Sharepoint metadata workshop

SharePoint Metadata:
What business users
need to know
www.clearboxconsulting.co.uk
sam@clearboxconsulting.co.uk
@sammarshall

www.clearboxconsulting.co.uk © ClearBox Consulting 2011

Sam Marshall
 Director of ClearBox Consulting
 Former global intranet manager
at Unilever
 Intranet Benchmarking Forum
Associate
ClearBox Consulting
 Intranet & SharePoint
 Strategy
 Governance
 Implementation
 Collaboration
 Training

Agenda
 What has metadata ever done for us?
 Defining columns and content types
 Managed metadata and taxonomies
 Folders and other tricks

Where do you stand on
SharePoint?

What has metadata ever
done for us?

What is metadata?
1) With the other people on your table think of the kinds of
metadata for products in a supermarket
1. Weight
2. Price
3. Ingredients
2) Write each item on a separate small post-it note
 Write 5+ that mostly interest consumers
 Write 5+ that mostly interest store managers
3) Group the items into logical clusters
 Label the groups on the large post-it notes

Where it appears in SharePoint
• List Columns
• Document Library Columns
• Content Types
• Managed Metadata
• Social tags

SharePoint Hierarchy (simplified)
Items
Libraries Lists
Sub-Sites
Site Collection Intranet
Home Marketing
Sales
News
Latest
bids
Calendar
Meeting
12th April
Brochures
2011
Products

Why is metadata important in SharePoint?
1. Search indexing
2. Filtering Search Results (Faceted search)
3. Filtering and Sorting lists
4. Common language to connect content together
5. Managing content e.g. Expiry dates, Owner
6. Personalisation
7. Tag clouds for alternative navigation
8. Informing users about a document without having
to open it

Filtering search results

Filtering Lists

Social Tags

My Site – My Tags

What do business owners
need to do?

Business ownership
1. Decide on the approach
 What problem are you trying to solve?
 Strict control vs. ‘Folksonomy’

Metadata controlometer
Strict Loose
Top-down
Regulated
Process-driven
Bottom-up
Unstructured
Creative
“Controlled
Vocabulary”
Many managed
terms
A few managed
terms
Enterprise
keywords
“Folksonomy”
Enterprise
keywords
Social Tags

Business ownership
1. Decide on the approach
Strict control vs. ‘Folksonomy’
2. Agree on standard terms
What is a ‘Product’ vs. ‘brand’, ‘variant’ &‘promotion’
3. Have an update and resolution process
Sales vs. Manufacturing view
4. Agree who is responsible for what
...and make sure it happens
5. Teach content owners and users the “why” part

Simple Metadata:
columns and content types

Columns
Used to:
 Define a list
 Simple database
 Make a simple online form
 Define the properties of documents in a library

Site columns
 Good when you have a list that will be re-used
several times within a site
 Office locations
 Cost codes
 Project names
 If only used once, a list column is fine

Content Types

Content Types
 Define a class of documents or items
 Allow you to scope search to just that type e.g.
“Brochure”
 Act as a template for the metadata documents must
have

An analogy...

Example content types
 Form
 Policy
 Course description
 Appraisal
 Project Charter
 Product data sheet
 Purchase Order

List
Library
Content Type
column

Content Types in action

Content Types
Definitions can inherit
 Food
 Fresh Food [description, expiry date, country origin]
 Fruit [description, expiry date, country origin, storage temp.]
 Document [Author, date]
 Policy [Author, date, expiry]
 HR Policy [Author, date, expiry, employee_group]

Where to define content types
 Global if:
 Organisation-wide standard
 e.g. security classification
 Users would specifically search for it by type
 e.g. Form, template, policy
 Site-specific if:
 Terminology local to that site
 More stringent information management needs than
elsewhere
 e.g. legal vs marketing

Managed Metadata &
Taxonomies

Managed Metadata Purpose
 More structured approach to consistent metadata
 Improves search and browsing
 Define standard pick-lists company-wide
 Products
 Departments
 Work levels
 Define synonyms
 E.g. Business partner Contractor Outsourced Service

Filtering lists
and libraries
 Can use
taxonomy and
filters in
combination
http://www.sharepointconfig.com/2010/04/10-ways-sharepoint-2010-improves-findability/

List
Library
Content Type
column
Managed Metadata

Metadata Service
Term Store
Enterprise Keywords
[‘Managed Keywords’ in
‘Keyword Store’]
Managed Terms
[Taxonomies in
‘Taxonomy Store’]

Managed Terms vs Keywords
Managed Terms
 Fresh food
 Meat
 Dairy
 Vegetables
 Fruit
 Hard Fruit
 Soft Fruit
 Peach
 Strawberry
 Cloudberry
Enterprise Keywords
 Chicken
 Beef
 Lamb
 Milk
 Eggs
 Peach
 Strawberry
 Cloudberry
 Apple
 Pear
 Coconut

www.sharepointfabian.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=93

Managed terms in
use
 You can copy and
re-use terms
 Groups can have
different
administrators
http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2009/12/managed-metadata-in-sharepoint-2010-key.html

