J.D. Meier's Blog : Effectiveness

10 Years at patterns & practices

J.D. Meier — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:56:23 GMT

I never imagined I would invest 10 years on the patterns & practices team at Microsoft. Life is short and I always imagined I would spend it across so many more adventures. What surprised me is how much you can grow yourself, and grow the job in the process. While I sometimes wonder about the path not taken, there’s no doubt I’ve built a deep set of capabilities, achievements, and experiences as a direct result of investing my time in patterns & practices. I’ve shared some of my best lessons learned at patterns & practices, as well as my proven practices for individual contributors.

I think my biggest take away lesson is follow your heart, follow the growth, and invest in yourself (mind, heart, body, emotions, career, financial, relationships, and fun.)

Why patterns & practices?
There are lots of reasons why I chose patterns & practices. At the end of the day, it was the people, the values, and the mission.

Our Mission
While we’ve had various flavors of the mission, I like to think of it as …. “Customer success on the Microsoft platform” … or … “Proven practices for the platform.” I had the toughest time explaining to my Aunt what I do, until finally I said, “I help customers put the legos together.” She then said, “ahhh, I get it.”

Goals
In patterns & practices, the goals are simple:

Simplify the customer experience of building quality solutions on the Microsoft platform.
Improve the customer value of Microsoft products and technologies through customer connection and solution engineering.
Grow the professional knowledge and capability of the Microsoft development community.
Help customers and partners build their LOB (line-of-business) applications and services faster and more predictably than any platform in the world.

Values
In patterns & practices, we value:

Continuous learning, innovation and improvement - We have a bias toward action (over more planning) and customer engagement and feedback (over more analysis.)
Open, collaborative, relationships with customers, Microsoft field, partners, and Microsoft teams.
Execution - we take strategic bets, but we hold ourselves accountable for creating value, shipping early and often, and delivering results that have impact with customers and in Microsoft.
Explicit, transparent, and direct communication with customers and with our team and others in our company.
Quality over scope - no guidance is better than bad guidance.

Principles
We use the following principles to guide our work:

Start with the end in mind; think about end to end scenarios and how the products we produce fit in the solution architecture and into the patterns & practices catalog.
Help the customer succeed with their intent - the results they want to achieve, not just what they are trying to do.
Find the minimal solution required for a good result and ship it.
Our tools platforms are assets that expand the types of guidance we can express - use all of what they provide where it naturally fits the scenario.
Constructive tension between customer needs and Microsoft product and business strategy is expected - when we do our job well, this tension is healthy.

Capabilities, Achievements, and Experience
How do you measure the impact of the time you spend down a given career path? I’ve been looking for an effective lens, and I think it boils down to capabilities, achievements, and experience. It’s the simplest way that I can organize and reflect on where I am, based on where I’ve been. Capabilities are simply my skills. They are the things I’ve learned how to do, from soft skills to technical abilities. Achievements are my results. This includes my impact on Microsoft, the software industry, and customers. I lump my books, patents I filed, and the methodologies I’ve baked into the platform and tools here. In terms of experience, I think of the job roles and activities I’ve had along the way.

Key Themes
I think I can boil my impact and results down into 3 key themes:

Project management. I drive projects from pitch to ship. I’ve built dream teams that go on amazing adventures to change the world. I’ve consistently shipped projects on time and on budget year over year. I’ve mentored many project managers and PMs at Microsoft to share the best of the best of what I’ve learned about shipping, execution, impact and results in patterns & practices. I’ve had unique experiences here, especially since we adopted Agile practices early on, and I’ve lead distributed teams around the world since 2001. I’ve learned a lot in terms of managing innovation, delivering incremental value, fixing time, while flexing scope, and experience-driven development (my latest thinking on software development.) I think my biggest achievement here was helping shape the patterns & practices catalog, the programs, and the execution. See Writing Books on Time and On Budget.
Software engineering. I’ve invested the bulk of my time in application life cycle management, process improvement, quality attributes (security, performance, … etc), and application architecture. Most of my talks and writings have been focused on security, performance, and software architecture, but I’ve done a lot more behind the scenes. One of the big things I’ve focused on at Microsoft, is “solution engineering”, which is really about problem solving, while satisficing the user, business, and technology perspectives. I think my biggest achievements here were baking security and performance into the life cycle, and into Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.
Effectiveness. I’m a fan of continuous improvement. I’m not a productivity junkie though. I’m all about impact and results. I’ve learned from the best of the best around Microsoft. I’ve hunted and gathered patterns and practices for effectiveness over the span of several years. More importantly, I’ve bounced the ideas and techniques against reality to see what sticks. In the last few years, I’ve regularly carried 8 mentees. I’ve given talks to our X-Box team on productivity and results systems. Effectiveness is an art and science, and I’m trying to bridge the gap between state of the art and state of the practice. See 7 Habits of Highly Effective PMs and Effectiveness Post Roundup.

