Whitepaper: Best Practices for SharePoint Development & Customization

Last month, I co-authored a white paper with Microsoft Certified Master Mario Fulan on the topic of SharePoint development and customization best practices. It was sponsored by Quest Software, whose specialties include powerful add-on tools for SharePoint.

Some of the ideas in the paper include a discussion on the pains that a developer faces day-to-day when trying to create and deliver a custom solution, including the need for quick prototypes, and the challenges of managing change requests. We also discussed solutions to those pains, including governance, use of design patterns, and good deployment strategies.

I’ll be diving deeper into many of the topics from this paper in future posts, so stay tuned. You can find the whitepaper on Quest’s website, as well as on SharePoint Pro Magazine.  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Update 3/20/12: here’s the info regarding the follow-up live webcast that resulted from this whitepaper.]

Using Team Foundation Server with SharePoint Teams

This week I gave a presentation to my SharePoint team on Team Foundation Server (TFS) and Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), and how they could be used to grow our practice. I’ve been a fan of TFS since version 2005, and have watched it mature thru 2008 and now version 2010. I’ve also seen it begin to give more due respect to the SharePoint world – initially it seemed to be almost oblivious to the unique needs of the SharePoint development team. Some of the highlights of my presentation included the mention of using the automated Build Server to help SharePoint teams manage the WSP that results from their SharePoint dev. We also discussed how some non-traditional files, like InfoPath forms and CSS files, fit into typical source control story. And we talked about how SharePoint infrastructure engineers could also make use of Team System by incorporating work item tasks specific to server installations into a customized process guidance. Stay tuned to this blog in future posts as I elaborate on many of the topics included in my talk.

Who do you serve?

{my article published at NothingButSharePoint.com – Sept 22, 2011}

One of my good friends from college recently started an organization that provides a mobile produce store for communities in Chicago’s West Side who don’t have access to fresh produce. They’re meeting a huge need in those communities, and they’re serving the People in a great way.

As SharePoint professionals, who do we serve? SharePoint isn’t exactly available on the corner of every urban neighborhood in America. [yet?] : )  So, who is it that benefits from the skills, experience, and assistance of a great SharePoint’er?

One might say we serve ‘Big Business’. SharePoint is certainly an enterprise server product, and the main consumer of that type of product is the large corporation. If this is who we serve, we certainly serve them well, as SharePoint has been proven to be a strategic advantage, cost-saver, and effective collaboration platform for many large companies.

Or, maybe we serve the corporate Developer? Have you ever seen the smile on the face of a .NET developer after you teach them about the benefits of developing on the SharePoint 2010 platform? : )  When leveraged properly, SharePoint certainly opens up a world of advantages for the .NET dev team trying to create collaboration solutions for their company.

Ultimately, tho, I’d like to think we serve the millions of Information Workers out there who use SharePoint on a daily basis. At the end of the day, that’s who our SharePoint solutions are for, and if I can make just one Information Worker come to work with a smile and expectation that they’ll have a productive day because of SharePoint, then it’s all worth it. : )

As we look toward the future, I would like to think we’ll also be serving the entrepreneur who has a small shop using SharePoint Online. As the cloud continues to provide scalable and cost-effective options for small & medium business, perhaps the dream of SharePoint on every neighborhood corner could be closer than we think.

I’d be interested in your thoughts – as a SharePoint professional, who do you serve?

SharePoint Saturday–Columbus 2011

Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you that SharePoint Saturday Columbus 2011 was a great success.  A great list of speakers and topics, and oh, yeah – great food too!   Nice raffle prizes for lucky winners, including a brand new Kindle, free consulting services, and even a great SharePoint 2010 book giveaway from ICC (my employer, and a platinum sponsor of the event).

And oh yeah – in case you’re wondering, the SharePoint Cowbell was on display!

(Ricardo Wilkins speaking on SharePoint 2010 Dev at SharePoint Saturday Columbus 2011; photo credit – Brian Jackett)

A Few More Happy SharePoint Developers in Washington, DC!

Yesterday marked the completion of a successful 3-day SharePoint Saturday conference in Washington, DC. If you missed it and want to get a taste of the experience, check out the activity in the different social media streams that attendees engaged in.

I was honored to be among the 195 SharePoint thought leaders who spoke at the conference (my slide deck can be found below). I spoke on SharePoint Development, and why SharePoint 2010 makes developers like myself so happy! :) I think my audience agreed with me. They also asked some very interesting questions, a few of which I’d like to comment on:

August Speaking Gigs–Chicago, DC, and Columbus

For me, August is a busy SharePoint month due to the three speaking engagements I’ve got lined up. Check out the details here:

I just got back from Chicago where I spoke at the National BDPA Conference 2011 on the topic of SharePoint as a game-changer for business. In addition to giving an overview of SharePoint’s features, I spent some time discussing the value of Office365 and SharePoint Online as well.  In addition to my talk, Microsoft reps also gave their own SharePoint presentation at the conference, discussing SharePoint as the collaboration platform for the Enterprise. This event was also particularly exciting for me, as I watched the high school students that I’ve been coaching the past few months win 3rd Place in the national computer competition, earning each of them a scholarship stipend!  SharePoint and Scholarships – it doesn’t get much better than that. : )

This is a unique SharePoint Saturday event in that, instead of one Saturday, this event will last 3 days (thus the addition of “The Conference”). And check out these stats – 279 sessions! 196 speakers! 22 SharePoint MVPs! 2 SharePoint Masters! And over 3,000 expected attendees! (okay, that’s too many exclamation points for one blog post)  My session will be in the IT Pro/Developer Track.  I’m pretty excited about this.  Just imagine what the SharePint event will be like – oh, the anticipation!

This will be my second consecutive year speaking at SharePoint Saturday Columbus. Last year I spoke on Document Management to more of an End-User crowd.  This year my talk will be Developer/Dev Manager focused.  This event is already sold out (way to go, Columbus!), but I’d advise you sign up anyway if interested, in case they kick in the waiting list.

So, we’ve got plenty of SharePoint goodness going on this month.  Be sure to look me up if you attend any of these events – I’ll be the one carrying the cowbell!  (thanx SharePointRyan for letting me borrow yours)

Presentation from BDPA National Conference 2011

Digital Signatures in Office/SharePoint using a Tablet PC (Video Demo)

This week I watched a webinar by SharePoint MVP Laura Rogers on approval processes in SharePoint. One of her demonstrations showed how digital signatures could be used in Word documents as part of the approval process.

Out-of-the-box, a digital signature