A group of research assistants worked on a project that was close to the deadline. So that everyone was able to access to the project files, all data was stored on a Microsoft SharePoint server, which dislayed the current status of the documents and allowed collaborative work. In the final phase, the report for the project needed to be finished and all old and unnecessary files were to be deleted. One of the team members deleted the report, because he thought it was an old draft. However, this was not supposed to be a problem, since SharePoint versions files in the background and the file can easily be restored. Why, then, didn't it go as planned?

It was the settings. Even though SharePoint is one of many systems that can version and restore project files, this is not specified in the factory settings of the software, because this requires more storage space. Only via clicking through some menus, you can enable file versioning and determine backup intervals. However, the team had not done so and the report was lost forever and had to be completely rewritten in a very short amount of time.

This story shows that the functionality of various backup, cloud and other software solutions for project data should not be taken for granted. It is important to find out beforehand how data backup works and, best of all, to test it on the application. Many functions first have to be activated or adapted to the needs of the project.

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