What should my SharePoint role be called?
June 28, 2017 3:38 AM Subscribe
What is my job actually called in the SharePoint world? Am I an IT Pro? Power User? End User? Business? And why is none of this defined on a website?
My job is basically all about SharePoint and the users ie training them, understanding their requirements, configuring a site and applications to meet their needs and generally getting them to grips with it.
What job would that be called in the SharePoint world? It's obviously not administrator or developer ... but is it an IT Pro? Power User? End User? Business?
and is there a web link that helps to define what these roles are, and how one can progress along those tracks?
Thanks!
My job is basically all about SharePoint and the users ie training them, understanding their requirements, configuring a site and applications to meet their needs and generally getting them to grips with it.
What job would that be called in the SharePoint world? It's obviously not administrator or developer ... but is it an IT Pro? Power User? End User? Business?
and is there a web link that helps to define what these roles are, and how one can progress along those tracks?
Thanks!
From pipeski's link, I would go with the first one. Site Collection Administrator fits most of this very well.
posted by deezil at 4:14 AM on June 28, 2017
posted by deezil at 4:14 AM on June 28, 2017
Best answer: Are you in the IT department? That is a primary delineator.
"End user" roles of this nature that are not IT employees are typically not given the same degree of "realness". Within IT, you'r more likely to be called "System Admin II" or something similar.
What tools and systems do you have access to? Are you able to go into Central Admin and modify the platform? Can you use SharePoint Designer? Or are you limited to what you can touch and effect change on?
Site Collection Administrator means, a person who has been designated as a SCA for one or more site collections. It has a specific permissions-based meaning in SharePoint, and should not be used as a catch-all type of term... if you call yourself that, but you do not actually have the specific SCA permissions, then it's inaccurate and possibly misleading.
In general, if you are not in IT , and do not have large-scale, overarching responsibilities for the whole user base/platform, your title is more likely to be a reflection of the actual permissions you have on the sites/site collections you manage. "Site Owner" means you have Full Control, etc. (in SP, roles and their corresponding permissions get conflated). This is also a good article in that realm.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:50 AM on June 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
"End user" roles of this nature that are not IT employees are typically not given the same degree of "realness". Within IT, you'r more likely to be called "System Admin II" or something similar.
What tools and systems do you have access to? Are you able to go into Central Admin and modify the platform? Can you use SharePoint Designer? Or are you limited to what you can touch and effect change on?
Site Collection Administrator means, a person who has been designated as a SCA for one or more site collections. It has a specific permissions-based meaning in SharePoint, and should not be used as a catch-all type of term... if you call yourself that, but you do not actually have the specific SCA permissions, then it's inaccurate and possibly misleading.
In general, if you are not in IT , and do not have large-scale, overarching responsibilities for the whole user base/platform, your title is more likely to be a reflection of the actual permissions you have on the sites/site collections you manage. "Site Owner" means you have Full Control, etc. (in SP, roles and their corresponding permissions get conflated). This is also a good article in that realm.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:50 AM on June 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Yeah SCA and Site Owner etc are roles in the share point framework, not meaningful job titles. And what you're doing is far beyond those, from description. At my workplace, you could be a service owner or administrator (the service being sharepoint) if internal. If external you would be a consultant, specialising in share point.
It's kind of hard to tell from your description how technically capable you are (I mean no insult, it's literally not totally clear), and what the split is between the things you do. This will really define if you want to take a title from a more technical side of it, or the more consultanty side.
Eg There's elements of ux work, even architecture in what you're describing, but not enough to borrow those titles, if literally all you do is share point.
posted by smoke at 6:09 AM on June 28, 2017
It's kind of hard to tell from your description how technically capable you are (I mean no insult, it's literally not totally clear), and what the split is between the things you do. This will really define if you want to take a title from a more technical side of it, or the more consultanty side.
Eg There's elements of ux work, even architecture in what you're describing, but not enough to borrow those titles, if literally all you do is share point.
posted by smoke at 6:09 AM on June 28, 2017
Response by poster: @smoke - I'm one of those people who came up through web stuff in the 1990s so I'm one of those jack of all trades, master of none. So yes, there are elements of UX, architecture, design but not enough to use those titles, alas!
The bit I'm struggling to realise is if I am a service owner/administrator, which of the pre-defined roles does that fill in terms of IT Pro vs End User vs Power User vs Business Owner ...
posted by almostwitty at 6:19 AM on June 28, 2017
The bit I'm struggling to realise is if I am a service owner/administrator, which of the pre-defined roles does that fill in terms of IT Pro vs End User vs Power User vs Business Owner ...
posted by almostwitty at 6:19 AM on June 28, 2017
Best answer: What rights do you have within Sharepoint? That will define your current role. What do you want to be? Start pushing for more rights, if needed, so you can have that title. You also have a significant role as a trainer, coach, troubleshooter. Start writing documentation for your company's implementation of SP, start doing trainings - if you have not done formal (scheduled, agenda) trainings, start. You can start small with a 30 minute training on 1 aspect of SP, depending on your comfort level. Don't wait to be given the role; you've carved it out, run with it.
posted by theora55 at 6:39 AM on June 28, 2017
posted by theora55 at 6:39 AM on June 28, 2017
Best answer: If you only have Site Collection Administrator rights, and you aren't doing any development with C# (for soon to be deprecated Sandbox Solutions) or JavaScript for customizations then I'd say you are a SharePoint Power User plus being a Business Owner of whatever this service is called. You could also say that you are an End User but that is just because Power Users are a true subset of End Users. Things get grey when you consider what you can do with SharePoint Designer and its workflows. Depending on how sophisticated you are with that you can sorta claim Power User + SharePoint Developer.
If you actually have more rights and routinely do things with Powershell you could easily claim IT Pro or Architecture.
With that said, what is the driving force to give yourself a SharePoint role? If this is to explain yourself to others I 'd say you were in change of helping your customers manage their collaboration and information architecture in SharePoint sites via site customization, process modeling, training and design.
posted by mmascolino at 11:18 AM on June 28, 2017
If you actually have more rights and routinely do things with Powershell you could easily claim IT Pro or Architecture.
With that said, what is the driving force to give yourself a SharePoint role? If this is to explain yourself to others I 'd say you were in change of helping your customers manage their collaboration and information architecture in SharePoint sites via site customization, process modeling, training and design.
posted by mmascolino at 11:18 AM on June 28, 2017
Best answer: Sounds like I have a job very similar to yours. Job titles have always been a struggle. If you do a search for "SharePoint governance plan roles" you'll get some results that may be of assistance to you (i.e. this one). Probably the most accurate title I've had is "Enterprise Content Services Specialist," but even that's not great. From your description, it sounds like you are essentially performing the role of a Business Analyst, and I've had some success framing my job in that context.
posted by Otis at 1:28 PM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Otis at 1:28 PM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by pipeski at 4:00 AM on June 28, 2017 [1 favorite]