 The values of a column
can be restricted to one
taxonomy group or term
set
 Allow “Fill-in” choices
lets authors “Add new
item” to the taxonomy –
a folksonomy

Synonyms are shown but not selectable
http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2009/12/managed-metadata-in-sharepoint-2010-key.html

Enterprise Keywords
(formerly ‘Managed Keywords’)
 One flat list called
the “Keyword Set”
 “Type ahead”
suggestions seen
 Suggestions from
taxonomy will also
be seen
 Usually “Create
New” is enabled

Managed Terms vs Keywords
Managed Terms
Pros
 Effective search
 Filtering of results
 Close control
Cons
 ‘Expensive’ to do
=Use for most important
content areas only
Enterprise Keywords
Pros
 Easier and more flexible
for users
 Work with legacy
keywords on docs
 Still improve search
Cons
 Harder to manage
 No context
=Use where managed terms
too costly

Management & Tips
1. Taxonomy permissions can be set at Term Group level, so
different departments can manage different branches
2. Terms can be re-used in the taxonomy, but beware of politics
for when definitions get changed e.g. “Client”
3. Each Term Set can have an email contact so users can
request modifications
4. For emerging taxonomies, use a folksonomy approach
initially to grow the term collection
5. Change keywords into managed terms as-needed (but
beware of mis-interpreting original use)
6. Identify site columns that are candidates for managed
metadata
7. Use synonyms for outdated terms or language variants

What to use when – Content Types & Terms
Scenario Solution Examples
A ‘pick list’ that will be
re-used
Term set (managed
metadata)
Products, office locations,
security classification
Mandatory properties
for policy documents
“Policy” content type with
mandatory columns
Owner, expiry, security
classification
A collection of policies Define a “Policy” content
type and use Document Set
HR, IT, Finance policy
documents that all need
common metadata
Meeting event booking
(re-usable)
Custom list based on
“Event” content type
Offsite meeting, training
course
Standard document
templates
Define a Content Type set
to “Document Template”
Letterhead, PowerPoint
with branding
Ad-hoc form to fill in
(no re-use)
Custom list Christmas lunch planning

Folders and other tricks

Folders
Against For
 Can only put content in
“one” place
 Content can get very deeply
buried
 Can’t sort or filter
 Can set metadata defaults
for a folder
 Users very familiar with
them
 Can be a useful way to
manage permissions

Document Sets
 Document sets
deal with multiple
documents as one
entity
 e.g. All files related
to a job applicant
 Can have welcome
page with common
metadata

Social Tags
https://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-
us/product/ThumbNails/comm_ratings.png

Social tags - Usage
 Informal user tagging
– like Delicious
 Can be used to tag
non-SharePoint
content e.g.
Competitor websites
 “I like it” is a reserved
tag viewable in My
Site
 Influences search
rankings

Content Organizer (Drop-off Library)
 Allows automatic routing of documents
 When “Add document” is used, it goes via the
organizer
 Users asked to add metadata
 Pre-determined rules then allocate it to the right
library or folder

Determining Metadata

Existing Sources
 Data Dictionary
 Corporate Databases
 WAND General Business Taxonomy
 Analyze document collections

Card Sorting

What it tells you
 How users naturally cluster concepts
 Can be used to determine taxonomy
 SharePoint Managed Terms
 Can be used to determine navigation
 Site hierarchy and pages
See: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide

Online Approach
 www.optimalsort.com or www.websort.net
 Recruit 30-40 users who work individually and
unobserved

Final Thoughts
 Getting metadata right is iterative
 Don’t be too idealistic - avoid bureaucracy
 Wait for site owners to outgrow basic solutions
before introducing more advanced ones
 Beware of triggering turf wars
 Nobody cares about IA until they object to it

Sam Marshall
Director
sam@clearboxconsulting.co.uk
@sammarshall
+44 1244 458746
ClearBox Consulting
• SharePoint strategy
• Getting sponsorship and support for your intranet
• An independent view on your Steering Group
• SharePoint for effective communications
•Using social tools inside the enterprise
• Effective team collaboration

Metadata Terminology
 Managed metadata = collective name for taxonomy and
keywords
 “Acme Metadata Set”
 Term group = a collection of Term sets
 “Acme products”
 Term set = One branch in a taxonomy of centrally controlled
terms
 “Acme Domestic Rocket Products”
 (Managed) Term = an entry in the taxonomy
 “Acme CoyoteBooster 1000”
 (Enterprise) Keyword = terms in a flat list
 Tag = keyword created by any user
 Term Store = team site nominated to store terms

Sharepoint metadata workshop

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