Admin Vs. Dev

A few months back, I had stated that setting up a basic SharePoint environment really isn’t all that painful. And that is still true.

However –  what I have found is that only basic dev or proof-of-concept environments actually stay that basic. We have about 2 dozen servers in our environment, for example.

And we have spent the VAST majority of our time on administration issues, not on development efforts. In theory, everything will be wonderful once we get everything stabilized. But getting there is taking more effort than anticipated.  Every time we work on one issue, we find three more. The theory sounds much better than the practice.

I think that SP will still come through for us. But the process to go from nothing to a full-blown stable multi-server SharePoint install that actually benefits a business organization… Whew.  It is a doozy.
There was always a half-true joke in the consulting world that to accurately scope out a project, you take the estimate from the technical team and double it. For SharePoint, I’d double it again. If you are hiring consultants to do it, double it once more for good measure.