One lesson I've learned time and again is that it's about the people.  You can be on a lousy project with great people and still have a great time.  The reverse is not always true.  Of course, the ideal world is a great project with great people.  I've been lucky enough to have enjoyed several adventures with great people while trying to change the world.

As part of mid-year review, I'm taking a stroll down memory lane.  To do so, I created a snapshot of people I've worked with while writing books in patterns & practices over the years. Looking into the past always gives me insight into the future.   I use it to find personal success patterns.  It also helps me get a new vantage point for project analysis.

The first thing I learned by looking at the list of people I've worked with is how the right project can really grow your network.   The other thing is how you can also predict a project's success largely by who's involved.   The thing that really stands out for me is that the most successful projects were ones that created an intersection of the right problems, with the right people, with the right passions and strengths.  That's what dream teams and compelling missions are made of.  A simple test of whether you have the right team is whether you want to run towards or away from the problem.

Here's the snapshot I used for my analysis ...

Application Architecture Guide 2.0

• Home Page: http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide
• Forewords: S. Somasegar, Scott Guthrie
• Authors: J.D. Meier , Alex Homer, David Hill, Jason Taylor , Prashant Bansode , Lonnie Wall, Rob Boucher Jr, Akshay Bogawat
• Test Team - Rohit Sharma, Praveen Rangarajan, Kashinath TR, Vijaya Jankiraman
• Edit Team - Dennis Rea
• External Contributors/Reviewers - Adwait Ullal; Andy Eunson; Brian Sletten; Christian Weyer; David Guimbellot; David Ing; David Weller; Derek Greer; Eduardo Jezierski; Evan Hoff; Gajapathi Kannan; Jeremy D. Miller; John Kordyback; Keith Pleas; Kent Corley; Mark Baker; Paul Ballard; Peter Oehlert; Norman Headlam; Ryan Plant; Sam Gentile; Sidney G Pinney; Ted Neward; Udi Dahan
• Microsoft Contributors / Reviewers - Ade Miller; Amit Chopra; Anna Liu; Anoop Gupta; Bob Brumfield; Brad Abrams; Brian Cawelti; Bhushan Nene; Burley Kawasaki; Carl Perry; Chris Keyser; Chris Tavares; Clint Edmonson; Dan Reagan; Denny Dayton; Diego Dagum; Dmitri Martynov; Dmitri Ossipov; Don Smith; Dragos Manolescu; Elisa Flasko; Eric Fleck; Erwin van der Valk; Faisal Mohamood; Francis Cheung; Gary Lewis; Glenn Block; Gregory Leake; Ian Ellison-Taylor; Ilia Fortunov; J.R. Arredondo; Javed Sikander; John deVadoss; Joseph Hofstader; Koby Avital; Loke Uei Tan; Luke Nyswonger; Manish Prabhu; Meghan Perez; Mehran Nikoo; Michael Puleio; Mike Francis; Mike Walker; Mubarak Elamin; Nick Malik; Nobuyuki Akama; Ofer Ashkenazi; Pablo Castro; Pat Helland; Phil Haack; Rabi Satter; Reed Robison; Rob Tiffany; Ryno Rijnsburger; Scott Hanselman; Seema Ramchandani; Serena Yeoh; Simon Calvert; Srinath Vasireddy; Tom Hollander; Wojtek Kozaczynski

Improving Web Services Security

• Home Page: http://www.codeplex.com/WCFSecurityGuide
• Forewords: Nicholas Allen, Rockford Lhotka
• Authors: J.D. Meier, Carlos Farre, Jason Taylor, Prashant Bansode, Steve Gregersen, Madhu Sundararajan, Rob Boucher
• External Contributors/Reviewers: Andy Eunson; Anil John; Anu Rajendra; Brandon Bohling; Chaitanya Bijwe; Daniel Root; David P. Romig, Sr.; Dennis Rea; Kevin Lam; Michele Bustamante; Parameswaran Vaideeswaran; Rockford Lotka; Rudolph Araujo; Santosh Bejugam
• Microsoft Contributors / Reviewers: Alik Levin; Brandon Blazer; Brent Schmaltz; Curt Smith ; Dmitri Ossipov; Don Smith; Jan Alexander; Jason Hogg; Jason Pang; John Steer; Marc Goodner; Mark Fussell; Martin Gudgin; Martin Petersen-Frey; Mike de Libero; Mohammad Al-Sabt; Nobuyuki Akama; Ralph Squillace; Richard Lewis; Rick Saling; Rohit Sharma; Scott Mason; Sidd Shenoy; Sidney Higa; Stuart Kwan; Suwat Chitphakdibodin; T.R. Vishwanath; Todd Kutzke; Todd West; Vijay Gajjala; Vittorio Bertocci; Wenlong Dong; Yann Christensen; Yavor Georgiev

Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

• Home Page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb668991.aspx
• Forewords: Jeff Beehler, Rob Caron, Brian Harry
• Authors: J.D. Meier, Jason Taylor, Prashant Bansode, Alex Mackman, Kevin Jones
• External Contributors/Reviewers.  David P. Romig, Sr; Dennis Rea; Eugene Zakhareyev; Leon Langleyben; Martin Woodward; Michael Rummier; Miguel Mendoza ; Mike Fourie; Quang Tran; Sarit Tamir; Tushar More; Vaughn Hughes
• Microsoft Contributors / Reviewers.  Aaron Hallberg; Ahmed Salijee; Ajay Sudan; Ajoy Krishnamoorthy; Alan Ridlehoover; Alik Levin; Ameya Bhatawdekar; Bijan Javidi; Bill Essary; Brett Keown; Brian Harry; Brian Moore; Brian Keller; Buck Hodges; Burt Harris; Conor Morrison; David Caufield; David Lemphers; Doug Neumann; Edward Jezierski; Eric Blanchet; Eric Charran; Graham Barry; Gregg Boer; Grigori Melnik; Janet Williams Hepler; Jeff Beehler; Jose Parra; Julie MacAller; Ken Perilman; Lenny Fenster; Marc Kuperstein; Mario Rodriguez; Matthew Mitrik; Michael Puleio; Nobuyuki Akama; Paul Goring; Pete Coupland; Peter Provost; Granville (Randy) Miller; Richard Berg; Rob Caron; Robert Horvick; Rohit Sharma; Ryley Taketa; Sajee Mathew; Siddharth Bhatia; Tom Hollander; Tom Marsh; Venky Veeraraghavan

Performance Testing Guidance

• Home Page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb924375.aspx
• Forewords: Alberto Savoia, Rico Mariani
• Authors: J.D. Meier, Microsoft, Senior Program Manager, patterns & practices
  Carlos Farre, Microsoft, Software Design Engineer Test, patterns & practices
  Prashant Bansode, Infosys Technologies Ltd
  Scott Barber, PerfTestPlus Inc, Chief Technologist
  Dennis Rea, Wadeware LLC
• Microsoft Contributors and Reviewers: Alan Ridlehoover; Clint Huffman; Edmund Wong; Ken Perilman; Larry Brader; Mark Tomlinson; Paul Williams; Pete Coupland; Rico Mariani
• External Contributors and Reviewers: Alberto Savoia; Ben Simo; Cem Kaner; Chris Loosley; Corey Goldberg; Dawn Haynes; Derek Mead; Karen N. Johnson; Mike Bonar; Pradeep Soundararajan; Richard Leeke; Roland Stens; Ross Collard; Steven Woody

Security Engineering

• Home Page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998382.aspx
• Authors: J.D. Meier, Alex Mackman, Blaine Wastell, Prashant Bansode, Jason Taylor, and Rudolph Araujo.
• Test Team: Larry Brader, Microsoft Corporation; Nadupalli Venkata Surya Sateesh, Sivanthapatham Shanmugasundaram, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
• Edit Team: Nelly Delgado, Microsoft Corporation
• Release Management: Sanjeev Garg, Microsoft Corporation
• External Contributors and Reviewers: Anil John, Johns Hopkins University – Applied Physics Laboratory; Frank Heidt; Keith Brown Pluralsight LLC; Mark Curphey, Foundstone Professional Services
• Microsoft Services and PSS Contributors and Reviewers: Adam Semel, Denny Dayton, Gregor Noriskin, Kate Baroni, Tom Christian, Wade Mascia
  Microsoft Product Group: Charlie Kaufman, Don Willits, Mike Downen, Rick Samona
  Microsoft IT Contributors and Reviewers: Akshay Aggarwal, Irfan Chaudhry, Shawn Veney, Talhah Mir
• MSDN Contributors and Reviewers: Kent Sharkey
• Microsoft EEG: Corey Ladas, James Waletzky 

Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability

• Home Page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998530.aspx
• Forewords: S. Somasegar, Rico Mariani, Brandon Bohling, Connie U. Smith, Scott Barber
• Authors: J.D. Meier, Srinath Vasireddy, Ashish Babbar, Alex Mackman
• Special thanks to key contributors: Anandha Murukan; Andy Eunson; Balan Jayaraman, Infosys Technologies Ltd; Christopher Brumme (CLR and COM interop); Connie U. Smith, Ph.D.; Curtis Krumel (SQL Server); David G. Brown (SQL Server); Denny Dayton; Don Willits ("Uber man"); Edward Jezierski; Ilia Fortunov; Jim O'Brien, Content Master Ltd; John Allen (ASP.NET); Matt Odhner (ACT); Prabhaker Potharaju (SQL Server); Rico Mariani (Performance Modeling, CLR, Code Review, Measuring); Ray Escamilla (Tuning); Scott Barber (Performance Modeling and Testing); Sharon Bjeletich (SQL Server)
• Special thanks to key reviewers: Adam Nathan (Interop); Brad Abrams; Brandon Bohling, Intel Corporation; Carlos Farre, Solutions IQ; Chuck Delouis, Veritas Software (SQL Server); Cosmin Radu (Interop); Eddie Lau (ACE); Eric Morris (ACE); Erik Olsen (ASP.NET); Gerardo Bermudez (CLR, Performance Modeling); Gregor Noriskin; Ken Perilman; Jan Gray; John Hopkins (ACE); Joshua Lee; K.M. Lee (ACE TEAM); Mark Fussell (XML); Matt Tavis (Remoting); Nico Jansen (ACE Team); Pablo Castro (ADO.NET and SQL); Patrick Dussud (CLR); Riyaz Pishori (Enterprise Services); Richard Turner (Enterprise Services); Sonja Keserovic (Interop); Thomas Marquardt (ASP.NET); Tim Walton; Tom McDonald; Wade Mascia (ASP.NET threading, Web services, and Enterprise Services); Yasser Shohoud (Web services)
• External Reviewers: Ajay Mungara, Intel Corporation; Bill Draven, Intel Corporation; Emil Lerch, Intel Corporation; Carlos Santos (Managed Code); Chris Mullins, Kiefer Consulting; Christopher Bowen, Monster.com; Chuck Cooper; Dan Sullivan; Dave Levine, Rockwell Software; Daniel Cazzulino, Lagash Systems SA; Diego Gonzalez, Lagash Systems SA (XML); Franco Ceruti; Fredrik Normen "N2", Barium AB (extensive review); Grant Fritchey; Greg Buskirk; Greg Kiefer, Kiefer Consulting; Ingo Rammer, IngoRammer.com; James Duff, Vertigo Software; Jason Masterman, Barracuda .NET (Remoting); Jeff Fiegel, Acres Gaming; Jeff Sukow, Rockwell Software; John Lam; John Vliet, Intel Corporation; Juval Lowy (COM interop); Kelly Summerlin, TetraData; Mats Lanner, Open Text Corporation; Matt Davey; Matthew Brealey; Mitch Denny, Monash.NET; Morten Abrahamsen (Performance and Transactions); Nick