I talk to a lot of clients and spend a lot of time reading blogs and reading posts in the
SharePoint Forums and I see the same thing over again -- everyone is trying to make the world's most complicated SharePoint implementation. Before I get flamed for this post, yes I understand there is a time and a place for really complex implementations and in those cases I'm all for it. What I'm talking about is how many people jump from step 1 to step 5 and forget about all the steps in between.
It might make more sense if I give a quick example. Let's pretend your company wants to implement MOSS. Currently, you have an intranet of some type but nothing too formal and the vast majority of your documents are still being stored in file shares. Pretty common scenario right? In this example, I'd normally recommend to the client that they first install MOSS and migrate documents into an organized structure and just start doing some basic document mangement and maybe a couple other high value things. What I see many are actually doing is trying to implement the full complement of MOSS functionality in the first pass -- document management, content management, custom web parts and workflows, branding, etc.
All of that is great as an end goal, but it will take a long time to implement, have a crazy steep learning curve, be more risky, and to top it all off, your stakeholders won't see anything for a LOOONG time. If you like stress then this is the way for you!
However, if you have enough stress in your life then I'd suggest you take the easy route and just do a few simple things you can get your users actually using SharePoint quickly. Typically, users are going to be so excited by how fast you were able to get something out there for them to use. Happy users = happy stakeholders.
You can still do your custom web parts and workflows in the next phase of the project. Or maybe your users will decide what they have is just fine??
It is amazing how excited end users get over the most simple things in SharePoint so use that to your advantage! Show them how to create a custom view or use the Content Query Web Part and you'll be a hero -- maybe even get a raise!! Just don't let on how easy it all is and use the extra time to finish your latest
Line Rider design or sign up for the
Shane Young or
Todd Klindt Fan Club on Facebook.
The moral of the story is keep it simple. Create a vision of where you want to go with SharePoint but do it in phases and only implement a few key pieces of functionality in each phase. It will make your life easier and also make for happier users.