are available in the Demonstration Steps document on the Student Materials CD. Please refer to this document as necessary.

In this demonstration, you will see how to:

• Describe the WSS technologies that support document storage and management and explain their purpose.




Q: What are the advantages of using the WSS document library over file share?

A: The ability to search for your document, create custom views based on metadata on the documents, and being able to create document workspaces around your documents are all great reasons why one should use WSS document library. In addition, being able to check document in and out for editing and document versioning are two other advantages over a file share.

Q: Discuss if it gives you a false sense of security to know that files can be restored even after you have deleted them.

A: Most probably, they will say yes. However, the Recycle Bin warns the user that items will be deleted after 30 days.



WSS Technologies That Support Collaboration

Collaboration helps internal employees, remote employees, business partners, and customers to effectively:

• Share information and data. • Share documents. • Share calendar or event information. • Brainstorm and discuss ideas about a project. • Add, assign, and track tasks.

WSS 3.0 provides out-of-the-box collaboration technologies that make it simple for end users to create and design Web sites with shared elements.

Collaboration features in WSS The following are the collaboration features in WSS:

• Online presence. This allows real-time communication between team members. The integration of WSS with Microsoft Active Directory®, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Windows Messenger helps extract user status and present it in the presence Web part. Users can see whether coworkers are free, busy, or offline and can also exchange messages. Other communication channels include e-mail, instant



messaging (IM), and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This helps users to seamlessly operate between various communications media.

• Web parts. Many built-in Web parts are available in WSS. You can also download these Web parts from the Internet. You can customize them to access multiple applications from a single location.

• Discussion boards. This provides a platform for team members to converse. These boards support features that help manage discussion threads and ensure that only approved entries appear on the discussion boards.

• Issue tracking. This helps maintain a list of enterprise-wide issues and problems. This list helps manage issues by helping you to assign, prioritize, and monitor their progress.

• Contact lists. This helps you maintain an address book to store contact details such as telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and residential addresses of clients, partners, and vendors. Team members can use this address book to quickly connect and communicate with each other.

• Blogs. These are online journals where individuals document information on subjects of personal interest. A blog is owned and maintained by its author, who is also known as the blogger. The blog may also include links to other blogs and pictures. Readers can post their comments on the blog and express their thoughts about the content posted by the blogger. A blog can also be used by team members to share data among themselves.

• Wikis. These are open sites that allow users to freely create and edit Web page content by using any Web browser. A wiki evolves from the collaborative authoring by its participants who contribute to its growth.

• Shared calendar. This provides team members the option to check each others’ schedules and engagements. The calendar stores a list of upcoming meetings, deadlines, and other important events.

• Document workspace. This site helps you manage your documents with other members of the site. Web parts such as Announcements, Shared Documents, Tasks, Groups, and Links enable you to share, update, and inform users of the status and development of the documents.

• Meeting workspace. This is a team site that contains information such as objectives, agendas, attendees, tasks, and decisions about your meetings. There are several Meeting Workspace templates available in WSS that help you plan, organize, and track your meetings.

• Integration features. WSS supports integration with SharePoint Designer, Outlook; Exchange Server, IRM, and Active Directory. WSS also supports offline items such as documents, lists, calendars, and document libraries.



Demonstration: Exploring Collaboration

In this demonstration, you will see how to use a blog and a wiki.



• Describe the WSS technologies that support collaboration and explain their purpose.




Q: Are the users in your organization familiar with blogs? How are blogs useful for them?

A: Blogs work very well for collaborative brainstorming to come up with new ideas.

Q: Why would users select wiki for open forums?

There are many benefits of using a wiki such as an open forum that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content. A wiki allows team members to collaborate and exchange information on specific subjects.



WSS Technologies That Support Information Management and Communication

Information is an asset, and managing it is critical for business success and continuity. Some of the WSS features that help in information management include alerts, RSS feeds, and search. An organization also needs a sound communication mechanism for the team members to exchange and share information. WSS provides options such as announcements, links, discussion boards, and surveys to facilitate communication.

Information management features in WSS The following are the information management features in WSS:

• Alerts. Most often, users find it difficult to keep track of all updates in the sites and documents because of the volume of the transactions involved. To solve this problem, you can use WSS alerts. It notifies users through e-mail messages whenever documents, lists, or items in a list are created, modified, or deleted. Only users who sign up for alerts receive the alert messages. Users can configure alerts to be sent out on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.



