If you look at the Microsoft Development Network (MSDN) website, www.msdn.com, you would think that SharePoint is just a simple extension of a .NET platform and that if your organization has .NET developers, you are set to install SharePoint and undertake even more complex software projects. However, development teams quickly realized that SharePoint requires a fair amount of specialized knowledge and different technical approaches that are unique to the SharePoint developer skill and mindset. These are discussed in Chapter 8, Managing your First SharePoint Project.

This chapter will discuss development issues that will help you better understand the issues of SharePoint development. We will explore the differences between .NET development and SharePoint development, the challenges and roadblocks that the developers face, and how to learn SharePoint development quickly. We will also discuss unique developer tools for SharePoint...