In an initial SharePoint deployment, the basic structure of the overall site is set in place, but many details are not completed. This is normal – if every detail was collected prior to deployment, deployment would never happen. The trick to operating an agile SharePoint environment is being able to update it easily with minimal downstream negative impact. The last thing you want to do is bring down your entire site collection because a custom web part hadn’t been tested under load.
As a part of our program management and methodology for SharePoint implementations, we define units of deployment as new installations or updates to features and sites, sometimes deployed initially as a solution. This is all SharePoint-speak for saying that we break down applications to their constituent features when we do a deployment. This allows the application to be more easily updated over time, and minimizes a negative downstream impact.
Once the initial platform is installed and configured, a certain number of features are slated to be included before go-live, and other features are scheduled for after go-live. Our consultants work on these features according to the master work schedule and often are completed in tandem with your team. The master work schedule defines the feature estimate and effort, and assigns a priority to each feature and schedules its deployment.
Within a feature, we assemble components according to the specific need. For example, in a contract management system, we might assemble a ready-made approval workflow using SharePoint Designer, a custom workflow activity for processing email approval via Blackberry, a custom content type for summary information about the contract, and an Infopath form to store the details of the contract itself and display the approval routing status. These components are assembled in a SharePoint feature, which is installed on SharePoint deployment and is activated on a site.
All of this work is tracked in a master work schedule, which provides a plan for design, development, testing, and deployment not only for individual features, but also provides visability and prioritization capabilities for managing your SharePoint platform overall.