• RSS feeds. Another means to remain updated about changes in lists, libraries, and blogs is to use RSS feeds. An RSS feed is XML content that contains a brief description of the changed data with a link to the complete content from sources such as blogs and libraries. The RSS feed continuously sends you the latest update. For example, if your blog is RSS-enabled, the RSS feed will automatically capture all the updates from your blog and feed them to those who have subscribed to it. For sites such as blogs, RSS feed is embedded within the template. You can click the RSS Feed button to view the latest feed. For any library or list, click the Actions button in Open Menu and select View RSS Feed.

• Search. The search tool allows you to find content in the current WSS site collection. The search includes all the list items and document libraries. The results appear on the Search Results page. You can configure the WSS Search tool in the Central Administration site to enable search for each list or library. However, WSS search is a scaled down version of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) search tool. You can further configure search functionality to encompass all site collections by using MOSS.

Communication features in WSS The following are the communication features in WSS:

• Announcements. This Web part provides a place to share news, status, and other pieces of information with the team members. Users with appropriate permissions can post notifications and updates for the team members to view.

• Links. This Web part helps you provide links to other content. For example, if your team members frequently access your organization’s healthcare provider’s Web site, you can embed this link within the links Web part to provide easy access.

• Discussion boards. These provide a means for team members to discuss projects and plans and share ideas on topics that interest them. Unlike announcements, discussion boards allow a two-way communication.

• Surveys. You can use surveys to conduct polls. Team members can participate in it and cast their opinion about the questions in the poll. The survey feature helps you to quickly create questions and configure how users can specify their answers.



Demonstration: Exploring Information Management and Communication

In this demonstration, you will see how to use alerts, RSS feeds, search, discussion boards, and surveys.



• Describe the WSS technologies that support information management and communication and explain their purpose.




Q: How can users in your organization take advantage of alerts?

A: The users may use it to keep all the stakeholders updated of any changes that take place to documents and sites within their scope of work.

Q: Explain how your organization is currently using RSS feeds.

A: There are many individuals and organizations that have deployed WSS. It is most likely that they may be posting their opinions, articles, and whitepapers on their blogs or other Web sites. If your RSS feed is subscribed to their blogs and sites, you will receive the latest updates in one location; perhaps on your own blog.



Lab: Identifying How WSS Helps Address Collaboration Challenges

After completing this lab, you will be able to:

• Identify the collaboration challenges in your organization. • Identify the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 features that help address

collaboration challenges.

Estimated time to complete this lab: 45 minutes

Lab Setup This is a paper-based lab.

Lab Scenario No scenario for this lab.



Exercise 1: Identifying the Collaboration Challenges in Your Organization

In this exercise, you will identify the collaboration challenges in your organization.

Identify the collaboration challenges. The principal tasks for this exercise are as follows:

• List some scenarios that reflect common collaboration challenges you face in your organization under each of the four categories in the Common Challenges worksheet. A sample example for each category is displayed for you in the worksheet.

• Identify the collaboration challenges that are common to all organizations under each of the four categories.

Common Challenges

Communication Collaboration Document Storage and Management

Information Management

A team member missed a technology update session that a group of Subject Matter Experts conducted because there was no announcement posted about it.

All the team members could not make it to a meeting because the project manager missed sending mails to a few people about the meeting.

The project manager is unable to extract relevant documents stored across applications for a project-analysis meeting.

Engineers were unable to fix and revise their software because they either did not receive prompt feedback on the bugs or the feedback came in bulk as e-mail messages.



Exercise 2: Identifying the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Features That Help Address Collaboration Challenges

In this exercise, you will identify the WSS 3.0 features that help address collaboration challenges in organizations.

Identify the WSS 3.0 features that help address collaboration challenges. The principal tasks for this exercise are:

• Map each challenge identified in exercise 1 above with the appropriate feature listed in the WSS Features and Challenges worksheet.

• Identify the challenges for which there are no applicable features available in the WSS Features and Challenges worksheet.

WSS Features and Challenges WSS Feature Challenge

Document Library

Content Types

Workflow Management

Picture Library

Tasks

Task Tracking

Issue Lists

Version Control

Recycle Bin

Online Presence

Web Parts

Discussion Boards

Issue Tracking

Contact Lists

Blogs

Wikis

Shared Calendars

Document Workspace

Meeting Workspace

Integration Features

Alerts

RSS Feeds

Search



WSS Feature Challenge

Announcements

Links

Surveys

5060a 01

Documents

Transcript of 5060a 01