SharePoint (MOSS 2007): Large Implementation, Potentially Enormous Pain.
Right now there are SharePoint consultants working on a project with me. They were brought on because they are one of the few groups that have worked on a MOSS implementation of this size that didn’t sound as though they were going to waste the client’s money. Of course, with niche expertise comes big money. They are being paid $185/hour for four weeks and, as the old adage holds, you can price something at whatever people will pay
So far they seem very good and it is nice to see the MSFT approach to Requirements Gathering and the Project Define Phase. They ask all the right questions and dont waste time with the unimportant ones. I look forward to working with them more, especially in the weeks ahead as documentation is created.
In building a Requirements Document, it is very tempting to me to keep the platform itself - MOSS - in mind. Seeing as the consultants cost so much money it makes sense on one hand to try to make the Requirements somehow specific to their tool set.
But I resist, and work from the truth, upwards. It is a custom implementation, so there will be custom work and things will be eliminated from the Scope. The platform will not define the scope. This project is too important to the organization to be straitjacketed by software.
And so we are painstakingly going through Requirements, starting from the kickoff meeting, and we are doing two sets of Requirements Documents. It is an experiment. I want to see where the deltas are and how it works out. I will let you know.
And that clock is ticking at more than $3 a minute. 
It is interesting, and I will post whatever I think you might want to know about the unique factors in a MOSS implementation of the size I am working on. It will spawn 5 or 6 public-facing sites with a few thousand members each (and they will all have to be migrated to the new site). It will also attempt to organize document and workflow management at an organization without any.
If this winds up being anything like implementations I have participated in before, one of the really tough pieces (the toughest piece?) of this effort will be in getting people to use the new technology. Thankfully, it is a MSFT office so they will likely enjoy SharePoint and it’s Excel Services, document workflow, etc. It will, however take time. That is one thing that is not OOTB with SharePoint Server 2007: enthusiasm.
Almost a million dollars is being spent on this project, and I am trying to manage the technology end on my own. I am not really a SharePoint guy. Guess I will have to become one. Truthfully, I am impressed so far. It seems like a super-robust product. Of course, I am a bit concerned about SEO. MOSS builds pages in a way that might not be conducive to what I would consider proper SEO. I am reseaching this, and if you have any experience in that regard, shoot me a note!
Stay tuned. 
MIT Technical, Boston