Sharepoint 2010: company with several departments site structure question

Question

I have to create a team site with Sharepoint 2010 for a company that has several departments. Requirements (simplified) are:

Top Menu: company / department-A / department-B

Main-page (default, home page):

• company news
• department-A tasks
• department-B tasks
• company quick launch menu (on the left)

Department-A-page

• department-A news
• department-A tasks
• department-A quick launch menu (on the left)

Department-B-page

• department-B news
• department-B tasks
• department-B quick launch menu (on the left)

So I have 2 lists of departments tasks to share between pages. I have to create personalized quick launch menu per each page (home, department-A, department-B) also.

How can I do this?

If I create several site pages (one page per department) and customize top level menu, then I can't customize quick launch menu per page. Because it seems to be the only one for the whole site.

If I create nested team sites (one site per department) I can't share task lists anymore?

What are the ways to customize quick launch menu per every page or share lists between sites?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

I recommend you to create sub-sites for each department and store department-specific data under them. It will help you in future (when sites will grow) to:

• not have mess of lists in home site
• create department site template (to create site for department "C" in few clicks)
• sitemap and navigation controls will be automatically populated
• easier to configure permissions (no need to set-up permissions for each departmental list)

The only disadvantage of this approach is that it will be more complex to show task from child site on the home site (do you really need it?). However this can be achieved by implemented custom webpart or using dataview webpart (xslt).

QuickLaunch can be customized from site settings or from code (for example via features).

Let me know if you have any other questions.