Eventually, you’ll start working on larger projects (if your organization is
satisfied with the work you did for your department and want to do a larger
SharePoint deployment). By the time you get to this point, you should have
architected several smaller installations already, you’ll have joined the
SharePoint community to have a peer network from which to learn, and
you’ll have confidence in your own abilities.
The point, though, is that at no part of the path is there a stop that says “Now,
go be a SharePoint developer for a few years” or “Now, manage your servers
for a couple of years to build experience.” You don’t build experience as an
architect by working as a developer or administrator no more than you build
experience as a chef by eating a lot or selling food at a convenience store.
Granted, these are related tasks, but if you want to be a better chef, you need
to cook, and if you want to be a better architect, you need to architect.
Similarly, there’s no “exit” path after you’ve reached a certain skill level.
You don’t naturally “advance” from being the world’s greatest food eater to
being a great chef or from being a chef to a grocery store manager, even if all
of these are related to food. Great developers don’t become great solutions
architects by advancement; a developer who wants to become an architect
starts from the bottom, just like anyone else. You don’t become a business
analyst as a natural progression from an architect role; if you want to become
a business analyst, you start from the bottom, just like anyone else.
Your path of advancement in your career is usually within that discipline, so
your advancement path as an architect is to become a great architect, and the
advancement path as a developer is to become a great developer.
I Have No Projects!
If you work for a single organization and as an architect primarily for that
organization, you might end up with spare time where you don’t get to
practice your skills.
Here’s an exercise I did in my early days as an aspiring SharePoint
infrastructure architect (and if you didn’t know, I originally started out on the
path toward SharePoint administration). Look through case studies posted for
About the Author
Bjørn Christoffer Thorsmæhlum Furuknap is a senior solutions
architect, published author, speaker, and passionate
SharePointaholic. He has been doing software development
professionally since 1993 for small companies as well as
multinational corporations.
About Understanding SharePoint Journal
Understanding SharePoint Journal is a periodical published by USPJA Publishing LLC. The
journal covers few topics in each issue, focusing to teach a deeper understanding of each topic
while showing how to use SharePoint in real-life scenarios.
You can read more about USP Journal, as well as get other issues and sign up for regular
updates, discounts, and previews of upcoming issues, at http://www.uspjournal.com/ .
You can download whole book on the following link http://sharepoint-career.com/
