A horticultural supply business was running a data project with the help of an outside IT project consultant, and brought on a new team member to work on it. The business asked us to get them set up. The list was specific: an account, a computer with Python tools, access to a shared mailbox, and access to a SharePoint site that let them work with files without being able to change how the site was organised.
We logged 5.25 hours on it between late March and early April 2026, alongside the business’s normal support.
Pausing to agree the work
We created the new account straight away. Then we paused. Setting up a development environment and detailed permissions for a data project sat outside the business’s support agreement, so I talked it through with them before we went further.
That took a couple of days of phone tag. It’s still the right call. A project that quietly eats support hours becomes a surprise on an invoice, and nobody likes those.
The laptop and Python tools
The business had planned to use a spare tablet, but it had gone to someone else, so a spare laptop was used instead. The consultant sent a step-by-step guide for installing Python, Conda and VS Code and creating the project’s environment.
We followed it and hit two snags. The laptop already had a newer version of Python than the project needed. The consultant confirmed that was fine, because Conda builds its own separate environment with the right version. Then, at the step where VS Code should offer that environment for the project’s notebook, it didn’t appear. We sent the consultant a screen recording of exactly what we’d done.
First day
The new starter began on a Monday afternoon. We got them logged in and set up multi-factor authentication on the authenticator app on their phone.
Getting SharePoint permissions right
At the first training session, they couldn’t get into the SharePoint site at all. The consultant’s requirement was precise: read every page, edit files in two document libraries without creating or deleting folders, and view a third library. The folder structure had to stay fixed, because automated data flows built on Power Automate and Dataflows read from it.
We changed the permissions, but a library and the site pages still had unique settings blocking access. The next day, the consultant refined the requirement folder by folder: full access in one output folder, files but not folders in an inbox folder, read only on the four folders where the data flows run, and edit on the schedules library. We worked through it, and the consultant made one last adjustment themselves.
The missing kernel
During the next training session, VS Code wasn’t there for the new starter at all. The tools had been installed in a way that didn’t carry to their profile. We removed and reinstalled them under the user’s own profile. The environment still didn’t appear until I downloaded the matching version of Python, after which it showed up and the consultant confirmed it with the new starter.
Where they landed
The new team member signs in with multi-factor authentication, can open the project’s notebook in the right environment and has exactly the SharePoint access the project needs, and no more.
If you’re bringing someone onto a project with an outside consultant, get the consultant to write the access they need, folder by folder, before the start date.
If you’d like help setting that up, get in touch.