Technet has so much going on all the times behind the scenes, sometimes it’s tough to know what’s new.  I was following @emilysc on twitter this morning when she announced the latest find!  There is a portal for SharePoint Governance on Technet, but this particular paper hasn’t yet made it to the list, I’m sure it will be featured soon enough.

@emilysc: New #SharePoint content published today: SharePoint Internet presence governance plan (white paper) http://bit.ly/VfZf4

I’ve been working with Nicola Young (congrats on the new one!), Jennifer Mason, and John Ross from SharePoint911.com (Congrats to Laura Rogers Author on End User SharePoint, and MSPress SharePoint Admin book fame who just accepted a job with SharePoint911.)  They did quite a bit on this paper, so I want to give them the credit (Nicola especially).  This is one of a collection of three papers, we’re still waiting for the portal one to publish.  So to recap here’s what we’ve got and what’s coming! (I’ll update the link when it’s live)

1. SharePoint Collaboration Governance Plan – An example plan for an organization that is focused on the collaboration side of SharePoint, not looking to replace their Intranet portal just yet and are focused on more of the out of the box features.
2. NEW!!! SharePoint Internet Presence Governance Plan – Plan for the WCM .COM type environment.  This is where you have authors and an internet site you’re trying to run with specific processes.  This sample itself is based on real samples used with the consultants at SharePoint911.com. (Just released!)
3. SharePoint Intranet Portal Governance Plan – an example enterprise with a three tiered application portal hosting, and collaboration environment integrated to provide a vanilla and custom service.  This mimic’s what I find in most mature enterprise SharePoint environments from an IT hosting perspective.  Coming soon!  For now refer to Sean Livingston’s Customization Policy whitepaper a definite authority on the topic.

Best of Existing Key Samples and Templates For Which You Have to Be Aware

Deployment Guide and Checklists – This checklist paint swatch is used by the best SharePoint Project Managers everywhere.  It’s an essential.

SharePoint Governance Plan (the original) – The original blank plan based on an actual MCS engagement.  This is where all this started.  Companies were looking for something filled out with a bit of actual choices and guidance.