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The VP-geebees
01 July 09 07:00 AM | ericbrec | 0 Comments   
It's the end of the fiscal year. Most engineers associate this time with performance review season, but for principal-level engineers and higher it's also executive review season. Time to waste weeks of your life writing slides for executive presentations Read More...
It starts with shipping
01 May 09 07:00 AM | ericbrec | 4 Comments   
Call me "old school" but I believe in shipping. Trying isn't enough. Getting close isn't enough. Good ideas aren't enough. You've got to ship. It used to be that interviews started with, "What have you shipped?" If you hadn't shipped recently, "Why?" Read More...
Your World. Easier
01 April 09 07:00 AM | ericbrec | 4 Comments   
During difficult economic times like these, people tend to whine less about common complaints that now seem trite. Mostly, I'm relieved not to hear how much e-mail is in Ingrid's Inbox, how Brian broke the build again, and how Suresh's service schedule Read More...
Green fields are full of maggots
01 February 09 07:00 AM | ericbrec | 7 Comments   
As I said in Nailing the nominals , the two keys to successful big projects (100K+ LOC) are thinking ahead and defining done. Thinking ahead is about design and planning. Defining done is about setting a quality bar and sticking to it. Yet many big projects Read More...
NIHilism and other innovation poison
01 November 08 06:13 PM | ericbrec | 15 Comments   
Is innovation the act of creating something new (as the dictionary claims) or is it building upon the work of others? To me this is a fundamental question that Microsoft as a company and as a culture has gotten horribly wrong. We deal with the consequences Read More...
I would estimate
01 September 08 07:00 AM | ericbrec | 6 Comments   
When I'm discussing challenges with fellow engineers, the first topic that comes up isn't estimation—it's career and people challenges. That's why those issues are so rampant in these rants. However, "How do you generate task estimates?" is always among Read More...
My experiment worked! (Prototyping)
01 August 08 07:00 AM | ericbrec | 3 Comments   
It's summertime. Time to sit out in the sun and daydream, perhaps on a vacation or a weekend afternoon. When your mind is relaxed at times like these, you often think of beautiful new ideas. You further develop those ideas and then, when the time is right, Read More...
Crash dummies: Resilience
01 May 08 07:00 AM | ericbrec | 35 Comments   
I heard a remark the other day that seemed stupid on the surface, but when I really thought about it I realized it was completely idiotic and irresponsible. The remark was that it's better to crash and let Watson report the error than it is to catch the Read More...
How do you measure yourself?
01 October 07 07:07 AM | ericbrec | 2 Comments   
At Microsoft, we can execute, but can we think? When billions of dollars are on the line, you better not be guessing about decisions. A decade ago, our products weren't guesses; they were enhanced impersonations of our competitors' successful products. Read More...
October 1, 2006: “Bold predictions of quality”
01 October 06 12:48 AM | ericbrec | 2 Comments   
I. M. Wright's "Hard Code" book excerpt I’ve been busy dogfooding lately. It’s an ideal diversion for masochists. When it gets to be too much, I can always take respite in a nice horror film. Thank goodness what passes for dogfood now is a vast improvement Read More...
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