Does SharePoint Suck??

This is the much-anticipated beginning of my "Does This Suck?" column!

So the victim this week is SharePoint, or specifically SharePoint 2007, or what us real geeks are calling MOSS 2007 - Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

Now, to the question at hand: "Does SharePoint 2007 suck?"

As you might have suspected, the answer is, "well, that depends." SharePoint is a framework for building Web applications, and as such it will always require customization to do anything worth doing. That being said, SharePoint's out-of-the-box Document Management (I'm lumping Records Management in this as well) and workflow features prove that Microsoft gets what users of MS Office are really yearning for, and I would propose that it meets 80% of those needs with a skilled Administrator that is able to set up roles, groups, site columns and content types.

Then again, is there any reason you can't go crazy with SharePoint, and create virtually anything? I would argue no, there isn't.

Take a look at the below example for Hawaiin Airlines. Believe it or not, this is a SharePoint site, and if you google Hawaiin Airlines you'll locate a series of development articles that explain exactly how it was developed.

Here is the URL:
http://www.hawaiianair.com/Pages/Index.aspx

In my opinion, this site definitely does not suck. So why does there seem to be such negative reception to SharePoint is some circles? I believe there are several reasons for this:
1. Developers tend to prefer what they know rather than being forced to learn the rules of a new framework, i.e. the "Why can't we just write this in .NET?" syndrome.
2. Frankly, the know-how and eye for design required to create aesthetically pleasing SharePoint sites is limited, where as the proliferation of SharePoint sites has exploded. This shortage on the supply side for talented SharePoint Web site designers (as opposed to developers) doesn't help the perception of what can and can't be done with SharePoint.
3. Project timelines ignore to include the look-and-feel tasks required to make SharePoint sites truly special and focus instead on functional requirements. Part of the reason that SharePoint project plans don't allow enough time for implementation is the fault of the Microsoft marketing machine, that sells SharePoint as a turnkey solution that is ready to use out-of-the-box.

The bottom line is this: SharePoint doesn't suck, but sometimes we as developers end up delivering sucky SharePoint applications! (not that this is entirely our fault, based on the reasons above).

With the ability to integrate with Silverlight, AJAX and other great development technologies, there is no reason we can't go above and beyond on our next SharePoint implementation.

See you next time,
-The Crabby Programmer