Wienholt, dotnetperformance.com; Norm Smith (Data Access and Performance Modeling); Pascal Tellier, prairieFyre Software Inc.; Paul Ballard, Rochester Consulting Partnership, Inc.; Per Larsen (Managed Code Performance); Scott Allen (Design Guidelines); Philippe Harry Leopold Frederix (Belgium); Scott Stanfield, Vertigo Software; Ted Pattison, Barracuda .NET (COM Interop); Thiru Thangarathinam; Tim Weaver, Monster.com; Vivek Chauhan (NIIT); Thiru Thangarathinam; Wat Hughes, Creative Data (SQL Server)
• Microsoft Consulting Services and Product Support Services (PSS): Dan Grady; David Madrian; Eddie Clodfelter; Hugh Wade; Jackie Richards; Jacquelyn Schmidt; Jaime Rodriguez; James Dosch; Jeff Pflum; Jim Scurlock; Julian Gonzalez (Web services); Kenny Jones; Linnea Bennett; Matt Neerincx; Michael Parkes; Michael Royster; Michael Stuart; Nam Su Kang; Neil Leslie; Nobuyuki Akama; Pat Altimore; Paul Fallon; Scott Slater; Tom Sears; Tony Bray
• Microsoft Product Group: Alexei Vopilov (Web services); Amrish Kumar; Arvindra Sehmi; Bill Evans; Brian Spanton; Keith Ballinger (WSE); Scot Gellock (Web services); Brian Grunkemeyer (CLR); Chris Eck; David Fields (NT); David Guimbellot; David Mortenson (CLR); Dax Hawkins; Dhananjay Mahajan (Enterprise Services); Dino Chiesa; Dmitry Robsman; Doug Rothaus (ADO.NET); Eddie Liu; Elena Kharitidi (Web services); Fabio Yeon; Harris Syed (Enterprise Services); Jason Zander; Jeffrey Cooperstein; Jim Radigan; Joe Long (Web services vs. ES vs. Remoting); Joshua Allen; Larry Buerk; Lubor Kollar (SQL Server); Maoni Stephens; Michael Coulson; Michael Fanning; Michael Murray (FxCop); Omri Gazitt; Patrick Ng (FX DEV); Peter Carlin (SQL Server); Rebecca Dias (WSE); Rick Vicik; Robin Maffeo (CLR Thread pool); Vance Morrison; Walter Stiers; Yann Christensen
• patterns & practices members: Jason Hogg (ADO.NET and XML); Naveen Yajaman; Sandy Khaund; Scott Densmore; Tom Hollander; Wojtek Kozaczynski
  Thanks to our test team: (Infosys Technologies Ltd): Austin Ajit Samuel Angel; Dhanyah T.S.K; Lakshmi; Prashant Bansode; Ramesh Revenipati; Ramprasad Gopalakrishnan; Ramprasad Ramamurthy; Terrence J. Cyril
  Thanks to our editors for helping to ensure a quality experience for the reader: Sharon Smith; Tina Burden McGrayne, Entirenet; Susan Filkins, Entirenet; Tyson Nevil, Entirenet
• product manager: Ron Jacobs
• Finally, thanks to: Alex Lowe; Chris Sells; Jay Nanduri; Nitin Agrawal; Pat Filoteo; Patrick Conlan (SQL Server); Rajasi Saha; Sanjeev Garg (Satyam Computer Services); Todd Kutzke

Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures

• Home Page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms994921.aspx
• Forewords: Mark Curphey, Erik Olson, Joel Scambrary, Michael Howard
• Authors: J.D. Meier, Alex Mackman, Srinath Vasireddy, Michael Dunner, Ray Escamilla, Anandha Murukan
• External Reviewers–Mark Curphey, Open Web Application Security Project and Watchfire; Andy Eunson (extensive review); Anil John (code access security and hosting scenarios); Paul Hudson and Stuart Bonell, Attenda Ltd. (extensive review of the Securing series); Scott Stanfield and James Walters, Vertigo Software; Lloyd Andrew Hubbard; Matthew Levine; Lakshmi Narasimhan Vyasarajan, Satyam Computer Services; Nick Smith, Senior Security Architect, American Airlines (extensive review of the Securing series); Ron Nelson; Senthil Rajan Alaguvel, Infosys Technologies Limited; Roger Abell, Engineering Technical Services, Arizona State University; and Doug Thews.
• Microsoft Product Group–Michael Howard (Threat Modeling, Code Review, and Deployment Review); Matt Lyons (demystifying code access security); Caesar Samsi; Erik Olson (extensive validation and recommendations on ASP.NET); Andres De Vivanco (securing SQL Server); Riyaz Pishori (Enterprise Services); Alan Shi; Carlos Garcia Jurado Suarez; Raja Krishnaswamy, CLR Development Lead; Christopher Brown; Dennis Angeline; Ivan Medvedev (code access security); Jeffrey Cooperstein (Threat Modeling); Frank Swiderski; Manish Prabhu (.NET Remoting); Michael Edwards, MSDE; Pranish Kumar, (VC++ PM); Richard Waymire (SQL Security); Sebastian Lange; Greg Singleton; Thomas Deml (IIS Lead PM); Wade Hilmo (IIS); Steven Pratschner; Willis Johnson (SQL Server); and Girish Chander (SQL Server).
• Microsoft Consulting Services and Product Support Services (PSS): Ilia Fortunov (Senior Architect) for providing continuous and diligent feedback; Aaron Margosis (extensive review, script injection, and SQL Injection); Jacquelyn Schmidt; Kenny Jones; Wade Mascia (Web Services and Enterprise services); Aaron Barth; Jackie Richards; Aaron Turner; Andy Erlandson (Director of PSS Security); Jayaprakasam Siddian Thirunavukkarasu (SQL Server security); Jeremy Bostron; Jerry Bryant; Mike Leuzinger; Robert Hensing (reviewing the Securing series); Gene Ferioli; David Lawler; Jon Wall (threat modeling); Martin Born; Michael Thomassy; Michael Royster; Phil McMillan; and Steven Ramirez.
• Special Thanks To: Joel Scambray; Rich Benack; Alisson Sol; Tavi Siochi (IT Audit); Don Willits (raising the quality bar); Jay Nanduri (Microsoft.com) for reviewing and sharing real world experience; Devendra Tiwari and Peter Dampier, for extensive review and sharing best IT practices; Denny Dayton; Carlos Lyons; Eric Rachner; Justin Clarke; Shawn Welch (IT Audit); Rick DeJarnette; Kent Sharkey (Hosting scenarios); Andy Oakley; Lucas Lavarello; Vijay Rajagopalan (Dev Lead MS Operations); Gordon Ritchie, Content Master Ltd; Chase Carpenter (Threat Modeling); Matt Powell (for Web Services security); Joel Yoker; Juhan Lee [MSN Operations]; Lori Woehler; Mike Sherrill; Mike Kass; Nilesh Bhide; Rebecca Hulse; Rob Oikawa (Architect); Scott Greene; Shawn Nandi; Steve Riley; Mark Mortimore; Matt Priestley; and David Ross.
• Editors: Sharon Smith; Kathleen Hartman (S&T OnSite); Tina Burden (Entirenet); Cindy Riskin (S&T OnSite); and Pat Collins (Entirenet) for helping to ensure a quality experience for the reader.
• patterns & practices team members: Naveen Yajaman; Philip Teale; Scott Densmore; Ron Jacobs; Jason Hogg; Per Vonge Nielsen; Andrew Mason; Edward Jezierski; Michael Kropp; Sandy Khaund; Shaun Hayes; Mohammad Al–Sabt; Edward Lafferty; Ken Perilman; and Sanjeev Garg (Satyam Computer Services).

Building Secure ASP.NET Applications

• Home Page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302415.aspx
• Authors: J.D. Meier, Alex Mackman, Michael Dunner, and Srinath Vasireddy
• Contributors and reviewers: Manish Prabhu, Jesus Ruiz-Scougall, Jonathan Hawkins and Doug Purdy, Keith Ballinger, Yann Christensen and Alexei Vopilov, Laura Barsan, Greg Fee, Greg Singleton, Sebastian Lange, Tarik Soulami, Erik Olson, Caesar Samsi, Riyaz Pishori, Shannon Pahl, Ron Jacobs, Dave McPherson, Christopher Brown, John Banes, Joel Scambray, Girish Chander, William Zentmayer, Shantanu Sarkar, Carl Nolan, Samuel Melendez, Jacquelyn Schmidt, Steve Busby, Len Cardinal, Monica DeZulueta, Paula Paul, Ed Draper, Sean Finnegan, David Alberto, Kenny Jones, Doug Orange, Alexey Yeltsov, Martin Kohlleppel, Joel Yoker, Jay Nanduri, Ilia Fortunov, Aaron Margosis (MCS), Venkat Chilakala, John Allen, Jeremy Bostron, Martin Petersen-Frey, Karl Westerholm, Jayaprakasam Siddian Thirunavukkarasu, Wade Mascia, Ryan Kivett, Sarath Mallavarapu, Jerry Bryant, Peter Kyte, Philip Teale, Ram Sunkara, Shaun Hayes, Eric Schmidt, Michael Howard, Rich Benack, Carlos Lyons, Ted Kehl, Peter Dampier, Mike Sherrill, Devendra Tiwari, Tavi Siochi, Per Vonge Nielsen, Andrew Mason, Edward Jezierski, Sandy Khaund, Edward Lafferty, Peter M. Clift, John Munyon, Chris Sfanos, Mohammad Al-Sabt, Anandha Murukan (Satyam), Keith Brown (DevelopMentor), Andy Eunson, John Langley (KANA Software), Kurt Dillard, Christof Sprenger, J.K.Meadows, David Alberto, Bernard Chen (Sapient)