There are many approaches to starting a SharePoint project.

In my experience all the big ones start with a team of people presenting this bright perfect future with them leading us. They are going to solve all your existing issues and then hold your hand into the future. You listen closely to the advice of the team and the supporting propaganda from Microsoft, assemble a team across all departments, present to the CFO, the Chairman, and Department heads.

The ideas come pouring out. Every department's idea starts with "I want to be able to...It would be great if...". You think you hit pay dirt, your end users are going to help you build a roadmap based on true knowledge and all they need is your guidance based feedback.

At some point you may arrive at the conclusion that SharePoint is the platform to take you into the future.

Then you learn that a great deal of people have assumptions disguised as basic understanding and you don't know where to start. So, many of your great ideas become obstacles because you are spending the time explaining what you thought was basic knowledge to many and you only realize the impact of some of your decisions at the no-turning-back point. The simple definition of the Cloud is enough to push your limits, combine that again with the realization that many of your end users had created their own way of doing things, and those things are not always in line with or have anything to do with the job they are supposed to be doing.

So when I began to read the questions and answers of this book, I began to develop a completely new paradigm of how to manage, appreciate, and create business value with the SharePoint technology.

As a CIO managing multiple technologies grappling with business requests, and return on investment justification of my decisions, this book does a great job spelling out the pitfalls and providing a map for success. It reminds us to ask the basic questions and then takes the authors' experiences to guide you through the answers.

At times the authors' observations and advice are thought-provoking and hit home for Information Technology (IT) leaders and make them think about future SharePoint projects and how they should be done, which is the idea behind the book. You sometimes just need someone to spell it out, remind you to not assume and just ask the people in the room a simple question before things go too far.

Once someone's assumptions have been replaced with fact, you have a direction to move forward, and people who were once just involved in your project become excited to be a part of the team. This book is a simple reminder that taking the time to ask questions and spell things out makes all the difference to your success.

From experience, SharePoint is a powerful platform, which can be most challenging if not looked at with the proper insights and thought leadership. The more powerful the platform the more ways it can pull you from the original roadmap that you intended to follow. After reading this book, the main observation I had was that it has a great deal of advice to any executive who is a manager of the SharePoint technology and wishes to provide leadership as well — the kind of leadership that has to do with enabling others to fulfill their full potential better.

Peter Grazioli,

former VP/CIO, Young Broadcasting