Many of us will run into this issue when trying to create a business intelligence site from out of box BI template, you may receive the following error.

An unexpected error has occurred.
Correlation ID:{bb8dc42a-14f0-*******}

This typically means that you have not turned on the publishing feature at the site collection level. So all you got to do to get around this problem is simply go to Site Action-> Site Settings –> Site Collection Administration –> Site Collection Features and click on activate button next to SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure. Thats it..

While trying to create a new sp site using power shell cmdlet New-Site, I received the following error.

The term 'OwnerAlias' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, scri
pt file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was
included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:11
+ OwnerAlias <<<<  DOMAIN\USERID-
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (OwnerAlias:String) [], CommandN
   otFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

The simple solution was to remove extra space in my script following  ‘-‘. Here is the sample script that I used which worked.

New-SPSite http://url$ -OwnerAlias DOMAIN\USERID - HostHeaderWebApplication http://SERVERNAME

If you are in the market of hiring SharePoint resource then I strongly suggest that you do all the required due diligence to ensure that the talent that you are hiring is the right one. Here are some tidbits that I think can help you.

1) Search on Google or Bing about the person who he/she is. You can find tons of information about the person just by searching. A big red flag - If you don't see the candidate's name associated with SharePoint anywhere (Usergroup, SharePoint Conferences etc). I would be really apprehensive about the candidate.

2) Before you invite the candidate for the interview, request a small summary about his expertise and things that he/she likes to do. Even better, have a templated word doc and have them fill it out. The questions that you are asking are specific to the opening that you have in your team.

3) Ask tough technical questions during interview process. Just don't take word for it. Try and go as deep as you can and see at what level the Candidate says - a. He hasn't done that before b. Totally misses the question by a mile. Dont be shy. Its your budget dollars that you are spending and since you are in the interview, chances are your neck is on the line as well. Remember the due diligence that you do when buying a used car for yourself. Okay this is not the same, but I think you get the point. If you are looking for a list of technical questions, please email me @ sandeep@integrationnow.com and I will be happy to provide that to you.

4) References: Extremely important! Make sure that you request at least 3 references and thoroughly check them. During your reference call, ensure that you request specific details about the project done and the role of the candidate that you are considering.

5) SharePoint is a big product. There are 3 levels of so called SharePoint architects. Level 1 are the ones who are more like power users. Level 1 are great for working with users, creating simple out of the box workflows, creating lists etc. Then there is Level 2. Level 2 are strong developers with good architecture skills. You need Level 2 if you have any custom development needed to accomplish some turnkey projects. The Level 2 is a hard skill to grasp and not every Tom, Dick and Harry can be a SharePoint Architect. There there is level 3. Level 3 are strong on infrastructure side and are primarily responsible for installing patches, ensuring backups and other mundane "administrator" type jobs. A good candidate for Level 3 is someone who has been doing network/server administration for some time.

First of all, I want to apologize if I am stubbing anybody’s toes here but in the best interest of my Client(s) and Companies looking to hire SharePoint help there is a growing trend that I am seeing. The trend is – There is a growing list of so called SharePoint Architects (or lets say self proclaimed SharePoint Architects) in the market. Companies looking to get projects done - falls into their ‘trap’ because they don’t have the skills to gauge the skills and ends up either spending more or see disappointments in their outcome. Recently, a Client went three rounds of iterations with 3 different Vendor to get a PerformancePoint BI dashboard partially completed. For the other half, they just went clueless on what needs done to finish it off. So I decided to write a quick series of blogs on how to make sure that the SharePoint talent that you are hiring has the required skills to make your project successful. Stay tuned …