Lately I have been getting many requests as to how to get started down the road to becoming a SharePoint focused professional. With many aspects of concentration available one could work up a seemingly endless list of resources, courses, and such. However, of late a large number of the requests have came from professionals seeking to re-invent themselves professionally and move in to this exciting of technology called SharePoint. With that in mind I have put together a baseline set of of resources and direction that should assist anyone looking to start from scratch. I say baseline as I am sure there are a slew of additional options. If you see a gap in my recommendations please feel free to add to the story with your own recommendations.
Getting Started:
- If you have little to no experience with SharePoint then you need to dip your toes in and get a feel for the application before trying to take on the application itself. The are a number of avenues open to you to get started in this regard including the “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 product overview” and the “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 demo.”
- Now that you have a inkling of what SharePoint is its time to roll up those sleeves and get your hands dirty. I am a firm believer in hands on learning and Microsoft has you covered in that regards. Off of the the training resources area of the SharePoint Server portal on TechNet (see SharePoint Server TechNet portal here) there are a slew of SharePoint Server 2007 as well as Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 online training labs available. Both of these sections of labs provide hours of focused topical training (skip over the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 training though as it is outdated). Below are a few of the ones to help get you started and familiar with SharePoint. However, there are many more on “TechNet Virtual Labs: SharePoint Products and Technologies.” The more you run through and complete the better prepared you will be for the next step, classroom training.
Hands-On Online Labs
- TechNet Virtual Lab: What's New in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Feature Walkthrough
- TechNet Virtual Lab: What's New in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
- TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Installation and Configuration
- TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Installation and Configuration
- TechNet Labcast On-Demand: Administering Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
- TechNet Labcast On-Demand: Deploying Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
- TechNet Labcast On-Demand: Implementing Search and Indexing
- TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Records Management Deployment and Configuration
- See the full list of Online Labs here
Virtual Environment and Books
After getting your hand dirty with a little hands on experience it’s time to kick things up a notch by setting up your own environment that you can play around with. Don’t worry you wont need a server in your house. Any dual core (2 ghz and better) machine with 4gb of ram or better will do. To get your environment running you will need to download and install Microsoft Virtual PC (get Virtual PC 2007 for Vista here or get Virtual PC for Windows 7 here). Virtual PC will allow you to run a virtual environment that contains the server software and database you need without the need for additional machines.
Once you have Virtual PC set up you can either individually download trial versions of Windows Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint or… download the SharePoint virtual image made available by the Microsoft SharePoint team.
With the virtual image configured you can fire it up and play around with SharePoint experimenting with configuration and management. You can also re-run labs previously done online or even create your own tailored self training plan by heading over to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Learning Manager. I also highly recommend, if you have made it this far and are still determined to dive in to the SharePoint pool, that you pick yourself up a few books. There are countless great books but at a very baseline level everyone working with SharePoint should have the following 2 books: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion; Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices. Like I said there are a ton of SharePoint books out there and you would be well served to check them out but these two really are foundational and needed resources.
Classes
There are many great courses offered out there but a must take for all IT pros to really get their feet grounded is Course 50047A: Advanced IT Pro Course for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. “This five-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to plan, deploy, and configure server farm solutions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The course focuses on key deployment and configuration tasks.”
If you have additional interests around classes by Microsoft certified training centers you can find more classes here.
Community
One of the great things about working with SharePoint is the vibrant active community of practitioners worldwide. There are local SharePoint user groups, and events almost everywhere. Get involved. Participating is a great way to meet peers, network, learn, and yes, get leads on employment opportunities. Just Bing SharePoint User Group to find a comprehensive listing of user groups.
Another great resource if you reside in North America are the SharePoint Saturday events. You can find a listing of when and where an event near is taking place at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org
The ISPA, International SharePoint Professionals Association, is great organization to check out as well.
Certification
Nothing looks better on that resume’ than SharePoint Certification. There are a number of certifications out there (see here) but I recommend having as a baseline Exam 70-630: TS: Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring
Other Resources
Finally, as you start down your journey there are many great online sites that you will want to check out. At a baseline though I heartily recommend the following as your base listing.
Conclusion
SharePoint is an exciting product from Microsoft offering a chance to immerse yourself in a technology, community, and profession that can be exciting and rewarding. Once you have grasped the basics, as well as engaged the community, you will find a great number of opportunities to focus and special your area of expertise. As the fastest growing product in Microsoft’s history certified SharePoint professionals are in high demand.
As I have stated earlier this list is by no means exhaustive and is meant to provide a good starting point. As you begin your journey you will no doubt come across other valuable trainings, resources, and more that are helpful to you.
Good luck in your efforts and hopeful some day I will see you at a SharePoint event and get to share a SharePint with you afterwards. ;-)