It starts with shipping

It starts with shipping | Microsoft Share Point

It starts with shipping | Microsoft Share Point — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:13:02 GMT

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re: It starts with shipping

Anonymous — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:04:05 GMT

I've worked at five other companies before Microsoft, and they all knew how to ship. Microsoft is the only place I've worked that can't manage to get bits out to customers.

Nine re-orgs in two-and-a-half years. Nine! Just yesterday politics and insufficient resources killed the project my coworkers were on. They were at code complete before it was decided that there wouldn't be enough test resources and that the coolness of the feature might embarrass another product team. People are angry, sure, but nobody is surprised. It happens with such regularity that only an intern would raise an eyebrow.

The only Ship It award I've ever received here is for a product I didn't work on. In our group, we're giong to start handing out Scrap It awards.

The constant randomization from five to six levels up the hierarchy make shipping virtually impossible. Re-orgs, strategy changes, and political turf battles obsolete our work with more regularity than Moore's Law. Mix in inconsistent guidance and frequent decision reversals from the legal, privacy, and security groups, and you'll be extremely lucky to get something out the door, let alone have a chance to iterate on it.

Shipping early and often is generally good. (The oft-overlooked caveat is that every release creates legacy that can slow future development.) In my 20-year career, Microsoft is the only place I've worked that cannot execute a plan to completion.

re: It starts with shipping

ericgu — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:49:34 GMT

I agree with most of what's here, but I'd like to comment on one sentence:

"Microsoft has forgotten more about shipping than most companies will ever know."

Not only does this sound quite arrogant - and embody the worst of Microsoft rather than the best - I'm curious how you came up with your data.

My observation is that there are lots of companies that manage to ship high-quality software (either client or services) on a regular basis. The "we've forgotten more than you know about development" attitude is a prime reason that Microsoft has a lot of these issues.

I. M. Wright podcast: “It starts with shipping”

Microsoft Press — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:13:06 GMT

It’s suddenly stormy again here in Seattle, and I see I. M. is keeping his pate warm. I. M.’s new column,