Company wants me to learn Sharepoint 2010 development, should I?

Question

I am a Asp.Net developer, currently working on Webforms in 3.5. I do C# now, used to do VB.Net. I am also a middle tier developer (business layer and data layer) working on refactoring the current code base to use the Service-Repository pattern.

My boss asked me if I would like to start doing Sharepoint development (company is currently upgrading to 2010, so I would assume I would be doing 2010).

I have read on here that it takes a long time to get up to speed with Sharepoint development, and I don't want to be thrown into the fire while still learning and not knowing what I am doing.

Also, any good places to start learning? I told my boss I would look into it for about a week and get back to them.

Answer 1

I'd recommend finding out what they anticipate the company's needs are and whether they anticipate that this will become your primary role. Ask about what projects they have in mind. (Of course they're going to say a small percentage, and no, you'll be expected to continue with your regular duties...)

It may be helpful to schedule a 'state of the union' meeting a couple months out to realistically assess how much of your life Sharepoint is taking over, and whether someone else should be brought in to help (or take over).

It certainly can't hurt to get another set of skills under your belt. Having the background that you do will certainly help you be competitive. If you don't like the work, there's nothing saying that you have to include it in future resumes...

Answer 2

Don't be scared to learn SharePoint. It may seem like a difficult task at first, but if you take it one step at a time you should be ok. In fact, SharePoint is just a (really big) asp.net web application, so all your existing skills come in handy.

Also the fact that MS finally put some good quality project templates for SharePoint development in Visual Studio 2010 makes the learning curve less steep.

There are also some good books available to get you started. If the company wants you to learn SharePoint, I suppose they would be happy to pay the bill for those. :-)

Answer 3

Some good links:

• Get Started on developing on SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Advanced Developer Training
• SharePoint Hands on lab
• SharePoint Developer Center
• SharePoint Foundation Development in Depth

Good luck to you

Answer 4

I agree with the answers above. Only thing I would add is, if you had to learn SharePoint, starting with the 2010 version such an advantage over 2007. Especially when you add in Visual Studio 2010...

Regarding where to start, can't hurt learning from the horse's mouth (i.e Microsoft's MSDN sites). Also, be sure to request that your company get you adequate hands-on developer training.

Answer 5

Yes, SharePoint development has a steam learning curve, but from what you already do, you're half way there. The best place to start is here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/SharePoint2010Developer/

Answer 6

It might be helpful to know that http://www.sharepointoverflow.com/?tab=active is dedicated to only SharePoint questions. If you have a non-programming related SharePoint question, or even a programming one, that is a good site to use.