“You don’t have permission.” How
many times do your SharePoint users hear this statement and don’t really know
what you are talking about? When you ask what group a person should be a part
of to grant requests– do you receive an answer something along the lines of
“whatever x user name has.” How can
users better understand permissions?
Let’s start with exploring People
and Groups and Site Permissions, these two components comprise the foundation
of site access.
Groups
Let’s start with People and Groups.
First navigate to the gear icon next to your user name, second select site
settings, third from the “Users and Permissions” select “People and Groups,”
and finally from your left side navigation select “Groups” to view the groups
associated with your site.

The first concept to understand is
SharePoint groups. Now that you’ve selected the Groups option from the left
side navigation look at the options that are present. In most cases you’ll see
Members, Owners and Visitors combined with the site name. In the example below
the site is named “Nora” so each group is named in alignment with this pattern.


Think of a group as “where you are
providing permissions” – this group is associated with that site. Groups in
life are made up of people – the same is true with groups in SharePoint – it’s
where you cluster people in order to provide them with permissions. The group
name gives an idea of the permissions that a group member has. Groups map to
permissions.
To find out who is in a group, select the group you want to
examine. In the example below, “Nora Owners” was selected to reveal the group
membership.

From this selection, you will see there are two members of
the Nora Owners group.

Permissions
Think
of permissions as the “powers” that your users have within your site. To
evaluate permissions, begin by selecting the gear icon next to your name. Next
select “Site Settings” followed by selecting “Site permissions” from “Users and
Permissions.”

From within the ribbon, select “Permission Levels.”

From this selection, you can view the permission levels
within your site.


Select into any permission level to see the detail of the
permission set. Permissions are outlined for lists, sites and personal options.
List
Permissions
Any items on the list below that are checked are permissions
which are enabled for this site. List permissions allow a user to manage lists,
create lists, edit items, delete items, etc. See the comprehensive list below.

Site
Permissions
Any items on the list below that
are checked are permissions which are enabled for this site. Site permissions
allow the management of the individual site. Users with these permissions can
update user permissions, create subsites, as well as manage the site and its content.
See the comprehensive list below.

Personal
Permissions
Finally, personal permissions
outline what users can do to “personalize” their user experience. This includes
such tasks as creating views and managing web parts. See the comprehensive list
below.

Understanding the fundamental
concepts of groups and permissions will assist users in making appropriate
requests for access and lead to the opportunity for users to manage permissions
for their own sites.
-Nora
If you're interested in learning more about Project Management for SharePoint, consider attending our SharePoint Project Managment Symposium in June. Nora will be co-presenting at the event. Hope to see you there!
For free opportunities to earn PDU credit, consider registering for a SharePoint Roundtable in your community!
About Nora Ten Broeck, PMP,
MOS: SharePoint 2013: Nora is a SharePoint enthusiast and
expert-in-the-making with interests in collaboration, project management and
improved business processes. Follow her @NoraTenBroeck