Two years ago I decided to be more active in the PnP community and set new goals at least one contribution a month to get to the SharePoint Dev community monthly contributors list, also I wanted to share my knowledge in my own words the way I’d like to present it. One contribution a month was the initial plan, but I realized that this makes me very satisfied and I increased the contributions from one to four or more for the next few months. Whether is an answer to a question on GitHub issue, a new PnP sample or just fixing a typo in a function description, every drop counts. I enjoy when I answer a question because someone might have spent days in research how to do it as I did of the beginning of my career, but now after years of experience I know the answer and can give him that in seconds. Should that be the purpose of the community?
Do not be afraid to share your ideas the people will like them
After few months, I had the confidence to start creating PnP samples with my ideas like “SPFx ReactiveX (RxJs) Event Emitter” sample and the “SPFx React Slide Swiper” sample and I was happy to see that the community founds my samples useful, they ask questions, request new features and improvements. That is very rewarding and keeps you in a good mood.
Doing PnP demos is like a talk with folks in the coffee shop
Well, to be honest, I speak a lot and not always the right thing for the context, but I was never very stressed when I had to speak. I have experience and I know that I would not disappoint dramatically, might not be brilliant, but it is not the end of the world. Here is that guy Patrick Rogers, he opens the PnP JS SIG call and he is always so relaxed, tries to be funny and it creates such a friendly atmosphere like you are on a talk with folks in the coffee shop… why should I be stressed then? I’d like to be well prepared, so the previous day I did a few dry runs and tried to fit in 15 minutes. Now, time for my demo “Hey guys, my name is Velin …”. At this moment the stress is gone and I am focused on my content.
I got even more confidence so I wanted to share my view on code quality
In our work we occasionally have to make compromises of the product quality in favors of the deadlines, but the patterns and practices is not a workplace and I realized that is exactly the right place where I can do proper software the way I understand that and show the community how they can improve their web parts using unit tests for example. I read a blog about SPFx unit testing from Elio Struyf, another PnP Core team member. Then I started promoting unit tests in every web part. It turned that the people are interested and I got over thirty questions. This opened another door where I can contribute heavily because I have experience in both JavaScript and .NET unit testing. Then I created the “React Jest Testing” sample and it was very well accepted from the community.
The BIG DEAL, the PnP Office 365 CLI and the real power of the community
“The more you know, the more you know you do not know” – Aristotle
November 2017, Waldek Mastykarz and PnP community introduced the Office 365 CLI. I was impressed with the idea to have one tool for managing Office 365 that runs on Windows, Linux, and MAC. After I reviewed the contribution guidelines, I thought that would be a project of a high quality and lots of potential so I committed my first commands. What happened next is that learned so much from all the contributors that I realized no matter how experienced and professional you are trying to be, in the PnP community there is always an idea or suggestion that gives you a different point of view. That is the meaning of the collective knowledge and for me, this is the real power of the community.
Few hours of contributions a week, every week, resulted in invite from the PnP core team
I am not a sprinter, I am a walker I got here with small persistent steps. I have not sacrificed my personal life or family time. For me was a matter of contributions a few hours a week, every week. Those few hours gave me the satisfaction of being helpful and the eager for learning something new. Nearly two years later, I became a Microsoft MVP and that was a great opportunity to be part of the PnP Core Team.
Learn, Share, Reuse
About the Author
Velin is a Microsoft Office Development MVP, currently working as a technical architect with a focus on designing SharePoint Online and Office 365 applications. He is a frequent contributor to SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) and a member of the SharePoint PnP Core Team where is especially focused on the Office 365 CLI and the SharePoint Framework. He is passionate about good coding practices, automation and in a search of better ways for teamwork that could improve the team collaboration.
You will see him speaking on SharePoint conferences and events. He posts regularly to his blog, blog.velingeorgiev.com. Tweets from @VelinGeorgiev and works on multiple GitHub projects.
SharePoint Team, Microsoft – 16th of November 2018