SharePoint Administrators need to know InfoPath?
Reading thru a discussion thread the question was: “Where would you go to find a SharePoint Admin with InfoPath???? These folks are the definition of a mythical creature!!!! Any help or suggestions would be appreciated”
The administrator is the Gate Keeper, and Key Master. “”Geekie I know”, but I think the answer is YES.
Yes in they need to at least understand what a good practice or implementation can do. Would you be a good administrator if you let anyone in your org build a form and just publish it without validation. Since the admin is the true owner, the admin should also have a solid grasp on SP Designer, SQL, and a basically anything leveraging or connected to SharePoint.
I like to pull the best line in history. “With great power comes great responsibility”.
I like to say however, I do not expect administrators to spend hours working on forms for teams. That could be a waste of the administrators valuable time. Training up the Power Users, or bring in folks with the right skills is key for a successful admin. I think it is very important to understand that skills on any software vary depending on the version. So some skills or knowledge on 2007 are transferrable onto 2010, however the gotchas need to be researched and learned. I like to make sure folks understand that just like Office 2007 and Office 2010, it is a matter of both training and usage. So check references, look at a portfolio of projects, and look as samples.