First, Talk the Talk
The first step is to extol the virtues of .net 2.0 frequently. This
isn't hard to do, as .net 2.0 has many virtues.
After last year's tech-ed, one of my colleagues started slipping
.net 2 references into just about every conversation.
Example: Extolling the virtues of .Net 2 at a restaurant
Interior. Noisy restaurant.
Person 1
This meal is taking a while to arrive.
Person 2
With .net 2.0, a performant UI is a snap,
thanks to the über
useful background worker.
Person 1
[Taking cheque book out of jacket pocket]
Can I engage your company for consulting services?
Okay, that went well, but sometimes it doesn't go so smoothly.
The trick is to enumerate virtues that are suited to your audience.
Even the most technical CIO is unlikely to have the time to care about
generics, for example.
So try something like this:
Extolling the virtues of .Net 2 to a CIO
CIO
I wonder what the benefits of .Net 2.0 are?
Person 2
[shouting, waving arms, kicking legs and perhaps
using a megaphone hired especially for the purpose]
IT SAVES YOU TIME AND IT SAVES YOU MONEY!!
CIO's tend to understand that line of thinking, as it's something
they can pass on to their buddies, the CFO and the CEO.
Oh and Yeh, Walk that Walk
But for really sneaking .net 2.0 into the company you need
to start with action, not words.
Side by Side is Your Sneaky Friend
It's pretty safe to install .net 2.0 on a box that already has 1.x.
So go ahead and install it on a machine. And install it on a few
others when people aren't looking.
When people realise that the presence of .net 2.0 isn't going to
kill their currently working .net 1.x app, their barriers to
resistance will begin to weaken.
Notice that you don't have to begin by writing any new or special
apps in .Net 2.0. The first thing is to get the framework in place.
Maybe use it for running a powershell script or two. Or maybe install
some other new software that requires .net 2.0.
If your client has any MSDE databases then you're set. There are lots of good reasons for upgrading to SQL Express 2005. For example: no more query governor!! And the excellent side effect is that it requires .Net 2.0.
The Domino Theory of Framework Adoption
Once you've moved .Net 2.0 onto the servers, the desktop will be the next to fall.
And even if they don't, the servers are possibly enough. With .Net 2.0 on the servers, you're ready to give your client an asp.net 2.0 intranet application, or ten.
Best of luck, buddy. And don't sue me if it screws up. ;-)
How true, but beware of things that you may not have researched that are in fact different from 1.1. Encryption and Base64 issues were something we took for granted in our move and caused us a bit of scrambling. All in all a hugely productive move.
Then again, in small organizations keeping pace is much easier =)
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