In Part 1 of my series titled Inadequate Resources to Support the Implementation, I spoke about the ease of entry into the role of the SharePoint Administrator.  Way too often, it is on a whim or in passing that someone is asked to “dabble” in the setup or site provisioning of SharePoint.  Little did we know, sometime over the next year of our lives, we’d be asked to pose for the cover of Van Halen’s 5150 album.  That’s right people.  We back Sammy in this blog! J

In Part 2 of this series, we uncover the giant pink elephant in the room that everyone seems to be so reluctant to confront.

Part 2: The oversight we’ve been paying for all these years

I had mentioned previously that SharePoint Administrators originated from some very diverse backgrounds. In the past year alone, I have taught SharePoint Administrators whose backgrounds (i.e. roles held prior to becoming a SharePoint Administrator) were as follows:

Account Manager

Administrative Assistant

Application Developer

Business Analyst

College Graduate with a Degree in Horticulture
… Seriously!

CRM Administrator

Database Administrator

Executive Administrative Assistant

Information Manager

IT Consultant

IT Administrator

IT Manager

IT Support Consultant

Junior Analyst

Marketing Assistant

Network Administrative Assistant

PBX Operator
… Yeah!  The phone guy!

Project Manager

Sales Manager

Senior Account Executive

Senior Analyst

Senior Consultant

Senior Technologist

Solutions Developer

Systems Administrator

Technical Intern
… Very Secure!

Tier 1 Support Specialist

Tier 2 Support Specialist

…Isn’t this starting to feel like an infomercial on the Jerry Springer show? 
“In two quick years, you can train to be an…”

SAP Manager

Securities Admin

Security Manager

Server Administrator

Vice President

Web Designer

Web Services Developer

… and more.

WOW!  That is quite an exhaustive list, huh? It was only within the last year that I started keeping track.   Doesn’t it seem a little odd, that almost anyone and everyone is being asked to play the role of a SharePoint Administrator these days?   This isn’t anything new.  From what I can tell, this has been the norm since SharePoint’s inception.

I believe that this diversity in experience is an assisting factor as to why so many SharePoint implementations are failing to reach their potential within their organization.  In the grandest of senses, we are taking the most important information throughout the company, and hosting it centrally for everyone to access.  Depending upon your background, experience, skill set, and your thought process on how best to accomplish this, the road required to complete this task can be drastically different than someone else’s.  This isn’t a bad thing… In fact, it is almost expected.  The problem occurs, when you ask each of these people to play the role that has never been defined in the first place.  

Double doors open.  Enter Pink Elephant.

The SharePoint Administrator’s Role

OK, so there is a pink elephant in the back of the room.  Is anyone going to acknowledge it?  No?  Ok.  I’ll take the leap of faith here and say something that will probably frustrate a lot of people.  I’m saying this because it needs to be said.  We need to deal with it, solve it, and move on.   Here it goes.

“The SharePoint Administrator’s role has never been clearly defined.”

Did someone mention a pink elephant standing in the back of the room?  I don’t see him anymore. 

It is easy to find a definition of a SharePoint Administrator’s role in any book out on the shelf today.  Ask any SharePoint Administrator whether or not that definition fits their current role, and I’m betting you’d be hard-pressed to hear a positive response.  The definition in the book often serves more to scope the chapters of the book, than it does to actually define what the role actually requires.   

Don’t get me wrong, there are some seriously talented people in our SharePoint community.  MAD PROPS to Shane, Todd, and Steve for creating a quality resource that should stand the test of time for many Administrators!        

From a real-world perspective (and at SharePoint Experts, EVERYTHING we do is based upon our real-world perspective), the term “SharePoint Administrator” is not simply:

“…a technical resource responsible for keeping the SharePoint environment up and running”

Over time, the role has morphed into:

“…the person responsible for effectively bringing SharePoint into the organization”

The lack of definition surrounding the role, and the impossible expectations demanded by the business has truly diluted our identity as SharePoint Administrators.  Until we can fully understand the root cause of the problem (which we will discuss in this blog) and we can identify a plan outlining the role of the SharePoint Administrator (which again… we will), SharePoint implementations run an exponentially higher risk for failure due to the expectations of the business and the inadequacies of the person playing the role of the SharePoint Administrator.

Stay tuned for my next blog post in this series as I will uncover these seemingly impossible expectations that most businesses have for their SharePoint Administrators.

Matt

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