My Strange Dream

I had a dream last night, a real while you are sleeping the story pops in to your head dream and not a "it would be nice if.." kind of dream.

I dream that I was advising someone very very knowledgeable in Computer Science on a SharePoint install. Yes I do dream about SharePoint installs. I was concerned they would reject the project for all the typical reasons like lack of Enterprise functionality, blog data storage, poor UI accessibility.

But when he did reject it, which I guess I knew he would all along because it was my dream and I was having it, he said something strange. He said it was because of the lack of an installation wizard.

And when I woke up I started to think about this. Given all of SharePoint's obvious faults it still has a lot to offer. And yet the building of farms is a very time consuming process. Building a farm involves a great deal or talking, writing and guessing. You have to build SQL Servers and the SharePoint separate, one at a time. You have to estimate what you need on paper or with a tool.

Wouldn't it be great if you had a wizard that guided and controlled the entire process of installation, upgrading, patching, and solution deployment in a controlled version controlled way for the entire farm.

Maybe I am just saying Dimensions for SharePoint, but I keep thinking about the dream.