SharePoint Governance: Free Advice Available

Microsoft has posted three chapters fromSharePointPro Connections magazine author Dave Chennault's book. Dave is a CISA, an MCTS in SharePoint WSS and MOSS 2007, and a BVPS specialist, and his co-author Chuck Strain, CISA, MCSE, is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in SharePoint administration. 

Dave and Chuck write, "We have been watching the SharePoint market mature and it is dismaying to observe the lack of comprehensive governance guidelines....Borrowing from a software development perspective and an auditor’s sensibility, we created this framework as a practical bridge between the world of IT audit and control and the world of SharePoint development, deployment and management."

The three chapters you can access include a) an introduction (sort of a bonus chapter), which is one that explains why you need a systematic approach to governance (or you'll end up with a mess); b) one chapter that looks at the parts of governance and planning; c) one chapter that explains scope and details who to invite to the governance party; and finally, d) a brief look at SharePoint in the cloud.

I should add that Dave wrote a great piece for the November issue of SharePointPro Connections magazine about risks to consider when moving SharePoint to the cloud. It will be available the last week of October/first week of November in print and at the SharePointPro Connections website.