SharePoint Administrator Vs SharePoint Developer

SharePoint Administrator

1. Responsible for Servers in SharePoint farm
   • Includes set-up and configuration of SharePoint Services on Servers, maintenance of Web Front End Servers, Indexing Servers, and some aspects of maintaining Database servers. (In smaller companies like mine, the job of SharePoint administrator also inherits the job of Database administrator, and this should be accounted for in deciding compensation.)
2. Creation and maintenance of Sites and Site Collections, as well as all associated databases and services, such as Shared Service Providers, and Extended Authentication providers if needed.
3. Set-up and maintenance of Outgoing and Incoming e-mail services
4. Qualification, Installation and Maintenance of any Plug-in, Feature, Web Part, Template or Solution, including 3rd party software or applications.
5. Responsible for back-up and recovery practices, and maintaining integrity and reliability of access to information.
6. Responsible for set-up and configuration of Excel Services and InfoPath services (If available).
7. Responsible or establishing and/or maintaining end user access policy and permissions.
   • This may also include the ability to delegate permissions authority to other users, as deemed appropriate.
8. Responsible for implementing and maintaining search services, including defining search scopes.
9. Responsible for implementing and maintaining user profile properties, including “MySites” functionality.
10. Responsible for coordinating and implementing best use practices, and communicating with company management best use scenarios.
    • Best use practices may include creating simple workflow processes and simple site customization.

Basically, from the way I see it, Everything that is on the Central Admin page of a SharePoint site, and some of things that can be accomplished with SharePoint Designer, should be the responsibility of the SharePoint Administrator.
For a SharePoint Developer, that could start with this simple phrase.  If you MUST use Visual Studio to create or design some aspect of SharePoint, you are a developer.  If it simply can’t be done by any other means, and Visual Studio is mandatory for you to do your job, I believe that would qualify you.  I’m not a Developer, so I will probably miss most of the below requirements by a long margin, but there does need to be some clarification, so here goes.

SharePoint Developer

1.  Responsible for design, creation and implementation of custom webparts, .NET user controls, custom Master Pages, custom Layouts, custom Event Handlers, features, solutions,  and templates to be used in a SharePoint environment.
2. Responsible for integrating non-SharePoint related services into SharePoint applications as needed.
3. Demonstrates a proficiency in any of the following; XML, CAML,  XSLT, HTML, DHTML, ASP.NET, C#, ASP, JavaScript, style sheet/CSS

Most of these I gleaned from the “SharePoint Administrator” job listings, so I’m sure that more needs to be added. I would very much like to see a standard applied to the title of SharePoint Administrator as well as SharePoint Developer so that companies have a better understanding of what their own requirements are. I would also like to abolish the term SharePoint Architect, or at least limit that to the select few who made the nuts and bolts of SharePoint, like the original programmers.  Hopefully, a little bit of clarification from the SharePoint community will help these companies find the individual who is the right fit for the positions they need filled also.