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I had a funny conversation not long ago when talking to someone who was coming from the Unix, J2EE, Novell, Solaris, that world... You know... the other side of the universe.
It went something like this, so you know SharePoint... that's great it looks like you've focused on that for some time, but you're skills are likely very narrow, specialized and specific. I didn't want to insult the person, I have a lot of respect for them. In fact they are seeing Microsoft products as simple and easy to use solutions that provide a ton of value without all the technical consulting skills and work pretty much out of the box, something that the competition doesn't usually offer.
So without laughing, I thought... I'll have to blog on the real depth and breadth that you both gain and have to learn and know to be an expert also known as a SharePoint IT Pro and Architect (minus the dev side, I'll let someone else speak to the CAML, ASP.NET, and relevant Visual Studio and C# skills). In the Microsoft infrastructure world, I'd wonder what you don't need to know...
IT Expertise:
Core
Solutions:
Extended
Interop and Integration
So you can see there's a lot to it. There's a good list of skills on the SharePoint Related IT Skills Top 30 chart and pivot based on category based on 4000 UK job postings. In addition, if someone were to come from the Unix, J2EE, blah blah world, there's a lot of commonality. It is some ramp up, but not crazy to go from Oracle to SQL Server, or from Apache to IIS. In fact, after the anger phase of somethings not working exactly the same, they'd find that there are many ways to do the same thing and there are the command like ways of doing things and the GUI way. Not just the simple, but the scriptable, the way that makes you feel powerful. So yes, being a SharePoint expert is really an overall IT broad and deep expert.
I just loved this one!
can imagine how was the discussion with UNIX, Java or blah blah world :)
Hi Joel,
Seeing that one of the direct competitors of SharePoint in the "Java" world is websphere, you should answer that Websphere is an easy tool to master and apprehend.....
You mentionned a lot of "solutions", you should add "functionnal experise". Enterprise serach is a field in itself, where being knowledgable takes more than a couple of books and exams...
Versatility and a bot if humility, taht's what we should be aiming for...
PingBack from http://www.universityupdate.com/Technology/AJAX/4062144.aspx
I think you've also made a good case for us as the industry maybe trying to fragment this into groups of solutions and groups of core and extended capabilities, because there's no way any one person could (nor likely want to )master all of this. SharePoint Information Architect, SharePoint Infrastructure Architect, SharePoint Solutions Architect, etc. Thoughts?
JTD
As a SharePoint SME, I tend to get odd looks sometimes from people who clearly have no idea of all that is...
Thanks Joel! You are my "Hero" :-)
We needed someone like you to say this out aloud.
If I didn't use to work in a Sun, Netscape, Oracle Reseller doing PERL and Java and later doing Notes, IPlanet, Cold Fusion doing JSP and Weblogic... I don't think I'd be very credible, but it is amazing how similar these technologies are.
Cool! My resume is now nicely padded. ;o)
And this is just the infrastructure/admin/deployment focused stuff. Adding all the development/solutions elements doubles the size of the list !
Nice post Joel.
Very true, SharePoint aint Mickey Mouse!
It may look easy to use with a flashy UI on the surface, but implementing MOSS solutions requires constant never ending research in fields you would not expect to work on.
A good example is a recent project where I had to import data from an XML-RPC Service into a MOSS Publishing Site. I never expected I would ever touch XML-RPC while working with MOSS. I also had to do something similar with NewsML into MOSS. ;(
Systems are connected, or they need to be and in the real world SharePoint is constantly integrated in some way into countless other systems of all shapes and sizes.
"It is some ramp up..."
You're a better man than me - I agree with JTD, there is too much there for one person to know.
Maybe I'm expecting to deep a knowledge of each thing, but I think if you start worrying about "IIS vs Apache" rather than "Web Server that a minion will deal with" you're going to run into trouble.
Or maybe I'm just stupid - but trying to do all that ramp up, my job, and cope with the fire-hose of information about SharePoint 2007 becoming available (Yay! But Oww!) is beyond my capacity...
(FWIW, the Unix, Novell, J2EE, etc., is the same, but different)
Body: I am talking about Joel Oleson who else... Yes he is.. not because he can stack red bull cans,
JTD,
In small companies, there are the Shane Youngs of the world who do have to master and understand all things SharePoint as it relates to an implementation. I think that's the key. You don't have to go deep in every area in every implementation. You'll find WCM experts, Portal guys, collab folks and so on. The key is finding your niche, but there are many who will be asked to put on many hats. These are the guys and gals I tip my hat to.
Joel
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