Like any Web Content Management System (WCM or CMS), the best way for a developer to evaluate Sitecore is to build a prototype using the product. The best way to learn Sitecore is to attend at least the Sitecore .NET Developer or Sitecore HTML Developer training (the latter focuses on XSL). But first, schedule a live Web demo of the product with Sitecore.

Do some research before attending training, working with the technology, or involving any information and system architects, users, business analysts, or other parties in the prototyping process. Spend as much time as you can afford reading about Sitecore. Check out the Sitecore Web site and the Sitecore Developer Network (SDN), especially the SDN forums. Manage your profile and sign up for newsletters on the Sitecore Portal. If you are a Sitecore partner, check out the Sitecore Partner Network (SPN).

Before architecting a solution, I think that developers should read through at least these in approximately the following order:

• The Content Reference manual.
• The Data Definition Reference manual.
• The Presentation Component Reference manual.

Further reading before installing Sitecore:

• I wrote another post about installing a local instance of SQL Server, which is the most convenient option.
• The Sitecore Installation guide, including system requirements. I would read a little about the .zip installation to learn more about the system components, which include a file system, an IIS ASP.NET Web site, and supporting relational databases.
• The Release Notes, which address known issues.
• Sitecore requires specific Internet Explorer Configuration.
• If you use Windows XP and have already configured an IIS Web site, then see this page on SDN.

For some reason, organizations often want to start by configuring the production servers. I would first focus on the development environments, then test environments, then production content management, and finally production content delivery.

You can get the latest Sitecore setup executable from this page on the Sitecore Developer Network, and you can get the Starter Kit there as well. If you are a Sitecore partner, you can download the Nicam demo site from the Sitecore Partner Network. Customers can contact Sitecore for access to Nicam. The Starter Kit and Nicam are useful for demonstrations and (to some extent) education, but neither follows best practices, and neither should form any basis for production solutions. If you run into any trouble installing Sitecore, see the Installation Troubleshooting guide, or contact your regional Sitecore office.

Use the cookbooks to implement what you’ve read:

• The Content Author's Cookbook.
• The Data Definition Cookbook.
• The Presentation Component Cookbook (especially the section, “How to Create a Visual Studio Web Application Project”).

If you want to use XSL, see the Presentation Component XSL Reference.

For information about Sitecore Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs), see:

• The Content API Cookbook.
• The Data Definition API Cookbook.
• The Presentation Component API Cookbook.
• The Sitecore 6 API documentation.,

If the above topics don’t cover what you need, check additional resources listed in this post that contains links to the best documentation, common forum topics, and other resources. These should be particularly helpful:

• The Client Configuration Cookbook.
• The guide to Reusing and Sharing Data.
• The Rules Engine Cookbook.

You might want to review various blogs about Sitecore. Lars Fløe Nielsen maintains this list of current blogs relevant to Sitecore.

Partners and customers can access the Sitecore Support Portal at http://support.sitecore.net.