Microsoft SharePoint Online is a web-based, collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft 365. The product is provided to Michigan Medicine staff to better facilitate collaboration through easy and convenient sharing of web pages, documentation, calendar information, tasks and more.

The Michigan Medicine SharePoint Online platform in designed to offer Michigan Medicine teams a standard, self-service, out-of-the-box experience however there are limited scenarios where customization within the platform is allowed.

This Knowledge Base article describes the prerequisites and process required for approval of custom development.

Prerequisites for Michigan Medicine-endorsed custom development within the SharePoint Online platform:

1. All custom web parts, add-ins, libraries, and frameworks must be aligned with the Michigan Medicine Intranet Strategy and endorsed by the Department of Communication as aligned with the Intranet Strategy.

2. All custom web parts, add-ins, libraries, and frameworks must be assured through a Michigan Medicine Investment Assurance Request (MMIAR).

Custom Add-In Ownership

Each add-in must have a business owner and technical owner as a condition for approval and installation in the SPO production tenant.  The add-in technical owner must be a registered Michigan Medicine Trusted Service Provider (TSP).  As a TSP, the add-in technical owner is expected to be familiar with HITS technical delivery policies and processes and expectations of a technical owner.

In the event of an add-in technical owner leaving Michigan Medicine or otherwise not being able to fulfill the responsibilities of a product technical owner, the business owner will be responsible for replacing the technical owner with a new add-in technical owner or the add-in will qualify for removal from the SPO production tenant.   

Custom Add-In Development and Testing

Custom Add-In's should be thoroughly tested prior to submitting for approval for SharePoint Online installation into the production environment.  For custom Add-ins that will be custom developed or extended by a Michigan Medicine team member, the author may request a temporary (60 day) license to the SharePoint Online POC (non-production) tenant.  The temporary (60 day) license can be requested through the SharePoint Online Support catalog item.   This will allow development and thorough testing of the add-in in the SharePoint Online POC (non-production) environment.  This option is available through a new ServiceNow catalog item introduced with this process.       

Custom Add-In Approval and Installation

The SharePoint Online technical ownership team, (currently HITS-BusIT-Administrative Applications), are responsible for approval of the custom Add-in request as well as installation of the custom Add-in. 

Once the Business and Technical owners of the Custom Add-In have satisfied the prerequisites (Department of Communication endorsement and MMIAR assurance) and have successfully tested the Custom Add-In they will need to Submit a Request to the SharePoint Online platform technical owners to install the Custom Add-In in the SharePoint Online tenant application catalog.  

On approval, the SharePoint Online technical ownership team will install the add-in into the SharePoint Online production tenant application catalog, which will make the add-in available to all site collections within the environment. 

Custom Add-In Support and Maintenance

The following defines support and maintenance responsibilities of the Add-in technical owner.  Support Incidents that are received by the SharePoint Online technical ownership group (Administrative Applications) will be assigned to the add-in technical owner by Admin Apps for the following:

• General Support Requests for add-in features and functionality or break-fix
• SharePoint Online Platform compatibility issues
• Vulnerability Remediation for add-ins and add-in dependencies including libraries, frameworks (i.e. NodeJS, Fluent UI, etc.)
• Version Updates for add-ins and add-in dependencies including libraries, frameworks (i.e. NodeJS, Fluent UI, etc.)

The add-in technical owner is expected to engage on the incident assignment within 2 business days.  In cases where the add-in technical owner does not engage within 10 business days, the SharePoint Online technical ownership group will have the option to remove the add-in from the SharePoint Online production tenant.

The SharePoint Online technical ownership group will be responsible for installation of new or updated custom add-ins into the SharePoint Online tenant application catalog.