SharePoint Governance is an extremely important process to help guide and control any SharePoint implementation. Many organizations start down the rabbit hole with proof-of-concepts and trial installations that quickly get out of hand. I heard one IT manager refer to it as "SharePoint under every desk" and by that he meant runaway deployments that stretched IT support resources, duplicated content, created multiple "sources of truth", and generally caused much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

A detailed governance document should be created early in the development of any SharePoint implementation. Key elements of a governance plan include coming up with an internal communications process, identifying key human and technical resources for the implementation, organizing training and support, and providing a clear hierarchy of roles and responsibilities for common SharePoint tasks such as managing documents, developing and maintaining content, provisioning sites, and providing end-user support.

Governance plans are "living documents" and are very likely to evolve over time as new objectives, business processes, user expectations and technical features arise.

There is a new area of CodePlex dedicated to SharePoint Governance. It contains a series of tools and whitepapers that will help manage successful SharePoint rollouts. The site is at http://www.codeplex.com/governance.