As much as I would like people to believe that DotNetNuke was intentionally created as a premier open source project for the Microsoft platform, it is unfortunately not the case. As is true with many open source projects, the software was created with commercial intentions in mind, and only when it was discovered that its true purpose would not be realized was it reconsidered as an open source project.

In 2001–2002 I was working for a medium-sized software consulting company that was providing outsourced software development services to a variety of large U.S. clients specializing primarily in e-Learning initiatives. The internal push was to achieve CMM 3.0 on a fairly aggressive schedule so that we could compete with the emerging outsourcing powerhouses from India and China. As a result there was an incredible amount of focus on process and procedure and somewhat less focus on the technical aspects of software engineering. Because the majority of the client base was interested in the J2EE platform, the company had primarily hired resources with Java skills — leaving myself with my legacy Microsoft background to assume more of an internal development and project management role. The process improvement exercise consumed a lot of time and energy for the company; attempting to better define roles and responsibilities and ensuring proper documentation throughout the project life cycle. Delving into CMM and the PMBOK were great educational benefits for me — skills that would prove to be invaluable in future endeavors. Ultimately the large U.S. clients decided to test the overseas outsourcing options anyway, which resulted in severe downsizing for the company. It was during these tumultuous times that I recognized the potential of the newly released .NET Framework (beta) and decided that I would need to take my own initiative to learn this exciting new platform in order to preserve my long-term employment outlook.

Download An Inside Look at the Evolution of DotNetNuke pdf