The honeymoon is over for this SharePoint architect. Time to settle in and see what this content management system can really do.
Okay, so SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) has been released for a little over a year now and developers, architects, designers and business people all over the world are still trying to wrap their heads around this baby. What is the story with this beastly technology?
You may remember I wrote a couple of overview articles on SharePoint Server 2007 and it's foundation product SharePoint Services 3.0. When I call it beastly, I simply mean there's a lot to it. It's collaboration, document management, content management, records management, business intelligence and much more. It has blog and wiki functionality. It can be a platform for communities. Boy, this SharePoint sure packs punch.
When you need to know how to do something, google it. There must be a million and one blogs and websites out there dedicated to telling you everything you need to know about how to use this product. But what I am finding is that no one has the ultimate right answer for your question. What it really seems to truly boil down to is plan, plan, plan...
If you want to implement some or part of this technology for your intranet or internet, then really plan what you want to do, what it will look like, and how you need to manage it. Then look at SharePoint to see how it fits with your plan. When you have the specific touchpoints, search to see who's done it before and learn from their mistakes (because guaranteed their first attempts were mistakes).
But I like this product. I just think I am no longer in love with it. It has become like all other technologies, a technical solution to a business problem. Now I just have to figure out how it really helps solve that problem. And the fun begins!
