My post on general ECM skills reminded me of an internal post on Documentum consulting skills. I thought I’d cross post it here in case anyone found it helpful. I’ve made minor edits to expand acronyms, clarify product names, or clear up other ambiguities but the post is pretty much intact.
What makes a great Documentum consultant?
So, what makes a great Documentum consultant? I think there are desert island skills that every one must have or that you’d really want to have if you were alone on a desert island facing some sort of Documentum project. There are also fringe skills that add value and could be critical depending on the project.
A consistent “why do you like working with DCTM” answer from the people we’ve interviewed is that people get to work with a wide variety of technologies. Looking at this list shows why. There aren’t many people that can fit this bill. It’s also important to note that someone broad enough to score well against these categories could actually be a great fit for non-Documentum projects.
Desert Island Documentum Skills (In no particular order)
- Core consulting skills (project management, written & verbal communication, client management, selling, teamwork, confidence)
- People-centric application experience (Collaboration, process, workflow)
- Document-centric application experience
- Documentum fundamentals: Workflow, Security, Object Model, Documentum Foundation Classes (DFC)
- Basic Documentum administrative tasks (repository care-and-feeding, best practices, installing content server, creating a repository)
- Documentum Query Language, Basic SQL
- Basic XML/XSLT
- Basic operating system (starting/stopping processes, navigating the Documentum installation folder hierarchy, running programs/scripts, editing files, changing permissions/owners of files, setting environment variables, using XServer (for UNIX), administering users and groups)
- Basic Relational Database (relational concepts, minimal SQL, ability to speak somewhat intelligently with a DBA)
- Basic Java (knows what a classpath is, can write and compile a class, can leverage Javadocs)
- Basic BASIC
- Basic Web Development Kit (WDK)
- Basic application server
- HTML, JavaScript, CSS
- Ability to negotiate IT processes and human resources
- Troubleshooting and debugging
Fringe/Value-add Documentum Skills (In no particular order)
- Intermediate to Advanced WDK, Business Objects Framework (BOF)
- Java Server Faces, Struts, other frameworks
- JSP, servlets, JDBC, EJB
- Web services
- All other Documentum products such as Web Publisher, InputAccel, Content Rendition Services, WebCache, Site Delivery Services, Content Intelligence Services, Digital Asset Manager/Rich Media Services, Business Process, Reporting Gateway, JDBC Services, Manager/FormsBuilder
- Documentum federations, replication
- High availability/high performance, load testing
- Enterprise architecture
- Identity management (Netegrity, Oblix)
- Portals in general, Documentum WDK for Portals
- Imaging, COLD, fixed asset management
- Structured authoring tools (Epic, Framemaker, XMetal)
- Web Services
- Advanced XSLT, FOSI, SGML, Schema/DTD
- Apache FOP
- Enterprise Integration
- Industry-specific or horizontal solutions (Collaboration/eRoom, Records Management, SarbOx, Aerospace, Pharma, Oil&Gas, Manufacturing)
So, a “great” Documentum consultant would have all of the “Desert Island Documentum Skills” nailed as well as the “Fringe/Value-Add Documentum Skills” applicable to the project at-hand.