There are no Analogies for SharePoint

People generally learn new technologies through the use of analogies. When VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, hit the market I was frequently asked to explain what it did. After what I hoped had been a lucid description, the listener (who's eyes had long since glazed-over) would say something like "so VisiCalc is a word processor for numbers?" Lacking a better analogy, I'd reluctantly agree. The listener would invariably say, "Then I'll just type my numbers in the word processor."

Of course we now know that the similarity between a spreadsheet and a word processor is both superficial and misleading. They are entirely different tools with unique purposes. After many years of use, spreadsheets have earned a mission-critical role in most organizations.

Not only were spreadsheets difficult to understand at first, but they also treated data very differently than had been done in the past. A spreadsheet file is neither data nor program; it is both. The spreadsheet file contains the numbers, formulas, formatting, and macros needed to turn the raw data it contains into meaningful information. Spreadsheets are truly in a class by themselves.

SharePoint faces a similar challenge--it is something new and therefore enjoys no real analogies. Architecture is the business of identifying useful technology analogies and applying them to new and novel situations. SharePoint is a combination of the best architectural patterns and analogies, but the total of these patterns is something completely new and groundbreaking.

When it works with data, SharePoint uses the patterns that have been so successful in Access and Excel. When working with words and content it uses the best patterns from Word. The most surprising innovation is that it wraps all of these functions up in a web session that is patterned after PowerPoint!

PowerPoint invests presentations with formatting and branding by applying "Master Pages." Master Pages change the look of a presentation without being invasive. PowerPoint encourages the display of information in the "content area" in the lower portion of the slide. SharePoint provides a "content area" in the browser for the user add content. PowerPoint slides include placeholders for photos, movies, diagrams, and words. Place a photo on the content area and PowerPoint knows what to do with it. SharePoint also includes "Web Part Zones" which are intelligent placeholders that allow the placement of active Web Parts into the content area directly within the browser.

PowerPoint offers numerous page templates that can be applied to the slide. When applied these templates change the layout and structure of the page. This provides a quick method to show lists, bullet points, photos with descriptions, and other common layout options.

SharePoint also provides page layouts to allow different arrangements of placeholders in the browser.

So SharePoint incorporates the best patterns from the most successful tools in software history. The problem is that it also absorbs too many other "best patterns" to list here. And in the end, the sum of these patterns is something totally and completely unique.

So I may reluctantly mumble "yes" when asked if SharePoint is like Cold Fusion... or Front Page... or whatever, but I really mean no. Quietly I'm thinking that over the next two years the world is going to realize that an entirely new, and mission critical, technology has entered the world.

You may not understand it now but I predict you won't be able to live without it in a year or two.

Comments

[Michael Sampson]

Mark, you have argued that there are no analogies from the Microsoft suite of products. What about from outside of that space ... from other vendors?

M.