Our company has nearly a million files in one SharePoint site, with a mix of individual and group permissions. IT handles lots of file access requests and is expected to know what every new hire needs.
I'm considering separate department sites managed by department heads, but I'm nervous about moving the files and getting access right. Where would you start?
Start with management, not the migration tool. Get agreement on what the project is supposed to fix, who owns each department's information, and who makes access decisions. Put the goals and plan in writing and get stakeholders to sign off.
Department heads also need to agree to take on the owner role. Otherwise you can build a tidy set of sites and still end up with IT guessing who should see what. This sounds big enough to discuss extra time or outside help too.
Inventory before you move anything. Work out what content exists, who can identify an owner, and where access is currently assigned. Expect some ownership questions to need management decisions rather than technical guesses.
Then pick a manageable area and plan a pilot with its owner. Agree on the destination and access before moving it, and have the people who use it check that they can find and open what they need. Use what you learn to revise the rest of the plan.
Separate department sites could make sense, but don't assume every department needs the same folder tree. Ask each owner to sketch a simple structure and naming scheme that a new employee could follow. Keep the paths understandable rather than recreating the existing maze in a new location.
h.704~tinwhistle:
Also decide who owns content that crosses departments. A neat department structure won't answer that on its own.
Be careful about making managers site owners without agreeing on what that means. They may need to decide who gets access, but that doesn't automatically mean everyone should get ownership rights. Define the process for requests and new hires, along with who can approve and make changes.
I'd also establish an owner outside IT and an expiration or retention policy for each new site. Otherwise the new sites can become another pile to maintain.
Don't rule out questioning the platform itself, especially if the organization needs a fuller document management system. Others would rebuild in SharePoint instead. Either way, a fresh system won't solve unclear ownership or access decisions by itself.
Answers are reviewed before publication.
Keddo:
Keep checking in as the plan develops. An exception that sounds harmless to one department can change the structure everyone else has agreed to.