Given the nature of the chapters (we tried to follow a concept and code sample and/or walkthrough model), this book is primarily targeted at the professional developer who is new to the idea of developing OBAs. More specifically, this book is aimed at the developer who has some familiarity with either the .NET Framework or with programming against MOSS or the Office object model. This is an interesting marriage in skills because oftentimes it’s difficult to find one developer with all of these skills. Historically, Office development skills are often centric to either SharePoint (think SharePoint Portal Server 2003), COM, or VBA development without a lot of cross-over. However, with OBA development you, the developer, may find yourself building smart-client components while at the same time building Web parts on a SharePoint portal—all within one OBA solution.

For the reader who is a professional developer, I think that it helps to have some grounding in object-oriented programming, although it’s not a prerequisite for this book. Further, I would also add that the reader of this book should have some knowledge in either Visual Basic or C# and while not covered in this book directly, working within the innards of SharePoint implies knowledge of ASP.NET and COM when it comes to the more general Office object model.

That said, I think developers of all skills can get something out of this book. For example, the more advanced developer may acquire an understanding of how various pieces tie together and pay less attention to the code samples, while the novice or intermediate developer may pay some attention to the code samples to see how we’ve implemented certain items within the solutions we discuss within the book. One of my key goals for this book is that it is accessible on a grander scale, so in some chapters you’ll see code samples that apply to specific solutions, whereas in others you’ll see walkthroughs that may appeal to a different type of developer. I’ll leave you to explore these on your own to see what you can use in your day-to-day development lives.

While the developer is our primary audience, I do believe that there is some value for other disciplines, including the architect, program or project manager, technical product manager, and even technical field sales or support roles. I say this because Office cuts across many veins of use and practicality, so having a good understanding of what can be built using the Office platform and system can hopefully provide some ideas (in multiple areas, like planning, design, architecture, and so on) for people from different disciplines. I think the key takeaway here is that OBAs can be built for many different disciplines and purposes within the enterprise, so even perusing this book to help inspire those ideas may be beneficial to those whose job is not core to development.