LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 

Spotlight on 2010: When Is the Right Time to Dig into the New Product?


By Jennifer Mason
Email    print   
March 3, 2010 —  One of the primary comments I heard at SPTechCon last month was that even though people were excited about SharePoint 2010, they had no plans for upgrading, and they felt like it wasn’t worth it to spend time learning about all the new features that they wouldn’t be able to use for a very long time.

While I can see where they are coming from, I definitely view the situation differently. I truly believe that by looking at and exploring what is available in SharePoint 2010, we will be able to build better solutions in 2007 that will help us as we migrate to SharePoint 2010. After all, if information is available today that will make our life easier tomorrow, then we should be soaking it in as much as we can.

Among the key reasons to learn about 2010 is that you don’t develop a custom solution today in SharePoint 2007 that can be done out-of-the-box in 2010. Knowledge of 2010 might enable you to build 80% of a requested solution in 2007, and then build the other 20% with tools available out of the box in SharePoint 2010 when you migrate. Further, having information on 2010 might be the ammunition you need to present a business case for speeding up migration planning.

I don’t think everyone should invest hours upon hours of learning the new product if they won’t be using it immediately, but I do recommend that everyone at least get started. With the wealth of information available, it shouldn’t be hard for you to start gathering information. Here are some of my favorite places to find information:

•    Office Microsoft SharePoint Site
•    Describing SharePoint 2010 in 1 Sentence, 8 Categories and 40 Feature Areas
•    SharePoint 2010 System Requirements
•    Community Forums
•    Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog
•    SharePoint Designer Team Blog
•    SPTechBlog

If you still don’t know where to get started, I recommend looking at your biggest pain points to see how they are improved or eliminated with the release of 2010. From there, I would start looking at your wish list of things you have always wanted to do in SharePoint but just haven’t had time. The third area I would look at would be the list of things that you are currently doing that you wish your users could do for themselves.

Just getting started with these areas can help you begin to develop a clear framework that can be used for strategic planning. This framework will help you better understand and plan for both your current and future needs. By starting to gather information now, you can avoid the “I wish I would have known this before I started this project in SharePoint 2007!” scenarios.

Jennifer Mason is a consultant with SharePoint911




Share this link: http://sdt.bz/34170
 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter


Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
Loading




close
NEXT ARTICLE
Analyst Watch: Time to assign owners to your applications
Between business needs and IT sits the product manager, an underrated person Read More...
 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?


 
blogs tab
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
02/09/2012 02:16 PM EST

Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
02/07/2012 11:57 AM EST

RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
02/04/2012 01:57 PM EST

GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
02/03/2012 12:17 PM EST

Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
02/02/2012 08:26 AM EST

Ryan Dahl steps down
Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, steps back from his position as gatekeeper for the project.
02/01/2012 04:58 PM EST

 
Events calendar tab
Cloud Connect
2/13/2012 to 2/16/2012
Santa Clara
TechWeb

SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conf.
2/26/2012 to 2/29/2012
San Francisco
BZ Media

RSA Conf.
2/27/2012 to 3/2/2012
San Francisco
RSA

IBM Pulse Conf.
3/4/2012 to 3/7/2012
Las Vegas
IBM Tivoli

Game Developer Conf.
3/5/2012 to 3/9/2012
San Francisco
TechWeb