Years at a Glance
I think browsing by years is a healthy reality check against impact over time. Looking back is the simplest way for me to respond to the question, “if I had it to do over again, what would I do differently?” Where there answer is “nothing” – those are the sweet spots. Where the answer is “everything” – those are the lessons :)

Year	Results
2009	Books Application Architecture Guide 2.0 Projects Azure Security Guidance Project Core Systems Information Model Cloud Architecture Scenarios Customer-Connected Engineering Productivity coach for the Xbox team.
2008	Books Improving Web Services Security Projects Line-of-Business (LOB) Frame Catalog Sweep Visual Studio Add-In for Guidance Explorer
2007	Books Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
2006	8 patents filed (Security, performance, and info models for software life cycles and application life cycle management.) Projects ASP.NET Security RI (Reference Implementation) Competitive Assessment for Security Engineering Defending Your Code Guidance Explorer PDL (Performance Development Life Cycle) Practices Checker Scenario Evaluation Framework Security Case Studies Security Code Examples Security Toolbar
2005	Books Security Engineering Explained Projects Security Engineering in VSTS Threat Modeling Web Applications Whidbey Security Guidance
2004	Books Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability
2003	Books Improving Web Application Security
2002	Books Building Secure ASP.NET Applications

Books
My books at a glance:

Application Architecture Guide 2.0 (2009) (The Microsoft Playbook for the Application Platform)
Building Secure ASP.NET Applications (2002)
Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability (2004)
Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures (2003)
Improving Web Services Security Guide (2008)
Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications (2007)
Security Engineering Explained (2005)
Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (2007)

Pocket Guides
My pocket guides at a glance:

Agile Architecture Method Pocket Guide
Mobile Architecture Pocket Guide
Performance Pocket Guide
RIA Architecture Pocket Guide
Rich Client Architecture Pocket Guide
Security Pocket Guide
Service Architecture Pocket Guide
Web Architecture Pocket Guide

Projects
My projects at a glance:

Application Architecture Guide 2.0 – A guide, knowledge base, information model and methodologies for the Microsoft platform.
ASP.NET Security Reference Implementation - Sample application for ASP.NET 2.0.
Building Secure ASP.NET Applications – A guide for designing authentication and authorization and end-to-end applications scenarios.
Catalog Sweep – Information model for organizing the complete patterns & practices catalog of code and content assets.
Customer Connected Engineering – Methodology for engaging customers throughout the life cycle (“patterns & practices secret sauce.”)
Defending Your Code – An online knowledge base for software security.
Guidance Explorer – An online knowledge base for prescriptive guidance ("ITunes for knowledge.")
Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability – A guide and methodology for baking performance into the life cycle.
Improving Web Application Security – A guide for threats, attacks, vulnerabilities and countermeasures for LOB applications.
Improving Web Services Security – A guide for threats, attacks, vulnerabilities and countermeasures for Web services.
Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications – A guide and testing methodology for testing Web application performance.
PDL (Performance Development Life Cycle) – Methodology, activities and artifacts for baking performance into the life cycle.
Practices Checker – An application that checks software against patterns & practices recommendations.
Scenario Evaluation Framework – Assessment technique for design, implementation and deployment “building codes.”
Security Case Studies – A model and examples for sharing business impact from patterns & practices security guidance.
Security Code Examples – 60 security code examples in VB.NET / C#.
Security Engineering Explained – A guide and methodology for baking security into the life cycle.
Security Engineering in VSTS – Baked security engineering into VSTS / MSF.
Security Information Model – A unified model for Microsoft’s security guidance.
Security Toolbar – A toolbar for browsing patterns & practices guidance from Visual Studio.
Threat Modeling Web Applications – A technique to identify relevant threats and vulnerabilities for your scenario to help you shape your application's security design.
Visual Studio Add-In for Guidance Explorer – Find, create, and share prescriptive guidance inside Visual Studio.
Whidbey Security Guidance – A collection of guidelines, checklists, and step-by-step how tos for improving software security based on the .NET Framework 2.0.

Where do we go from here? You write your future a page at a time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s continue to reinvent yourself, reinvent your job, and make the most of what you’ve got.

My Related Posts

The Power of Patterns and Practices

J.D. Meier — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:55:34 GMT

I wrote a post, The Power of Patterns and Practices, on Sources of Insight to summarize some of the benefits of using patterns and practices as a way to organize and share knowledge. For simplicity, I think of patterns as a way to share problem and solution pairs in context. I think of practices as a way to share methods or techniques. When you combine them, you effectively have an efficient way to share strategies and approaches for success in a given domain.

