Users are getting frustrated. Pages are loading too slowly. There are login problems. These ease-of-use issues contradict the very reasons why SharePoint was implemented as an easy content management system in the first place. Users begin to abandon the system entirely, and administration costs increase. These problems are all symptomatic of an unhealthy SharePoint environment.  Like a child’s fever, they are not the illness itself, but an indication that something more may be wrong. It may be a mild cold virus, but it also may be something much more serious that needs immediate medical intervention. If your SharePoint environment also begins to show signs of ill-health, you need to determine a course of action that will put it on the path to recovery and good long-term health.

The analogy between computer system health and human health is common and not inaccurate. After all, the term “virus” was not picked out of a hat to describe a computer-afflicting malady: There are distinct parallels between how a human body is infected with a biological agent and a computer system with a digital one. As with humans and disease, a computer systems’ health should go far beyond preventing and treating malicious malware.  There are many issues that affect the health and welfare of any organization’s computer networks. SharePoint administrators and users alike know all too well the common maladies that afflict SharePoint implementations.  An unhealthy SharePoint environment results in frustration, non-productivity, and higher costs. Therefore, as with your own body, you want to keep your SharePoint environment in tip-top condition.  Organizations tend to deal with problems reactively, waiting until an issue becomes critical before dealing with it. This is a flawed approach that in the long run invariably proves to be far more costly and damaging.

For people, a health care prescription is a program implemented by a doctor that governs a patient’s plan-of-care. It contains orders to be performed by all stakeholders in the plan: doctors, patients, nurses, pharmacists, and so on. The prescriber takes responsibility for the plan and monitors it for efficiency, safety, and outcomes. A technology health care plan is a program implemented by a SharePoint expert that governs the plan-of-care for your SharePoint system. It contains specific orders to be performed by systems administrators, developers, system architects, and other experts.  It also makes clear that the prescriber takes responsibility for the clinical care of the system and monitors the efficiency, safety, and effective.

Like any patient, you want a personalized prescription that treats your particular malady. And you want it to work- you want it to relieve symptoms and hopefully cure the illness.  However, as with any prescription, you must be prepared to follow the orders specifically to make it work.

SharePoint  environments can be kept healthy through three methods: palliative care; curative care; and preventative care. As with human health care, all three have different methods, goals, and outcomes, but all are essential to keeping a healthy SharePoint environment.