Most would agree it is important to establish a Governance Strategy of some degree, but how will this strategy or plan be conceived?  Let's suppose you are the SharePoint Administrator.  Will you create this plan on your own and then pass it around to your boss, the CIO and a couple good business contacts for their approval?  It is likely this will not be good enough to support effective governance for SharePoint.  Of course, there may be exceptions to this, as your company may be small - less than 100 people - and you may be the SharePoint Administrator as well as one of the owners or leaders.  If this is the case, you may be able to effectively document a strategy as well as communicate the plan along with all associated policies and rules.  But, what if your company grows quicker than expected to 250 employees?  Will you still want to be running this governance gamut alone?  Consider at least two things:

• SharePoint tends to snowball in usage as time goes on. Many users discover it, and as soon as they truly adopt and "get it," their reliance on the product increases significantly.
• Many, if not most, established companies have downsized or are downsizing now only to anticipate rebuilding and realizing growth in the next five years. *Part of your committee's challenge will be to address ROI -- how to ultimately use SharePoint to maximize your company's operational efficiencies and revenues and spur growth for your company.

It would be prudent to expect growth for your company, form a cohesive committee, and create a solid plan for increased usage over the next few years.  Once you have decided that a Governance Committee should be formed, the next question is, "Who should be on this committee?"  In some cases a better question may be, "Who should not be on this committee?"  You certainly do not want anyone's time wasted, and you also do not want anyone wasting the committee's time.  Forming the correct committee is the first step towards good end-user adoption.

Choose your committee candidates wisely.  Can you develop a list of candidates on your own?  You might be able to, or you might want the help of a couple others - this really depends on who you are, who you know in the company and the size or breadth of your company.  If you decide you need help and are unsure of where to start, talk with your Director, VP or CIO.  They should be able to help you get a good start and can help you connect with others to help form a list of appropriate candidates.  Your management team also may have a sound idea of some persons who absolutely should be on the committee.

Some things to keep in mind when selecting candidates:

• Who is/are the sponsor/s of SharePoint? Who in leadership championed this product and brought it into the company? Who is the purse holder? The answer may be you. Or the answer may be the COO and the Marketing Executive. Sponsors should be part of the committee.
• Who are the Stakeholders? Stakeholders are typically business or operational leaders whose work, agendas, departments or SBUs will be directly impacted by SharePoint. If many Stakeholders are identified, two or three may be elected to represent all Stakeholders.
• Does your company have any Business Analysts who happen to know both business processes and SharePoint well? BAs can sometimes be over-looked, but the truth is that a good BA will have an ability to gain the trust of and communicate well with business leaders as well as IT personnel. Need some promotional energy and charisma? This would be a good person to consider having on the committee. It is ironic that BAs can sometimes be overlooked to sit on a governance committee, because it is often a BA who will think of things or areas often over-looked by Sponsors, Stakeholders or various IT Administrators or Managers.
• Who are the Power Users in your company? Power Users are typically non-management end users of various levels who have a good applicable knowledge of business processes as well as the product. Power Users are sometimes the most effective persons on the committee because of their working knowledge of the (SharePoint) system and are regularly using the product to complete their daily operational tasks. Like Business Analysts, Power Users can and often will address items that may be over-looked by others on the committee.
• Can you think of any IT employees who ought to be on the committee? The CIO, SharePoint Administrator, Database Administrator, Infrastructure Manager, Support Desk Manager, BI Manager and Managers of any integrated products are all IT persons to consider. Again, this depends on the size and breadth of your company as well as the stake these various people may have in SharePoint.
• Do you have a Legal Department and/ or a Compliance Department? Depending on how SharePoint is going to be used in your company, you may want to have representation from Legal and Compliance on the committee. Attractive decisions are only good if they are legal and compliant.

The gravity or reality of forming a committee is that not everyone chosen will actually care about the product compared to others who very much understand the potential impact of SharePoint and care about its direction in and for the company.  It is imperative to have people on the governance committee who understand the importance of good governance and who will proactively get involved with all the governance decisions to be made.  If you have any apathetic committee members, no matter what their title may be, you risk the quality of governance.  Try at all costs to avoid having any prop-heads on the committee.

So, how do you rally all these candidates to join the committee amongst their busy schedules?  This can be somewhat of an art and again depends on who you are and who you know - or better yet, who knows you and trusts you.  If you are the SharePoint Administrator in IT and feel timid or like your interpersonal skills are shaky at best, you may want to solicit the help of a good IT/Business liaison to help you champion the idea of a committee to all the selected candidates.  This can sometimes require a lot of networking, promoting and charisma (and sometimes just good ol' fashioned teeth-pulling), as it is not always immediately clear or evident to high-level managers why any of their time should be spent on SharePoint Governance decisions.

Always remember that the beginning of a good strategic plan for SharePoint Governance begins with the right Governance Committee...