.:blog.iainmcdonald

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I realized this OneNote they put in the latest version of office is actually a good tool to just rip a line in this thing.  I was listening to Tom Wait's Alice, but moved onto Nick Cave's best of…)

Nick Cave had to be one of the loudest shows I've ever been to.  That was because mostly it was pretty quiet - then they played Red Right Hand (playing now, actually) & blasted the hell out of the system. The gap between their quiet & loud was so much it almost killed me.  Mel likes some Nick Cave but thinks it's all too depressing - so usually I listen to his stuff at work.

I should talk about work stuff.  It's a funny biz this Windows thing.  So vilified but also has huge amounts of benefits for huge number of people.  I get really interested now in how things are put together - our methodology is massively centralized & relies (too much) on meetings/reviews/blah blah - but that's what it takes to get people on the same page. In fact it's more what's needed to get loads of people addressing the same issue at the same time & get a big bang.

Not that any methodology is perfect - the people who are oss focused will talk about how the methodology is better on oss.  Peter Steiner was right in his "on the internet no one knows you are a dog" cartoon.  Fundamentally, it's true -  how can you know what to get from someone you've never met. 

Reality is your reputation is built on doing stuff.  What your peers think is the most important  piece of currency you can have. At least at Microsoft. Being known as someone who does what they say matters.  Being the guy who can't deliver means no one will trust you to do what they need & your position gets undermined.  This is true from a micro through to a Macro level - a leader who constantly fails can't be trusted. 

That made me think of something I wrote years ago - we were going through winxp & many people hadn't been around through the hell that was win2k*.  We had a meeting every day - the War Room** - the central meeting for the project.  Basically the stuff below tries to level set with the new people about what they should do & expect to do. As is my usual way, there was a bit of torment on long term members & private jokes. I still kinda like it 4 years later...

This is meant more for people who didn't go through w2k with us, but some people need to be reminded (the means you lekas)- i'll put it up on http://winweb as well. If you have additions, send them to me. feel free to forward.

1. Have Fun!
2. War Room is the place where we make the day-to-day decisions for the project. We own these decisions & are given enough rope to not have them reversed by people further up in 99.999% of cases.
3. War room starts @ 9.30am in xx/xxxx even if Jack or Iain or Darren or Spike or Boom Boom or whoever are not there. Later in the project it may run more frequently.
4. We will, in most cases, try to make the meeting as short as possible.
5. The meeting is run based upon the clock: what this means is, don't randomize a discussion if not pertinent, no time for it. This includes Iain.
6. If you want to talk about something that isn't on the agenda, use the space where at the end. Do not sit there being quiet & then complain you were not let talk.
7. There is no rule 7.
8. If you are the person in your group who goes to the War Room, you need to stay till the end of the meeting. You never know when a related issue will come up. If you want to leave midway, then don't bother coming.
9. If you are assigned something, make sure you follow it up by the next War Room. People notice if you don't follow up & the worst thing you can do in Microsoft is get a name for being someone who puts their hand up & does not follow up.
10. People will be assigned things - follow up adds to your credibility in the room - if no one puts their hand up, someone will be chosen. If we know you work in an area you may get it plonked on you.
11. Come regularly enough & you may end up with a nickname.
12. If you have a complaint/suggestion, please bring enough information with you so it can be properly discussed/assigned, not just "my machine doesn't boot"
13. If you get something & you can't follow up, make sure it's handed off & the person will follow up for you.
14. The Red chair is reserved for Craig (aka Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington), until such time as someone else deserves the Hot Seat. We went to a lot of trouble stealing that chair off the SQL group.
15. Send mail if you have to pass something off or you can't be at the next meeting. Positive handoff is our culture.
16. No speaking on cell phones - go outside.
17. No sleeping.
18. If you are sitting at the table, do not read email. You can sit further back & do that but don’t let us catch you surfing the web or missing the issue that could relate to you.
19. Items "purloined" from other groups at Microsoft are welcome to be mounted on the wall.
20. If you come all the time & don't say anything or sit reading email everyday, don't bother - we can use the space & oxygen you use up.
21. On space, try to move into the room - it's terrible standing in the hall.
22. Hopefully War Room is fun, funny & a great place to be. But it will also be a hardcore hellhole - this can change by the minute.
23. Iain likes to yell because Iain cares. That, or he is a sick sadistic bastard. You choose.
24. Nothing is personal - we just want to make a kick ass product.

/i

*being the project manager for win2k, I can safely say it was one of the worst run projects of all time.  Good result, bad methodology.  More on that in some future dump.

** the war room is an industry standard term - I did this video on it on the channel9.msdn site http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=15512