About Me

Headshot of Steve Goodyear Hello and welcome!

I’m an entrepreneur with a boutique consulting practice focused on strategy and design for process automation and information management in Microsoft Office 365 and Dynamics 365.

I hold an MBA focused on business research methods, innovation, and strategy, and certifications for PMI PMP (Project Management Professional), PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner), and PMI-PBA (Professional Business Analyst), Prosci CCP (Certified Change Practitioner), as well as a certificate in Technical Writing, and a BA in English.

My 20+ years of professional experience includes international consulting, project management, and business development across North America, Europe, India, China, and the Middle East.

In addition to consulting, I am the author of Practical SharePoint 2013 Governance, Practical SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Content Management, and Productive SharePoint Collaboration.

I hold several Microsoft certifications, including every version of SharePoint from 2003 to 2013, MCSE on Dynamics 365, as well as SQL Server and ASP.NET development. You can learn more about my background on my LinkedIn profile.

Previously, I worked for Microsoft as a SharePoint specialist advising Microsoft’s largest enterprise and government customers around North America. Before joining Microsoft, I was also a Software Engineer and Technical Lead at Electronic Arts.

Get in touch! You can submit using the Contact Me form, or you can send me a message on LinkedIn — I’d love to hear from you!

39Comments

Add yours

1

mike on January 25, 2015 at 11:19 pm
Reply

very informative useful material thanks steve send me a friend invite on linked in
- 2
  
  Steve Goodyear on January 27, 2015 at 7:01 am
  Reply
  
  Thanks Mike! It feels nice to know you’re finding it useful.
3

Ismet Zafar on February 9, 2015 at 11:27 am
Reply

Very good articles, saved me tons of work.

One question though:
How can we display project reports (like “Project overview” or “Cost overview” from MS Project 2013 to SharePoint 2013), if possible at all? by the way I am not using MS Project Server.

your response will be highly appreciated.
Thank you,
- 4
  
  Steve Goodyear on February 9, 2015 at 5:43 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Ismet – that’s great to hear! You need Project Server for a lot of the richer reporting capabilities or you’ll need to do some custom development, but you can experiment a bit with the tasks list views to display different information (like adding a cost column and then displaying its sum for the project or in groups).
  - 5
    
    Ismet Zafar on February 11, 2015 at 11:28 am
    
    Thanks Steve.
6

Dan on February 9, 2015 at 4:16 pm
Reply

Hey Mike,

Got a question about site databases and architecture in a SharePoint 2013 environment. Currently we run a 2007 SharePoint with one site collection. We have 9 hospitals each as a site. We have exceeded the 200 Gb recommended DB size. We have had issues also where we have had to rebuild the DB that has taken down all 9 Hospitals. At times the DB is slow. We would like to have the information for each hospital in its own site collection which would also put it in its own DB. What do you see as the Pro’s and Con’s to this type of architecture? Pretty much content is unique to each hospital and we would lie to keep administration separate but give it the look and feel of a parent child relationship through a central company site. What are your thoughts pros and cons to this type of thinking?
- 7
  
  Steve Goodyear on February 9, 2015 at 5:47 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Dan – I agree with your thinking to increase the number of site collections. It sounds like you are on the right path. I generally target my content databases to be less than 25GB because I find that to be the most manageable and performant. I only use 200-500GB content databases for archival or records repository site collections.
  
  Your best bet is to engage with an architect consultant to help guide your design, but I did write a post a while back on choosing between sites and site collections which may help you get started: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sgoodyear/archive/2009/07/25/determining-between-sharepoint-site-collections-and-sub-sites.aspx
8

Dan on February 10, 2015 at 10:55 am
Reply

Thanks for the link. It was a good read although I believe it was based on 2007. I believe, and you can correct me if I am wrong, that I can configure web crawling search across multiple site collections with the SharePoint 2013 search under the standard license agreement. All bets aside there is no money for an architect consultant. Should I post this in another section where it is easier for your readers to find? I am thinking about posting my progress here for your readers to see if you think that your audience would find value in that and I can get appropriate feedback. Let me know your thoughts here. I don’t what to mess up your site with unwanted content or questions.
- 9
  
  Steve Goodyear on February 10, 2015 at 12:44 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Dan – I’m glad that helped! Yes, the site collection architecture really hasn’t changed since SharePoint 2003.
  
