The SharePoint Developer Maturity Model.
The other ‘MS’ has a problem. Those gnarly developers that write your software on the smell off an oily Pizza Box emerge from a four day MOSS training course and sware (and I quote) “I don’t care what they told you, I’m never going to do SharePoint development.”
As Jeremy Thake’s excellent blog post has already covered, Microsoft just threw in the towel when it came to documenting and supporting the product for us SharePoint developers. And the community had to take up the slack (and a heartfelt thankyou to everyone who contributes).
But that’s not the core issue here. It’s one of positioning. In a previous post I asked the open question of where SharePoint is heading. And that’s the rub. Nobody knows (and my guess is even MS has a light hand on the tiller, waiting to steer it down the next big wave). And who will they support best for SharePoint 14 and beyond?
Back to Code Monkey. He saw the MS features and framework not as something to leverage, but as a straight jacket – to him the fact he didn’t have to code something that came OOTB meant he had to re-write it to his liking first (and I won’t go into the mess that results).
In another example, an experienced (and very good) systems support guy went on the SP admin course. But afterwards he still often refused to do things through the SharePoint admin UI – he changed IIS directly. And therefore sometimes things broke when SP didn’t find what it was expecting. He knew how to do it as he used to, and now in SharePoint, but didn’t trust or feel comfortable enough with the product.
So beware who you send on that training course – they may not want to be a SharePointer, them might just want more Fritos. And my experience has been some of the most technically minded and able find it hardest to adjust.
The ‘tongue in cheek’ solution? Buy them some Mountain Dew and get those you want to ‘up-skill’ to answer this short questionnaire before handing over your money and risking unintentional damage (or outright sabotage ) in your SharePoint deployments:
1. If your Car breaks down, do you first:
a. Call the RAC/AAA
b. Phone a friend
c. Get you wife to walk to the nearest garage
d. Make death threats to the dealer
e. Try to fix it yourself
f. Cannibalise the burnt out truck you just passed for parts
2. If someone asks you for directions, is you first answer most likely:
a. Don’t shoot me – here, take my wallet/wife/kids
b. I’ll draw you a map
c. First left, 3rd on the right, straight through the lights, hang a U, then…
d. Why do you want to go there – Luigis is cheaper & does better seafood.
e. You really shouldn’t have come this way, you should have started north of the bridge and stuck to the expressway…
f. I’m going to the Overclockers convention as well – just follow me.
3. When programming your VCR, do you most often find:
a. You get it wrong
b. You get it right, but sometimes turn the power off at the wall afterwards
c. You don’t have a VCR, you use a PVR, iPOD or Portable HD instead.
d. Your Media Centre PC didn’t come out of standby
e. You sent the VCRs RS232 codes without a parity bit
f. Even the Ubuntu distro is more l33t than Vista. What’s a VCR?
4. You find classes are:
a. No longer a relevant social characterisation, or are just an excuse to charge more for an inch of legroom
b. That’s something to do with code isn’t it?
c. A core OO concept, but often too many levels of inheritance and complexity are used.
d. Often sealed in SharePoint which makes some tasks difficult or inelegant
e. Better with multiple inheritance.
f. We should be using Ruby on Rails.
The Results:
Mostly a and b – should probably stick to the SP UI. Are you sure they are developers?
Mostly c and d – about in the sweet spot of technical eagerness versus pragmatism. Ideal SharePoint Developer or Serial Killer.
Mostly e and f – do not under any circumstances either talk to this person at a party, or send them on a SharePoint course.
And for the record, here are my answers (draw your own conclusions!): 1.e (but fail so go with a), 2.c, 3.b, 4.d.
NB: Alternatively a 'key learning styles' and 'dominant personality trait' survey will also suffice, plus help you build a well balanced team! Maybe these should be a core OOTB site definition survey in the next MOSS?
The end of another MOSSuMS post
mikes