Visualise key resources when using SharePoint for Project Sites

ProvisionPoint recently announced a Person or Group column type for using on request forms for SharePoint sites, Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams. There are several practical uses for this column type. One of these is to identify key resources on a project, specifically when a SharePoint site is used to manage that project.

The blog post series on using SharePoint in the construction sector highlighted how ProvisionPoint 365 could improve the governance of project sites. As project sites are one of the most common uses of Office 365 and SharePoint, ProvisionPoint 365 is able to provide solutions across a wide range of sectors. Therefore, capturing and visualising key resources on a project further enhances the benefits ProvisionPoint 365 provides for managing project sites.

An example solution

To demonstrate the capability of the Person or Group column type I will use an example of creating project sites using ProvisionPoint 365. In this example, I have created some columns using the Person or Group column type. Specifically, these are

• Project Manager – A mandatory column which supports the selection of a single user
• Project Admins – A optional column which supports the selection of a multiple users
• Project Team – A mandatory column which supports the selection of a single security group

The columns have been included in a request form in ProvisionPoint 365.

These columns demonstrate the flexibility available in ProvisionPoint 365 for configuring a Person or Group column to meet specific requirements whether that is supporting only a single value or limiting to certain types of data.

In ProvisionPoint 365 a project manager completes the form to request a Modern SharePoint Team Site. The created site includes various customisations including displaying the request form information on the home page.

A central site directory in SharePoint is used to provide a way for users to find the correct project site easily. ProvisionPoint 365 automatically creates a record in this directory each time a new site is provisioned, including data from any columns in the request form.

At ProvisionPoint, we have found that a site directory is a common requirement for our customers. It allows them to find SharePoint sites using their relevant classification data. In this example, the list of sites in the directory can easily be filtered by Project Manager, Project Admin and Project Team.

Taking it further

The example above is only one option for using this new capability in ProvisionPoint 365. This solution can be extended with other request field columns, which could be used to define the URL of the SharePoint site. Also, a Microsoft Team for the project could be created in addition to the SharePoint site.

If you would like to find out more about using the Person or Group column type as part of Office 365 provisioning solution, please contact us for a demo.