This blog is by Anders B. Skjønaa, founder of SharePointPeople.dk and architect behind “The SharePoint Governance Framework”. Anders was a speaker at the European SharePoint Conference 2011.
Anders B. Skjønaa
About a week ago an official mentioning of the forthcoming SharePoint version – now codenamed “SharePoint 15″ – was released from Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Development, PJ Hough. The Office Division has built a version of the software that is ready to distribute to companies participating in the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and individuals that has been awarded MVP status. This milestone has traditionally created a lot of buzz, and it looks like the same thing is happening this time.
I am not going to talk about SharePoint 15 and all the fuzzy rumours about what will be in the box and what is not. Unless you an active part of an Early Adopter project, there is not a lot of sence in spending resources and time “fueling the vNext buzz”. New is always exiting, but I think there are very good reasons not to get distracted;
1.SharePoint 15 is still some time away! Microsoft are expecting to release a beta this summer, which could mean that we would have to wait until september for the wide public to get bits. The Microsoft SharePoint Conference is announced for November and that could mean that another beta is planned around that time and then RTM is probably a full year away. So only a very few people will need SharePoint 15 knowledge for a long time.
2.The first bits (againg ONLY released to a few selected companies and individuals) are typically full of bugs. One of the reasons behind making an early private distribution is to get feedback on bugs and functionality from a larger group of “testers”. It has been almost tradition to release at least 2 beta versions AFTER the TAP software, so there is some way to go before there is stabile software available for you to try out anyway.
Companies are still implementing new SharePoint services based on the current version of the software. Big functionalities – in the current technology – is still not deployed in the majority of SharePoint 2010 accounts, so I think we – as professional advisors – should stay focused on what is important for businesses and what will create real value.
Bottom line is, that the hype about SharePoint 15 is not helping consultants or system integrators, it’s not helping Microsoft and not even helping clients, at the current stage…
And finally you could get another angle on this discussion at Joel Olssons blog, click here>>
I wish all of you a great weekend!
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