Friday, November 11, 2011

Ten, seven, three, one GO! Delivering Sharepoint on 11/11/2011 - part 1 of 11 as seen by Boris the SharePoint-Architect.com

SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2003, SharePoint 2001... GO!

I just recently had a SharePoint Service Line strategy planning meeting on a customer site.. and somehow that brought back some memories... so this post was prepared in a bit different style... and the 11/11/11 is a great date to reflect those 11 years+ of my SharePointing :)

It has been an amazing SharePoint ride so far! And it's getting even better! Yahooo!
 With my first SharePoint project kick-off in August 2000 (and first SP sneak-peak in March'00) and project for 2000 users and 3 languages delivered in March 2001 (early adopters rock!) we were just getting used to the name SharePoint... Resilience? Scalabilty? DR? yeah right! But the usability was definitely there and we still did deliver a kick-a...rchitecture solution... and even resolved a major challenge after MS support team in Munich gave up... whatta ride!

"Tahoe" as it's project code name was... used to be Microsoft's "state-of-the-art" built on a WebStore with webparts... and it all started for me as a Head of MS department with MS Partner company in Slovenia :)

With all ups and down's on previous and current SharePoint versions... and 106 projects later (btw.. I am on #107 at the moment... deploying for 50k users on a 6MIO investment project...) the SharePoint 2010 is boosting with new features and capabilities almost on daily basis!

Moreover tomorrow's SharePointSaturday UK (#spsuk) will feature one of the SharePoint Online top evangelists... Steve Fox, MS Consulting Services Director... a man with 1000 and 111 tasks on his mind who still has time to write a book about the next steps that every SharePoint developer should at least flick-through... Developing Microsoft SharePoint Applications Using Windows Azure does offer a brief overview of the next SharePoint's big steps...

Intranet, extranet, internet, mobile and digital in general.. are the fields where SharePoint will allow you to excel if you plan, design, develop, deploy, support (and improve) the project correctly...

But in order to get there, there are quite few areas (52 on my list) that one will need to consider at some point before, during  or after the project...in order to keep things a bit more structured.. I will focus on 11 major areas - at a VERY high level and with large organizations in mind (which may not rule out the use of ideas in smaller companies):
  • 01 - SharePoint Service Line  - The SharePoint Universe, Vision, Strategy and the Team
  • 02 - SharePoint Project Management & Agile Approach - Implementation of Change
  • 03 - SharePoint Business Analysis - Understanding the Needs
  • 04 - SharePoint Content, Process and Lifecycle - the 5W's of SharePoint
  • 05 - SharePoint Versions and Features - Playing with Super Billy's Sports Bag
  • 06 - SharePoint Solution Design - Scoping the Beast
  • 07 - SharePoint Infrastructure
  • 08 - SharePoint Development & Testing
  • 09 - SharePoint Service Deployment, Transition, Support & Management
  • 10 - SharePoint Reusability - Existing and 3rd Party Solutions
  • and 11 - Celebrations - Life after SharePoint - the SharePint part of life... my favourite! :)