Introduction
Any fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.
— Albert Einstein
In the last few years SharePoint has taken the world by storm. In fact, the product is one of the fastest growing products in the history of Microsoft. Companies of all sizes are rapidly implementing SharePoint and moving it to the center of their organization. The interesting thing about SharePoint, however, is that if you ask ten different people what it is, they will probably give you ten different answers. The reason is because SharePoint has become a platform with many different capabilities. Sure, it has document management — but it also includes features that span everything from business intelligence to electronic form management. With so much functionality, used in so many different ways, no wonder people think of so many different things when they think of SharePoint.
Having been a consultant for more than a decade, I can attest to the fact that every organization is different. The differences in organizations span everything from culture nuances to product-development cycles and everything in between. As a result, every organization implements and uses SharePoint in a way that makes sense within its own walls. Implementing SharePoint would be much easier if every organization could be shoehorned into the same little box. But every organization different — so too is the way every organization adopts SharePoint. ...
