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Nov
18
Is SharePoint Worth Learning?
Going through the mail this evening, I found this plea for advice:
“I was a Lotus Notes/Domino power user, developer, sys admin., & trainer (development) for entry level developers. I am also a believer in solutions training and applied it in my training with Lotus (a product which I still think was fantastic when applied correctly in pursuit of business objectives).
What do you think….is Sharepoint something I should jump in and learn immediately. Do you see Sharepoint having staying power for some time? Please advise.”
Anyone asking this type of question hasn’t done their homework.
“Do you see SharePoint having staying power?” Ah… yeah, for about as long as Microsoft exists, or the next 100 years, whichever is longer. Microsoft is betting the farm on SharePoint. With the way things are progressing, you will not be able to touch a Microsoft product without it having some kind of hook or service that integrates it into SharePoint.
“Do you see SharePoint having staying power?” Ah… yeah, since Microsoft Office, the largest distributed production suite in the world, has deep hooks into SharePoint . Frontpage is now SharePoint Designer. The Workflow Foundation engine is integrated into SharePoint. Visio, Microsoft Project. Name a piece of software that Microsoft makes and if it’s not already affected by SharePoint in some way, it soon will be.
“Do you see SharePoint having staying power?” Ah… yeah, I’ve bet the farm on it. EndUserSharePoint.com is what I do for a living, so asking me if SharePoint is going to be around for a while is like asking a priest if he thinks the Catholic Church is something to “jump in on”. I plan on putting both of my kids through high school and college based upon what SharePoint is becoming. My seven year old son already knows more about SharePoint than most people I talk to at business meetings.
“Do you see SharePoint having staying power?” Ah… yeah, and so do the 350 people who showed up for SharePoint Saturday in Philly two weeks ago. And so do the people in San Antonio, Tampa, Melbourne and Cleveland who attended last weekend. And so do the people who will show up in Birmingham, Phoenix and Richmond this weekend. And so do the 7400 people who showed up at SharePoint Conference 2009 last month in Las Vegas.
“Do you see SharePoint having staying power?” Ah… yeah, I do.
The email author was asking a question that many devs are asking as they see Sharepoint gain traction and strive to overcome it’s less than stellar reputation. This was a good opportunity to describe why you thought Sharepoint was a compelling career path and instead you responded with snark from on high.
There are other ECM platforms/supporting languages the author could choose. The fact that Microsoft is creating deeper levels of integration among it’s product lines does not address the underlying theme of the question: “Why should I choose to develop on Sharepoint?” Your answer seems to be, “Because it’s Microsoft! If you had done your homework, you would know that you silly rabbit.”
This is a good blog and I expect more than admonishment from the priesthood. Humility and a welcoming good humor creates many more converts. I bet the author of the email would agree.
Randy, let’s try this again. Here’s the original question:
“What do you think….is Sharepoint something I should jump in and learn immediately. Do you see Sharepoint having staying power for some time?”
My response still stands: do your homework. Look at the platform and decide for yourself if it’s something you want to participate in. I listed why it might be a good bet. A little snarky, sure, but still, the points were all sincere.
As far as the tone of the response, I thought it was pretty humorous, myself. “… is like asking a priest if he thinks the Catholic Church is something to ‘jump in on’.” Come on! You’ve got to give me that one.
Mark
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LOL at the church comment. That said, it does take a while for someone to be able to ‘think’ in Sharepoint.
Staying power? Yes, all the power of MSoft
I am with Mark on this one. I have watched SharePoint evolve over the last seven years, and the evolution of the product shows that Microsoft is very interested in using this platform. Not only that, many third party vendors are no longer ignoring the platform.
I am in the higher education space and several of our vendors are beginning to invest heavily into SharePoint solutions for their products. Datatel, a provider or ERP systems for higher education, has a product built on top of SharePoint 2007. They have invested heavily in Silverlight for their end-user interface into the back-end system. With this investment and the silverlight capabilities coming with SharePoint 2010, I may soon be redirecting my ERP system users to SharePoint. Other packages are beginning to appear in the education space that leverage SharePoint (not to mention the business environment).
True, SharePoint is not the silver bullet. However, as more products are becoming available for the platform and more organizations are deploying the platform, I am beginning to see fewer positions for developers that do not require at least some level of SharePoint knowledge.
@Mark – I know there was some tongue-in-cheek on your part. And maybe snark is the wrong word. But the emailer’s background implies a significant investment into a platform and I thought he/she deserved more than a casual dismissal. However, that is just my opinion and the give-and-take is what makes things interesting.
@Chris – I’m not challenging the value of Sharepoint or Microsoft’s commitment to the platform. Simply busting on Mark a bit about the tone of the post. I think your response provides some of the insights the emailer was seeking.
@Chris…thank you for making the point about the author’s obvious background in a previously “hot” and indisputable communication/colloboration enterprise platform. I believe this is true for many developers and sys admins. While Mark is truly a “fan” and believer of Sharepoint and it is also true that it has the power in MS backing, ten years ago, Lotus was highly popular and used by the likes of the CIA and other organizations requiring sound security and/or flexibility in allowing users of all levels to utilize its colloboration features. The author was simply asking if Sharepoint could eventually go the way of Lotus Notes/Domino.
@Systems Business Manager, of course the product could go the way of Lotus Notes/Domino — any product can fail and we all know Microsoft has not been immune from failed products (Ahem, Vista, Windows ME). However, I don’t see failure for SharePoint any time soon as the product gains more momentum with each new release.
However, Christophe does make an excellent point in his comments to this post: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/2009/11/18/google-sites-vs-sharepoint-give-it-a-rest-would-you/
One thing that could potentially hurt SharePoint are the long development cycles for Microsoft products. Many of their competitors are releasing in shorter cycles so they are able to release new features in shorter bursts. This is something that Microsoft will need to address.