Top Responsibilities of a SharePoint Manager 2013: A Complete Guide

How to Succeed as a SharePoint Manager 2013: Skills, Tools, and Best Practices

Overview

A SharePoint Manager 2013 is responsible for planning, deploying, securing, and optimizing SharePoint environments that support collaboration, content management, and business processes. Success in this role requires a mix of technical proficiency, project and stakeholder management, governance, and continuous improvement. This article outlines the essential skills, recommended tools, and practical best practices to excel as a SharePoint Manager 2013.

Core Skills

• Technical proficiency

  • Thorough understanding of SharePoint 2013 architecture: web applications, site collections, service applications, App model, search, and User Profile Service.
  • Familiarity with Windows Server, IIS, SQL Server, Active Directory, and networking fundamentals.
  • PowerShell scripting for automation and bulk operations.
  • Knowledge of authentication methods (Claims-based, SAML/ADFS) and authorization.
  • Basic understanding of related Microsoft technologies (Office Web Apps/Office Online Server, Exchange integration).

• Administration & maintenance

  • Backup and restore strategies for SharePoint and SQL Server.
  • Patch management and cumulative updates—testing and staged rollout procedures.
  • Performance monitoring and capacity planning.

• Information architecture & taxonomy

  • Designing site hierarchies, site columns, content types, and managed metadata.
  • Defining navigation, search refiners, and enterprise content types for findability.

• Governance & compliance

  • Creating governance policies covering provisioning, lifecycle, permissions, retention, and auditing.
  • Implementing compliance controls and eDiscovery readiness.

• Project & stakeholder management

  • Translating business needs into SharePoint solutions and managing expectations.
  • Prioritizing requests, managing roadmaps, and coordinating with developers/IT/security teams.

• User adoption & training

  • Building training materials, runbooks, and quick-reference guides.
  • Running workshops, brown-bags, and champion programs to drive adoption.

Recommended Tools

• Administration & Monitoring

  • SharePoint Central Administration and PowerShell (mandatory).
  • SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for DB tasks.
  • IIS Manager for web application troubleshooting.
  • SCOM (System Center Operations Manager) or third-party monitoring tools (e.g., SolarWinds) for health and performance monitoring.

• Backup & Recovery

  • Native SQL backups + SharePoint farm backup scripts.
  • Third-party solutions (e.g., AvePoint, Veeam) for granular restores and easier recovery.

• Search & Analytics

  • Search administration tools in Central Admin and PowerShell.
  • Analytics tools (Web Analytics/Usage Logs, Google Analytics via integration) for adoption insights.

• Development & Customization

  • Visual Studio for SharePoint solutions and app development.
  • Fiddler and ULS Viewer for debugging.
  • SPMetal/CSOM/REST tools for integrations.

• Governance & Documentation

  • Confluence/SharePoint itself for documentation.
  • Excel/Visio for architecture diagrams and capacity planning.
  • PowerShell scripts repository (version-controlled).

Best Practices

Architecture & Planning

• Start with a clear requirements-gathering phase: capture business scenarios, expected growth, and compliance needs.
• Design for scale: separate service applications and optimize SQL Server for SharePoint databases (filegroup layouts, maintenance plans).
• Use web application and service application isolation to support multi-tenancy and security boundaries.

Security & Permissions

• Follow the least-privilege principle: assign permissions at the SP Group level where possible; avoid unique permissions on many items.
• Use claims-based authentication and, if needed, integrate with ADFS or SAML providers for single sign-on.
• Regularly review and clean up user permissions; automate reports on broken inheritance and excessive privileges.

Governance & Lifecycle

• Create a governance plan that covers site provisioning, ownership, retention policies, and decommissioning.
• Implement a site provisioning process (self-service with approvals or IT-driven templates) to maintain consistency.
• Define SLAs for support requests and document escalation paths.

Backup, Updates & Recovery

• Implement a documented backup and recovery strategy; regularly test restores in a non-production environment.
• Maintain a patching cadence: test cumulative updates in a staging environment before production deployment.
• Keep an inventory of customizations and third-party solutions; ensure compatibility before updates.

Performance & Monitoring

• Monitor health via Central Admin, ULS logs, and server metrics (CPU, memory, disk