Roles of a SharePoint Project Manager

As a SharePoint project manager, your primary responsibility is to oversee the implementation and maintenance of Microsoft’s collaborative platform, SharePoint. This involves planning, coordinating, and controlling projects that aim to improve team collaboration, increase productivity, and enhance organizational efficiency.

To achieve these objectives, you’ll need to understand the various roles within a SharePoint project, as well as the features available in the platform. Here are some key roles and their responsibilities:

1. Project Manager: This is your role, where you’re responsible for planning, executing, and monitoring the progress of SharePoint projects. Your duties include creating project plans, setting timelines, assigning tasks, tracking progress, identifying risks, and ensuring successful project delivery.
2. Business Analyst: As a business analyst, you’ll work closely with stakeholders to identify their needs and requirements. You’ll gather data on current processes, workflows, and pain points, then use this information to develop solutions that align with SharePoint’s capabilities.
3. Technical Lead: The technical lead is responsible for the development and implementation of custom SharePoint solutions. This may include creating custom templates, developing web parts, or integrating third-party tools and services into the platform.
4. IT Project Manager: While you may not be directly involved in IT projects, it’s essential to work closely with IT project managers who oversee broader technology initiatives that involve SharePoint. Your collaboration will help ensure seamless integration of SharePoint within these larger projects.

Now that you know your roles and responsibilities, let’s move on to the features available within SharePoint:

1. Sites: These are the foundation of your SharePoint implementation, where you create sites for specific teams or departments. Each site has its own landing page, libraries, lists, and workflows.
2. Libraries: Within a site, you’ll find libraries that allow users to store and manage files, such as documents, images, or videos. You can also set up custom metadata columns and tags to categorize content for easier searching and retrieval.
3. Lists: SharePoint lists enable you to create custom tables with unique fields and data types. These are ideal for tracking inventory, managing assets, or keeping track of employee information.
4. Workflows: SharePoint workflows allow you to automate repetitive tasks by defining a series of steps that trigger specific actions based on predefined conditions. This can help streamline business processes like approvals, document reviews, or content publishing.
5. Lists and Libraries Views: These views provide filtering options for users to quickly find the information they need within lists and libraries. You can set up custom views using filters, grouping, and sorting criteria.
6. Search: SharePoint’s search feature provides a robust way to query your site’s content, allowing users to find specific files, documents, or items based on keywords, tags, or metadata.
7. Social Features: The social features in SharePoint enable users to engage with each other through discussions, likes, and comments. This can help foster collaboration, build trust, and promote knowledge sharing within teams.
8. Reporting: SharePoint’s reporting feature allows you to create custom reports using data from various sources, including lists, libraries, and databases. This helps administrators track site usage, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions.
9. Integration with Microsoft Office: SharePoint integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This enables users to easily open and edit documents directly within the platform.

As a SharePoint project manager, it’s crucial to understand these roles and features to successfully deliver projects that meet your organization’s needs. By doing so, you’ll be able to optimize collaboration, improve productivity, and enhance overall business performance.