SPAdvice

I am only on my first SPProject, so I still consider myself a newb. However, I have a little advice for any developers not yet that familiar with Sharepoint that are SPMesmerized and are being SPPushers, attempting to get their organization to purchase Sharepoint. Be ware... and all of this is my opinion, based on limited experience... while it can be an out-of-the-box panacea for many needs, it can also quickly become a nightmare. That being said, I suggest that when trying to push the product, that you don't get crazy with the SPCheeseWiz and promise too much. Don't talk about customization like it will happen on the first deployment. Sharepoint is very powerful out-of-the-box and pretty easy to deploy, administer, etc. However, once you start to customize things, even the look at feel more than just a little bit, it quickly gets complex.

What's that you say? You have the power of google at your finger tips. While that's true, this stuff is pretty new, quickly changing, not that well documented, and the net has not yet sifted through the info to bubble the best stuff to the top.

That being said, I suggest first deployments be done completely through the SPAdmin and the site interfaces. Get things going out of the box first and keep control of EVERYTHING. Let the end user create content, but hold on to the power of site collection and site creation, until you figure out how to properly control it and the exposure of such sites. Once you have a handle on that, start think about customization, doing research on how various things work, etc.

Doing things in this manner will help you avoid an SPNightmare that I am enjoying. Don't get me wrong, I like doing things on fire, but I feel the client has been cheated. While we have gotten great on the job training, we have spent the last year doing so, and they do not yet have anything useful. Okay, there have been other factors slowing things down, such as the loss of control of our production servers due to a consolidation of a infrastructure of a very large organization, to be left unnamed, and what seems to be inadequate resources to do so, but that has only accounted for a part of our inability to get something out there.

In my opinion, what has really slowed things down is stupid crap like promissing some crazy menu that reads from the web app to dynamically show sites, complete with flyouts of links of the latest updated pages, etc., and the complete customization of site look and feel, and other very low value crap. Now if I worked for a marketing firm, these things might be more important. However, an organization that merely needs a better way to collaborate, who gives a crap if things are flashy?

Microsoft did a real good job of providing options of look and feel and out of the box features that do what most people need. Use what they have worked so hard to produce first, make sure you can get your client productive, and then give them the bells and whistles. Either that or be real sure you have a SharePoint expert at your direct disposal, as in on the team, not just someone you can call. I am pretty darned sure that my organization would be highly impressed and very grateful with Sharepoint off the shelf.

Anyway... take it or leave it, but that is my SPTwoCents.