This the first of several related posts I am going to use to start exploring a concept I have had for some time – implicit documents.  Without getting too far down in the weeds yet regarding definitions (wait for Step 1 later this week), let’s just say that an implicit document represents the concept of a completely and totally virtual document…that is to say, a document made up entirely of a series of references to other objects within a corporate knowledge management structure, such as boiler plate text, graphs, charts, logos, etc.  Also in Step 1, a quick tour of how I arrived at the term “Implicit Document”, and how it differs from other similar terms you may have heard, such as “Virtual Document” and “Compound Document”. 

For those of you that are interested, here is the working outline for the steps I will hopefully conquer as I progress through this series.  Once a future step becomes active, I will replace the bulleted text below with a link to the appropriate article for that step.

• Step 0:  Welcome and Outline
• Step 1:  Setting the Table – Background Information, Technology Levelsetting and Real-world Applications
• Step 2:  High-Level Solution Design
• Step 3:  Development Environment Set-Up
• Step 4:  Data Warehouse and Dimensional Model
• Step 5:  Making Time – Working with the Time Dimension
• Step 6:  Rapid Application Development in SharePoint – Just an Introduction
• Step 7:  Using BDC Columns
• Step 8:  Building the Microsoft Word Template
• Step 9:  Bringing it All Together – Document Generation
• Step 10:  Reporting and Auditing

I hope to be able to provide at least 2 blog posts in this series per week, which would hopefully get us to the end somewhere around the middle of March.  Please check back often to see the latest, or feel free to sign up for our RSS Feed.