SharePoint Learning Curve For Beginners

SharePoint is a technology provided by Microsoft ten years ago, and this November Microsoft has released the 4^th version of SharePoint (SharePoint Server 2010). It’s a widely used technology in the world; even it’s the Product that returned the highest revenue in all Microsoft products. To define SharePoint you may need several posts , its huge platform  that provide a lot of features rather it’s a SharePoint Extranet or Intranet , or SharePoint facing Internet.

I have always been asked through my SharePoint sessions that we need the right resources and topics to learn SharePoint and be trained on it. It’s true that SharePoint has a high set of features that you can’t cover all, and thus you have to be specialized in one area, rather to  be a SharePoint Administrator, or SharePoint Architect, or SharePoint Developer or SharePoint Designer. One role in the SharePoint land is enough for you, to be unique and build successful career. Once you want to know about SharePoint and train yourself on it, you will face issues finding the right books, articles, tutorials, and posts in this massive number of learning resources. Also you wish that you find an article that will put you on the right direction in your training journey, that will also plan your training , that will let you know where to start and where to go. In this article I’ll try to address the things that I mentioned.

The first step in this journey is to know what SharePoint is from a business perspective and then more detailed from technical perspective. And the quick guide that I always recommend that you read if you don’t know anything about SharePoint is “SharePoint For Dummies” book . This plain-English guide offers simple instructions and focused coverage of this powerful tool, giving you practical solutions to real-world SharePoint challenges. After you read this introduction about SharePoint and starting to feel the SharePoint, you will be able to enter the Training Cycle of SharePoint easily.

The first cycle in the SharePoint Training Cycle, you might need to think about training on SharePoint from end-user perspective, and the SharePoint end-user is divided into two roles , either be  member or site owner. Member training is intended for those people that are members/users of a SharePoint 2007 site, but are not the administrator of that site. Members would upload and download documents and work mainly through the web-browser interface and Microsoft Office. Topics in the Member course include:

• Navigating and searching SharePoint sites
• Adding and Modifying Content
• Document Management
• Use of recycle bin
• Use and management of alerts
• Outlook Integration
• List management
• Understanding and using workflow
• Meeting and Document Workspaces

Site Owner training is intended for those people that are not typically in the IT Department, but have been given responsibility for the administration/organization of a SharePoint 2007 site. Topics in the Site Owner course include:

• Creating and Managing Lists, Libraries and Views
• Managing Users and Groups
• Creating and Managing Sites and Web pages
• Site Customization
• Site Administration

The second cycle in the SharePoint Training is that you train yourself on the SharePoint Central Administration which is managing the Platform Services from ITPro perspective and managing SharePoint Farms and Web Applications, and we need to understand that this cycle is not a short one , the Administration in SharePoint is the core of any SharePoint project as it includes a lot of things , and it need several months to start considering yourself as SharePoint Administrator. The Administration part is the part where you implement and execute the architecture, planning, and the design of the SharePoint project. In other word this is the most operating part in the SharePoint project. It may include several topics that you might need to think about taking look at them:

·         Plan server topology.

·         Install and configure WSS and MOSS servers.

·         Upgrade from WSS 2.0 to 3.0.

·         Monitor the server to detect problems early.

·         Configure authentication.

·         Secure external access with SSL.

·         Set up SharePoint security and permissions.

·         Control site settings through the Central Administration web site.

·         Control site settings through the stsadm command line.

·         Backup and restore SharePoint data.

·         Customize the overall site appearance through branding.

·         Set up network infrastructure (DNS/AD/IIS) to support SharePoint.

·         Manage MOSS My Sites, import profiles, and other shared services.

·         Create and apply site quotas.

·         Plan for and design a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 implementation

·         Deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

·         Administer Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

·         Implement a portal solution with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

·         Implement a content management solution with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

·         Implement a business intelligence solution with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

·         Implement a search and indexing solution with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

·         Maintain and optimize Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

The third cycle in the SharePoint Training Cycle is for who are interested in being a SharePoint Architect, and to be honest this role is not an easy role in the SharePoint land , to be good at this you need best practices and experience , it’s a long term path . In any case you might need to consider the following topics:

·  SharePoint Architecture overview

·  SharePoint Foundation architecture

·  SharePoint Administration architecture

·  SharePoint Configuration architecture

·  SharePoint Information Architecture

·  SharePoint Search Architecture and Best Practices

·  SharePoint Business Intelligence Architecture  and Best Practices

·  SharePoint Business Data catalog Architecture.

·  SharePoint Collaboration tools architecture.

Good book that I read recently that is related to SharePoint Architecture, and I strongly recommend this book. The name of this book is “SharePoint Best Practices 2007”, you can find in the amazon site. This book includes a lot of best practices and practical experiences in real SharePoint scenario written by SharePoint MVPs.

The final cycle in the SharePoint Training Cycle is for who are interested in being a SharePoint Developers, it’s the target of all the .NET developers who are interested in SharePoint. The development in SharePoint is an easy role. The Developer should have a solid understanding of C# and or VB.net and a solid understanding of the SharePoint API as a whole. Building workflows from a completely custom Visual studio direction as well as custom coding SQL and SQL server manipulation and maintenance are certainly highly sought after. In addition to these things that are in the developer’s tool box, comes the addition of more XML/XSLT minded development. Being that most things in SharePoint are xml based or can be converted and fed as xml/xsl, these are just another set of skills are another way that the developer can increase their value. You should consider the following during this training cycle :

·          Developing Features.

·          Web Parts Development.

·          Data Lists Programming.

·          Content Types Development.

·          Programming Document Libraries.

·          Building Workflows using SharePoint Designer.

·          Packaging and Deploying SharePoint Artifacts.

The SharePoint Mutt (Superstar)

Let’s see, how do I explain the SharePoint Mutt? I don’t think it’s wise for a corporate organization to go after the “IT STAR.” First, if anyone tells you they are an expert in everything SharePoint, they are probably pulling your leg. There is always someone else that knows a different part of MOSS or integrating features better than the last. But the mutt is what I think, as close as you can get to the IT star as it pertains to SharePoint. The Mutt knows a whole lot of it, but not everything about all of it. He or she gets in the mix with setting up the architecture and the physical environment, administering the services once the farm is up and running and doing development work to some degree or another. The Mutt is the person that knows those gray areas better than the position that only focuses on let’s say administration. They also have a bigger picture view of the project. The mutt is a designated hitter of sorts; they can get involved in any aspect of the project from web parts to server patches. In this consultant’s opinion, the mutt is one the most valuable person on the SP team. The Mutt will almost always have a desire to learn more aggressively, have the initiative to be involved and get results from all directions. They should also be humble; there is no shame in saying they don’t know something but as a specialist in the general, they’ll be the first to figure it out .

Finally I hope that this article address your concerns about SharePoint training as beginner, and eliminate the doubts of the SharePoint roles and responsibilities. I’ll really appreciate your comments and feedback, and if you think that there any important topic that need to be covered in the training, please post it and I’ll edit the article accordingly.

HTH.

Regards,

Saed