Item: MS SharePoint / SQL
Rating: 8
Author: Gene Baker

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

MS Sharepoint / SQL Server is used as an enterprise solution to allow our teams to collaborate and share information and files. As the enterprise solution, I have used this for several very large programs that I have been in charge of the technical side. One was a massive database retooling for our application suite. The second large program was for a very large divestiture to make sure all data belonging to the divested team is identified and transmitted to the purchasing organization. We have team SharePoint sites set up for both programs and within the various work streams, each workstream had its own site.

Pros and Cons

Collaboration and sharing of information.
Security, allowing access to only those individuals with a need to know.

It can be a little hard to master so you need to take time to read the various primers available to know how to configure and deploy SharePoint. Do you use Foundation, 365 or Server?

Alternatives Considered

Google Drive and Atlassian Confluence

At the time of the two large projects, SharePoint was the enterprise solution so we were required to use that. We have since lobbied the enterprise teams to review and consider Atlassian Confluence and were successful. Confluence is cheaper than Sharepoint which is why we wanted to bring that in. The enterprise has now made Confluence an enterprise solution as an alternative to SharePoint. After using both I think SharePoint has many more add-ins than Confluence. It has much more customization ability than Confluence. SharePoint is not good for mobile readiness. Confluence is so there is a difference that might lead you to Confluence over SharePoint. I would also say that SharePoint is very document-centric and that Confluence has better KM than SharePoint does. even with the use of SQL Server. We were told that we could not use Google Drive even though it had features we liked.

Other Software Used

Atlassian Confluence, MongoDB, AWS Lambda

Likelihood to Recommend

We have used it successfully as mentioned on two large programs, but again it is an enterprise tool so I am only speaking from the standpoint of my team. Hundreds of teams across our enterprise use this every day. We keep our decision tracker out there as well as important program documents required by our SDLC process like requirements, etc. We also publish test results for the team to see. We use SharePoint to share test data across the organization as we can not just email files back and forth. We can rely on the security settings of SharePoint to allow access to only those team members that need to see the test data. And even though our test data is masked, we still control access to it. I would recommend that any team can benefit from using SharePoint and it gives a good place to store program/project files. It becomes the source of the truth and you just keep putting the most current versions and save them to SharePoint.

MS Sharepoint is the one collaboration tool you need.

Overall Satisfaction with MS SharePoint / SQL

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros and Cons

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Likelihood to Recommend

MS SharePoint / SQL Feature Ratings