Bill Baer /bɛːr/

Governance relates to decisions that define expectations, manage access, and validate performance and investment performance defined by established processes and procedures.  The information here contains references to governance resources as related to SharePoint 2010, for additional information see also Governance Overview (SharePoint Server 2010).

Resources

Resource Center (Governance in SharePoint Server 2010)

The Governance Resource Center provides documentation, references, and solutions to help IT Professionals plan and prepare to govern SharePoint 2010 environments.  The Governance Resource Center aligns to three (3) specific areas:

1. IT Governance
2. Information Management
3. Application Management

Resource Center (ALM Resource Center | SharePoint 2010)

The ALM Resource Center provides documentation, resources, references, and solutions to help Developers with the coordination of all aspects of software engineering.

Whitepaper (SharePoint 2010 Governance Planning)

The SharePoint 2010 Governance Planning whitepaper targets the business value of governance and provides guidance for the necessary governance planning and implementation of SharePoint Server 2010.

Whitepaper (Implementing Governance in SharePoint 2010)

This document focuses on the product and technology aspects of SharePoint governance – the technical implementation. It provides high-level guidance on the many configuration options SharePoint provides to enable you to manage the environment for the benefit of all.

Publication (Essential SharePoint 2010: Overview, Governance, and Planning (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series)

Essential SharePoint 2010 provides information derived from a business value perspective that documents and illustrates how to plan and implement SharePoint 2010-based solutions to maximize business results.

Tools and Utilities

Tool (SharePoint Site Recycle Bin)

Track, report, and protect deleted sites and site collections with the SharePoint Site Recycle Bin.

The SharePoint Site Recycle Bin is a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 solution package that when deployed to a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 server farm enables administrators to create a snapshot of subscriptions, site collections and Webs as they are deleted through the SharePoint user interface, the SharePoint Administration Tool, the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, SharePoint 2010 Central Administration, or SharePoint Designer.

Solutions

Active Directory Domain Services Markers

Active Directory Domain Services Markers can be used to prevent and report on SharePoint installations in your organization.

Quotas

Quotas are used to specify limits to the amount of storage that can be used by a site collection and establish resource limits on sandboxed solutions.

Locks

Locks are used to prevent users from from adding content to or accessing site collections.

Self-Service Site Creation

Self-Service Site Creation is used to allow or prevent  users from creating site collections on demand.

For a comprehensive list of governance features see also http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262287.aspx.