Presented at SharePoint Saturday NYC 2018

1. Your Road to Modern Communication Sites
By: D’arce Hess SPSNYC 2018

2. Introductions
D’arce Hess, MVP
President | DH Consulting LLC
dhess@dhconsulting.me
https://darcehess.com
@darcehess
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darcehess

3. Where we came from
Intro to Communication Sites
Customization Capabilities
Where we are going
Looking to Migrate?
Agenda

4. Where we came from
2013
• Custom Master Pages
• Composed Looks
• Display Templates
• Custom Page Layouts
• jslink
• Image Renditions
2010
• Sandbox Solutions
• Color Picker Theming
• Custom Master Pages
• Custom Page Layouts
• FAST Search
• Deep IA Structures
2007
• Full Trust Code
Solutions
• Limited theming
capabilities
• Custom Master Pages
• Custom Page Layouts
Office365
• Modern Experiences
• Delve
• Personalized Search
• SharePoint Framework
• New Web Parts
• No more clunky ribbon
• No Subsites
• Mobile Friendly
• SharePoint App

5. Intro to Communication Sites

6. How to create one
SharePoint Home > Create Site
• Self-Service Site Creation: Specified users
have the ability to provision new sites.
• Future Provisioning will allow for themes to
be applied through site script functionality
• Choose an OOTB Template
• Custom site scripting will allow for custom
templating of sites in near future

7. Your options
Start with a blank site and make your
design come to life quickly and easily
Use this design to showcase a
product, team, or event using photos
or images.
Use this design if you have a lot of
information to share such as news,
events, and other content

8. Easy to edit experiences
• Auto Saves your work
• No more clunky ribbon
• Responsive natively
• Easy to adjust
• Consistent experience

10. Customization Capabilities

11. Your Options for Customization
Configure Customize
Extend Fully Custom
Experiences
Level of ComplexityNo Code Full Code

12. • Text
• Image
• File Viewer
• Link
• Embed
• Highlighted Content
• Bing Maps
• Document Library
• Quick Links
• Site Activity
• Yammer Feed
Out of the Box Web Parts – As of 7/28/18
• Text
• Image
• File Viewer
• Link
• Embed
• Highlighted Content
• Bing Maps
• Document Library
• Quick Links
• Site Activity
• Yammer Feed
• Divider
• Events
• Group Calendar
• Hero
• Image Gallery
• List
• News
• Office 365 Video
• People
• Power BI
• Quick Chart
• Stream
• Spacer
And growing…
• Sites
• Page Properties
• Weather
• Kindle

13. Change the Look - Themes
Change the color theme to one of eight out-of-
the-box themes.
Site Actions > Change the Look

14. Extensions
SharePoint Framework Extensions allow for
developers to code additional functionality
such as:
1) Custom Navigation
2) Footer
3) List Field Controls.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/sharepoint/dev/spfx/extensions/overview-
extensions

15. Deploying a Custom Theme
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/sharepoint/dev/declarative-customization/site-
theming/sharepoint-site-theming-overview
Custom Themes can be created using
the following methods:
• JSON
• Powershell
• CSOM
• REST API

16. SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
Used to create custom web parts that will work in
following versions of SharePoint:
• SharePoint 2016
• SharePoint Online – Classic Sites
• SharePoint Online – Modern Team Sites
• SharePoint Online – Communication Sites
https://github.com/SPShire/sp-dev-
solutions/tree/master/solutions/LinksAndHandlebarsTemplate
Use our web parts from Shire

17. Make a Plan to Migrate

18. The Ideal
The Reality
when not
prepared
The Goal

19. 72%
40%
58%
40% of SharePoint Projects Fail.* Most
common reasons:
• Inadequate user training (67%)
• Hard to use (66%)
• Lack of senior management
support (64%)
Don’t become a Statistic
58% of users report change
management shortcomings*
• What does SharePoint do?
72% lack support for mobile device
use, while 40% say mobile access to
content is “very important”*
* -- AIIM “The Impact of SharePoint” 2016

20. Possibilities are endless
• Don’t pass up the opportunity to make things
better.
• Can processes be simplified?
• Think of what your outcomes should be, not
requirements.
• Set realistic timelines and expectations.
• What can you continue to support?

21. Communication is Key
• Change Management
• Governance through Guidance
• Training when users need it
• IT and Business Stakeholders
• Know your goals
• Understand your constraints – Technology/Resources
• Know your Content
• Understand your audience

22. Governance is a Buzzword not an Outcome
• Guide users to make good decisions – Guidance Site
• Know you can’t control everything
• Will kittens die if ___________ happens?
• Get help
• Know Roles & Responsibilities
• UI/UX – Images, Layouts, mobility
• Development Debt/Maintenance
Know Where to get Help
SharePoint/Office 365 Governance Questions
http://tiny.cc/SharePointGovQuestions
When to Use What in Office 365
http://whentousewhat.com

23. • Brings together related team sites
and communication sites
• Roll up news and site activity
• Search across related sites
• Cross-site navigation
• Consistent look-and-feel across
sites
• Admins create, users adopt and
use
SharePoint Hub Sites

24. Anticipate Bumps in the Road
• Spent a week in a room doing kickoff.
• Everyone
• DEV/BA breakout
• Everyone
• Dinners
• Leverage outside talent – technical and diverse
perspective
• Kittens wont die, make decisions aligned with north star,
don’t sweat the compromises
• Development team includes Designers and
Development when building customizations
• See around the corner
• Regret the classic sites – limit the number of short term
compromises you create
• Identify quick when someone is in the wrong role or
needs more role definition
• Know when you won’t make someone happy and cut your
losses
• Easy to lose momentum on formal training and comms
plans. Not a one and done.
• When going early, test your assumptions and expect
some pain
• Search – early
• Analytics -- early
The Good Opportunity to Change

25. Where we are going

26. Roadmap for Communication Site Owners
• Page Approval Work Flow –Rolling out now
• Custom fonts for themes and background colors
• Global Navigation
• Power Apps Web Part
• Custom Meta Data Columns for Pages
• Organizational News

27. • Please thank our sponsors and staff. Without them, this event would not be possible.
• Please fill out your evaluations. We want to know what we can do better.