Two weeks after I took the Great SharePoint Adventure course offered by the Ted Pattison Group in Tampa Florida I decided to take the SharePoint WorkFlow course. This time the course was conducted not by John Holliday, but Ted himself. I was very impressed. Like so many of us, I have generally read a multi-hundred page book and start in on the examples. This works well in many cases but sometime you want to take a course where the info is spoon fed (or shoveled) so you can get the most information in as short a time as possible. That is definitely the case here.

To me it's not just the learning you receive but the act of watching a master expert make mistakes in performing examples. I am not saying Ted tripped, I am explaining that SharePoint is very 1.0-ish, no matter what the version. It's a tremendous development platform, but it is still rough around various edges. If you choose you want to develop in SharePoint you best know what you are getting into or you may find yourself looking for a new job. To watch an expert perform wonderful work as well as make mistakes are what I need to see so I can gauge how to predict time frames in development in new technologies.

In addition, developing WorkFlow projects is a tough nut to crack. Developing applications in SharePoint can prove to be a learning curve. But the two of them together can be a big leap indeed. When I took the course there were some rough edges and some very aggravating problems with the labs, but I suspect these will be quickly sorted out. I do not suggest jumping in to this course if you are not fully prepared, but if you choose this course, you will definitely have many questions answered.