So you have SharePoint 2007 rolled out, and things are going great for you as the SharePoint Administrator - the one in charge of this wonderful product your company has finally elected to use for the organization! 

But wait.  Do you have a governance strategy in place?  Do you need one?  Are you wondering what governance is, really?  You'll find that governance is defined as the rules which address how SharePoint will be set up, organized, and managed.  Imagine our country and states with absolutely no government - complete autonomy.  Think there would be utter chaos and anarchy?  You betcha!  The same goes for SharePoint.  It is likely very important for you and your organization to have a governance plan of some degree in place to avoid any disorder or confusion.  But how tightly should SharePoint governance controls be set for your organization?  This is an important question for several reasons:

• How much freedom do you want to allow in your plan? Do you want to allow the Marketing Department the ability to add custom design to their site and add their own web parts?
• How many controls in SharePoint need to be set in place versus how much written policy and communication regarding the rules is sent out to users in the organization?
• If governance is too tight and restrictive, will users even adopt and use it?
• If governance is too permissible, will or could SharePoint eventually stop working?
• Is your organization interested in having a branded SharePoint product across the board, for all departments and sites, or should each organizational department be able to identify its own look, brand and feel?

These and many other questions may be asked when considering whether you need a governance plan and how that plan should look.  Many of the answers will depend on things like company culture, company size, the industry, public or private, and so forth.  Keep in mind that adoption is everything - if users don't like and won't use their given site(s) as originally planned and hoped, will the ROI for SharePoint be there in the end?

Let's suppose your organization has 15,000 employees and is heavily regulated by the SEC, SOX, and several other agencies.  You may want a rather intricate governance plan, as well as a committee to help create and implement that plan.  The SharePoint Governance Kit would be beneficial, as it will help you quickly navigate around SharePoint and Central Administration to implement and manage all of your necessary governance controls.