SharePoint Skill Sets!!

SharePoint skills are so varied across the board – I’ve found – that since SharePoint is in
my view the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle – that business users and technology
individuals need to play nice and understand the pros and cons of what is the best
scenario for a given situation.
That being said – I’ve learned a fair amount the last few years or so I’ve been involved
with SharePoint on the intricate nature of SharePoint via many scenarios.
The varying degree of user’s knowledge makes everyday a challenge for all of us whom
run a SharePoint farm. I know from talking too many that some users have good working
knowledge of SharePoint and can edit pages without incident and add and know what a
web-part is. Other users we can agree need to be told step by step or just rely on content
editors to do simple tasks even though they are indeed content contributors.
Thus, it’s a known fact with even with constant screen shots and education classes made
available – it’s a lot of times a lost cause.
Moving up the ladder – the same holds true for those that claim they are SharePoint
developers or SharePoint administrators. In my travels – some whom claim they are.
SharePoint administrators can only do basic content entry and permissions. The notion of
server maintenance and editing a web.config is taboo. A good SharePoint administrator in
my view should know how to configure webparts, create web applications and site
collections with ease and be able to fully run the SharePoint farm architecture amongst
other items.

In SharePoint developer mode the same holds true – individuals whom take third party
web parts and configure them consider themselves developers. In my view a good
SharePoint developer knows the full SharePoint object model, C#, SQL, the SharePoint
farm and advanced architecture techniques.
Thus, in conclusion – this topic opens the door for a fair amount of conversation and
panel discussion material. It can be stated that with better defined job descriptions and
education of the SharePoint jigsaw puzzle that the SharePoint community as a whole will
be better.
If so desired feel free to contact me and we can talk more on this subject :)