  I’m not sure many people follow these comments. You’ll probably find more of an audience to follow your progress in one of the SharePoint community forums like https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/home?category=sharepoint
10

George Fardellas on March 23, 2015 at 8:15 am
Reply

Thank you very much Steve for the proposed WBS!
I am ICT trainee right now and I try to make a system analysis about a SharePoint Pilot in my organization. This will conduct my project plan and my documentation.
Thanks again.
- 11
  
  Steve Goodyear on March 23, 2015 at 12:33 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi George – You’re welcome! I’m happy to hear you found it so helpful and it’s giving you the right documentation. I hope your pilot goes well!
12

Shane on May 20, 2015 at 1:28 pm
Reply

Hi Steve,

At the company where I work, we are using an older version of Sharepoint (not sure of the version number). Our site is set up to take print orders, and when saved, Sharepoint generates an “order number” which is then associated with the file / job. My question: is it possible on jobs that have the same content to fill in for future repeat orders, can there be a way to apply a “save as” on an older form and be able to generate a new “order number”, even though you had started the file from working on an older form which already had a unique number associated with it. The purpose would be to save time on refilling out a lot of forms which have been done in the past, and to be able to generate a new order number from older files already created. We have a edit tab which allows us to go into an old form, but the order number will still be the same when saved. To get a new order number, it seems that the only way is to create the file from scratch, which means a lot of copying and pasting from file to file.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Shane
- 13
  
  Steve Goodyear on December 4, 2015 at 6:42 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Shane, I think this can be done. I would look at creating a button on the ribbon using an Action, and then you can write some JavaScript that could copy data from the current form and use that to create a new item.
14

amit on September 16, 2015 at 5:54 am
Reply

Hi Steve, Need your help. I need to display dashboard for management on Sharepoint site. the data has to come from project professional 2013 Plan. how can I. I am using sharepoint foundation and project professional 2013? Any help would be appreciable. Its Urgent.
- 15
  
  Steve Goodyear on December 4, 2015 at 6:40 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Amit, You can save your MPP project plan to a SharePoint task list, and then query that list for your dashboard (maybe start with the KPI web part in SharePoint). Hope this helps!
16

Richard Kraneis on November 9, 2015 at 8:18 am
Reply

Steve,

I found your name via your introductory SharePoint book that’s free on Kindle via Amazon. I’m also a PMP who wishes to learn more about using SharePoint.

I am sending you a LinkedIn invitation and hope you will accept.

Thanks Steve.

Richard Kraneis, PMP
Chicago, IL USA
- 17
  
  Steve Goodyear on December 4, 2015 at 6:39 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Richard, it’s great to meet you! I hope you enjoyed that book 🙂
18

Gail Carmichael on December 28, 2015 at 2:07 pm
Reply

Hi Steve, I’ve been reading a number of your articles and have found them very informative. My company is planning for migration to SP 2013 and is looking for a consultant. Do you do this type of consulting work, or can you recommend someone? Thanks so much.

Gail Carmichael
SharePoint Administrator
MCR, LLC
- 19
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 6:03 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Gail, I do occasionally do this type of consulting, but I find with the right plan and tools you might not even need me. My favourite SharePoint migration tool is ShareGate — they seem like a nice company and the tool works well and it is priced more fairly than most of the others.
20

braby73 on February 5, 2016 at 9:12 am
Reply

Hello Steve. I am struggling with a particular issue after the setup of SharePoint 2013. I have looked up many fixes and nothing seems to be working. I am receiving a configuration failed, failed to create the configuration database. microsoft.sharepoint.upgrade.SPUpgradeexcetpion was thrown. This occurs when I run the SP Products configuration wizard. It hangs at configurationstask 3 of 10. Initially i had a permissions error but gave db creater owner and all other permissions. I made it through pre reqs and cant figure this out to save my life. I have the log file if needed but it doesn’t say much either. I am using server 2012 r2 and SQL 2008 r2. Any help would be great. Thank you

Brandon
- 21
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 6:00 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Brandon, indeed it sounds like a permissions issue to me too. I would run the command prompt as a farm administrator and perform the upgrade using psconfig.exe to see if that helps resolve your issue.
22

Venkat on March 7, 2016 at 3:28 pm
Reply

its very useful and thank you for your valuable time and create such a beautiful info
- 23
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 5:58 pm
  Reply
  
  Thanks Venkat! I appreciate your kind words.
24

Rudi Anger on March 11, 2016 at 7:31 am
Reply

Hi Steve,

Just found your website and it looks like it will be very useful! I am trying to create a truly usable SP site at work for our three divisions. I just reviewed https://stevegoodyear.wordpress.com/sharepoint-2013-deployment-project-plan-template/

Question: Do you have a more scaled down simplified plan? I ask because I’m not sure I need all those steps. What we are trying to do is create three SP sections within our overall office. Each would include a calendar, forms for review, HR sections, etc. I need to get people from each division on the team…then plan the updates and make them happen.

