Cha kusikitisha, phase one of my last project has come to a close and the client has opted to move ahead by themselves on phase two. We did our job too well, kama kawaida 🙂 Sasa mimi ni kati ya miradi, muda maalum kwa ajili ya wafanyakazi washauri kama mwenyewe (kinyume na wagombea binafsi ambaye ni lazima kwa kawaida wanaishi katika hofu ya daima ya in-kati ya wakati 🙂 ). We staff consultants fill this time in various ways: Kufanya kazi na watu mauzo ya kuandika mapendekezo; kujaza kwa mtu au inaunga mkono juu ya mtu juu ya kazi hii au isiyo ya kawaida; studying; Mabalozi :). It’s hard to plan more than a few days in advance. At times like this, wakati mimi kuwa na kidogo ya muda juu ya mikono yangu, I like to reflect.

I’m almost always sad to leave a client’s campus for the last time. We consultants form a peculiar kind of relationship with our clients, unlike your typical co-worker relationship. There’s the money angle — everyone knows the consultant’s rate is double/triple or even more than the client staff. You’re a known temporary person. As a consultant, you’re a permanent outsider with a more or less known departure date. Hata hivyo, wewe kula chakula cha mchana na mteja, kuchukua nje kwa chakula cha jioni na / au kwa ajili ya vinywaji, kununua cookies kwa ajili ya timu ya, kwenda kwenye anaendesha kahawa, kutoa / kupokea kadi likizo — all the kinds of things that co-workers do. On one hand, you’re the adult in the room. You’re an expert in the technology which puts you in a superior position. Kwa upande mwingine, you’re a baby. On day zero, washauri hawajui majina, the places or the client’s lingo. Most times, washauri kamwe kujifunza yote.

Wakati mambo kwenda vizuri, you become very well integrated with the client’s project team. They treat you like a co-worker in one sense, and confidant in another. Since we don’t have a manager-style reporting relationship with the client, the project team often feels a little free to air their dirty laundry. They let their barriers down and can put the consultant into an awkward position, kamwe kutambua wao ni kufanya hivyo.

Consultants often don’t get to implement phase two and that never gets easy for me. I think this is especially hard with SharePoint. Phase one of of your typical SharePoint project covers setup/configuration, utawala, Jamii, msingi maudhui aina, nk. na katika mambo mengi, kiasi na ya muda mrefu, extremely detailed discovery. That’s how I view my last project. We did all the basic stuff as well as execute some nice mini-POC’s by extending CQWP, kutekeleza uhusiano BDC kwa PeopleSoft, ilianzisha workflow haki tata na SharePoint Designer, touched on basic KPI’s and more. A proper phase two would extend all of that with extensive, karibu kuenea BDC, kweli nice workflow, faini tuned na bora tafuta, kumbukumbu za kituo cha, kuutumia huduma na pengine muhimu zaidi, reaching out to other business units. Lakini, siyo kuwa kwa ajili yangu, and that’s sad.

Kulingana na uzoefu huu wa hivi karibuni, I think it’s fair to say that a proper enterprise SharePoint implementation is a one year process. It could probably legitimately run two years before reaching a point of diminishing returns. Details matter, bila shaka.

That’s the consultant’s life and all of these little complaints are even worse in a SharePoint engagement. Kama nimepata iliyoandikwa kabla ya, SharePoint’s horizontal nature brings you into contact with a wide array of people and business units. When you’re working with so many people, unaweza kuona njia nyingi kwamba SharePoint inaweza kusaidia kampuni ya kuwa na ufanisi zaidi, kuokoa muda, kufanya mambo vizuri… but you don’t always get to do them.

Mimi mara nyingi kuangalia nyuma kwa kazi yangu ya kwanza nje ya chuo, before starting a consulting career 1995. We did get to do a phase two and even a phase three. Those were nice times. On the downside, hata hivyo, that means that that would mean a lot of routine stuff too. Managing site security. Tweaking content types. Creating views and changing views. Dealing with IE security settings. Restoring lost documents. Blech! 🙂

Licha ya mood yangu soda, Siwezi kufikiria mahali nisingependa kuwa (isipokuwa katika pwani ya joto na usambazaji mzuri wa roho).

Siwezi kusubiri kupata ilianza kutekelezwa ijayo biashara SharePoint mradi.

(Apropos ya kitu chochote, Mimi aliandika zaidi ya kuingia hii blog juu ya NJ Transit basi. I don’t think I made any friends, lakini moja UNAWEZA blogu kwenye basi 🙂 )

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