Forum Discussion
Understanding Groups vs Team Sites, need help
Hey everyone, I'm struggling to understand the differences between these two site types, as we are starting to roll out SPO through our organization. Just having a few questions before I write u...
Team sites - just basic sharepoint and nothing else
Group sites - sharepoint + a bunch of out-of-the-box collaboration tools
Groups does not replace teams, there are still countless use cases for non-groupified team sites
Team sites and Group sites can both be "Modern", there are differences between the look and feel but you can make pretty much anything in either site modern or classic
My general criteria:
If it is a thing that has a set purpose and set membership (like a workgroup, a project team, an organizational group), then it gets a Group site
If it is something else (a site for managing a particular type of document, a particular electronic form/workflow solution, etc) then just give it a Team site
You'll find Groups provisions lots of tools, and if you make everything a group, you'll end up with a lot of digital garbage.
Group sites - sharepoint + a bunch of out-of-the-box collaboration tools
Groups does not replace teams, there are still countless use cases for non-groupified team sites
Team sites and Group sites can both be "Modern", there are differences between the look and feel but you can make pretty much anything in either site modern or classic
My general criteria:
If it is a thing that has a set purpose and set membership (like a workgroup, a project team, an organizational group), then it gets a Group site
If it is something else (a site for managing a particular type of document, a particular electronic form/workflow solution, etc) then just give it a Team site
You'll find Groups provisions lots of tools, and if you make everything a group, you'll end up with a lot of digital garbage.
Thanks Brent, this helps me understand a lot of what's going on. Just have a few follow-up questions.
Is there a process for creating modern sites in SPO? We have a government tenant, which I know limits a lot of our options, but within the Admin Center I don't see any options for Modern sites, it states that the site will be "created with 2013 experience". Are we limited to just creating a modern pages at this time? I do understand that Modern sites will still have the underlying 2013 look/feel, but wanted to limit how much the users see this content.
The plan for groups/team sites is similar to what I've written out in our governance plan, so good to know I've been headed in the right direction.
Thanks,
Eric
- Not really, just create a team site, then go to site pages, and add a "Modern page" and set that as the home page and poof you have a "Modern" site.
Depending on your tenant settings, the lists and libraries may default to classic, but you can onsie-twosie modernize them, or do some other powershell stuff.
Not sure about the different options in govt tenants though.I might not be seeing the option, but I know government tenants are often slower in adopting content. I checked a few team sites and didn't see the option to add a modern page. I tried changing a pages & site pages library to the modern view on both sites, but still missing the option. I may need to make a call to see if/when that would be available.