I’m searching the internet for a simple plan (would include common project management elements to follow) for anyone trying to update their Sharepoint site. I hope that all made sense!

Thank you!
Rudi
- 25
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 5:57 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Rudi, That plan focuses on deploying the infrastructure to host a SharePoint farm. It doesn’t really address the types of tasks you would use for individual sites unfortunately. I would break those tasks down into an iterative plan: meet, brainstorm some ideas on a whiteboard, go configure the site, pilot it with users, get feedback, repeat. Sometimes keeping it simple and getting users hands-on is the best way.
26

Joanna on April 22, 2016 at 6:56 am
Reply

Hello Steve,
Thank you for your helpful site and book. I am tasked with planning and implementing a redeploy of my company’s SP site. I’m supposedly only supposed to be a level 1 support person, so I feel like I am way out of my league with this. I have reviewed your project plan. Could you suggest any additional resources that could help me? I am very overwhelmed and would like to hire a consultant to help. Any suggestions on how to go about doing that? Any advice you could provide would be appreciated. Thank you for your assistance.
- 27
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 5:54 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Joanna, I hope your redeploy has been going well! I shared a list of the roles & responsibilities I typically like to include to offer a stable SharePoint service:
  https://stevegoodyear.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/sharepoint-roles-and-responsibilities/
  This can help identify what kinds of skills need to be involved and whether you have any gaps that a consultant could fill.
28

Tamu Taylor on May 26, 2016 at 6:30 am
Reply

Thank you for sharing this information!
- 29
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 5:50 pm
  Reply
  
  You’re very welcome Tamu — Thanks for your kind words!
30

Jason on June 24, 2016 at 10:20 am
Reply

Hi Steve,

I was reviewing your “Practical SharePoint 2013 Governance” book, as my company recently did a SharePoint 2013 upgrade, and we are establishing our governance for customers who use our service. One of the governance items we are currently looking at is how we evaluate customer requests for installing 3rd party tools. Do you have an evaluation tool that you use that identifies pass/fail criteria for helping you determine whether or not to install a 3rd party tool? If so, could you share that with me?
- 31
  
  Steve Goodyear on August 2, 2016 at 5:50 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Jason, there is this old article I used to use from all the way back for SharePoint 2007: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb985502(v=office.12).aspx
  Generally I follow similar tests still. If you still have my governance book, then Chapters 13 and 14 have a lot of detail for how I plan and test customizations/components to keep SharePoint stable.
32

Eddie on November 27, 2016 at 11:40 pm
Reply

Hello. Great article. I’m doing a relocation of my servers and I was wondering about the reconfiguration of sharepoint as I would need to change the hostname of the servers. Do you have a guide on which services are to be selected for the web front end servers and app servers during the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard? Thanks
- 33
  
  Steve Goodyear on July 16, 2020 at 5:06 pm
  Reply
  
  The wizard doesn’t set the different server roles. That will be handled when you manage the services that run on each server (in Central Admin > Services on Servers). One thing you would set in the Config Wizard is what server the Central Admin site is hosted on, so that would get you started.
34

Fabrice on February 25, 2017 at 10:33 am
Reply

Hello Steve, thank you a lot for this information , I would like to get in touch with you.

Thank you,
Fabrice
- 35
  
  Steve Goodyear on July 16, 2020 at 5:07 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Fabrice, I set up a “Contact Me” form on the top navigation there that will send me a note if you like.
36

Ed Allan on August 3, 2017 at 4:53 am
Reply

How can I contact you? Can I have email address Steve?
- 37
  
  Steve Goodyear on July 16, 2020 at 5:08 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Ed, I set up a “Contact Me” form on the top navigation there that will send me a note if you like.
38

Jaisri Parthasarathy on December 28, 2017 at 11:48 am
Reply

Hi Steve, I have looked high and low but haven’t found a way to incorporate Activity into the team site on SP 2013. I want to add a web part similar to what one sees on SP Online version. Can this be done on SP 2013?

Thanks
- 39
  
  Steve Goodyear on July 16, 2020 at 5:09 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Jaisri, maybe not in SharePoint 2013, but later versions offer this type of functionality on a site. You could build a custom list that has the activity posts, and then add a web part or build a custom web part that would replicate this functionality.

Share this: