Best Practices
By now, you should have a good idea of what SharePoint can do for you and should be in the process of evaluating which edition to acquire. The following practices should guide you as you move forward:
Set up a staging server or virtual machine for evaluation. This is a valuable way to try out different configurations before installing in production, and the evaluation environment can be used for web part development later.
Think about your existing work processes and how using SharePoint may change them. SharePoint can replace email as a workflow tool. Some subtle things, like document-naming conventions, may also change since SharePoint includes version control.
If you are considering MOSS, verify that management wants the personalization features. If the idea of employee My Sites and blogs gives them the willies, plan on disabling My Sites. Read Chapter 7 for more information on personalization features, why they are useful, and how to control them.
Try to build instructions into your SharePoint sites. SharePoint is easy to use, but the applications you create with it may need explaining, especially where they replace existing procedures. The SharePoint setup procedure uses a task list to tell you the steps you need to perform after installation—it's a good example of a self-documenting approach.
Plan to deliver high-value, low-effort projects first. SharePoint is uniquely suited for Agile development: you can get applications in users' hands quickly and adjust as needs ...