While sharing patterns and practices has been effective in software, I think other industries can gain from finding ways to more effectively share patterns and practices. Christopher Alexander, father of the pattern language movement, set a great example by creating a catalog of patterns for towns, buildings, and construction in the architecture space. Along those lines, Michael Michalko, a former Disney imagineer, put together an amazing catalog of patterns and practices for creative thinking, in his book, THINKERTOYS. The meta-point is that when you frame and name things, you simplify sharing knowledge in a meaningful and scalable way.

Sources of Insight is One Year Old

J.D. Meier — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:20:37 GMT

It was a year ago today that I wrote my first post on Sources of Insight, where I focus on patterns and practices for effectiveness and skilled living. I wrote up my learnings and highlights in my post, Sources of Insight is One Year Old. My goal with Sources of Insight is to scale myself and to share my lessons learned in effectiveness more broadly. The key theme on Sources of Insight is, “stand on the shoulders of giants!” and I draw from books, people, and quotes , as well as my own experience leading projects, building teams, and writing prescriptive guidance at Microsoft.

I’m a big believer in skills as a way to level the playing field and give everybody a chance at their best life. Sources of Insight is my main clearing house for insight and action for work and life. This way, I can focus my MSDN blog more on my adventures at Microsoft, including my project information, and technical insights. I mentor a lot of people at work, so Sources of Insight is also a way for me to consolidate and share knowledge, while turning it into reusable nuggets. I like to think of it as gems of insight, a post at a time.

Time Management Quotes

J.D. Meier — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:21:52 GMT

Time management is a key skill for work and life. I’ve posted my collection of Time Management Quotes on Sources of Insight. While organizing my collection of quotes, I got clarity on a handful of lessons for time management:

Time is what you make of it.
You don’t have time, you make it.
It’s your most valuable resource.
Invest time. Investing in your time is investing in your life.
Don’t dwell on the train you missed. Catch the next train.
Time changes what’s important. You can’t buy time.
Time is all we have.
Time is a teacher.
Time is a judge.
Time is a healer.
Time is a friend.

What’s Your Favorite Thinking Technique?

J.D. Meier — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:28:34 GMT

Have you thought about your default thinking patterns? I wrote a post on 3 Thinking Techniques to Improve Your Intellectual Horsepower at Sources of Insight. I use these 3 techniques fairly regularly. If you think about thinking as simply asking and answering questions, then improving your questions, can improve your answers. That’s the power of these 3 techniques; they are simple ways to improve your questions to improve you results.

What’s your favorite thinking technique?

Communication Isn’t the Only Source of Conflict

J.D. Meier — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:09:02 GMT

I wrote a post on how Poor Communication isn’t the Source of Most Conflicts at Sources of Insight. The gist is this: rather than blame communication as the source of conflict, explore other sources as well. For example, conflict can also stem from how your group is organized, to personality conflicts, or conflicts in values. When you know what the source is, you can use the right tool for the job.

A Language for Your Strengths

J.D. Meier — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:39:39 GMT

I wrote a post on A Language for Strengths on Sources of Insight. It's my attempt to consolidate and share the best information I've found for learning and talking about strengths and talents. I'm a big believer in focusing on your strengths. I know that when I spend more time in my strengths, I have more energy, I get more done, and I improve my impact. It's about giving my best where I have my best to give. It sounds simple and obvious, yet, before I had a lens for strengths and talents it was more hit or miss. Now, I can more effectively zoom in on my strengths because I have a vocabulary for them.

As I've been helping people find jobs, write their resumes, find their passions, and unleash their best, I've been relying heavily on first helping them find their natural strengths and talents. This gives them the drive and the staying power to deal with whatever life throws at them, as well as gives them a competitive edge. The key in today's landscape, is to bring your unique combination of strengths to the table. I think that while it's a skills-for-hire economy for the short-term, it's a play-to-your-strengths life for the long term.

To learn the map of the 34 strengths and get started on your strengths quest, read my post, A Language for Strengths.

How To Be a Successful Individual Contributor at Microsoft

J.D. Meier — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:52:50 GMT

I wrote up my top 10 lessons learned in how to be a successful individual contributor at Microsoft on Sources of Insight. Really, these lessons apply just about anywhere, and they especially apply in our new skills-for-hire economy. Here is a quick summary of my lessons:

Lesson 1. Focus on strengths, limit liabilities.
Lesson 2. Scale yourself.
Lesson 3. Know what’s valued.
Lesson 4. Follow the growth.
Lesson 5. Model the best.
Lesson 6. Balance the hot spots.
Lesson 7. Manage your plate.
Lesson 8. Stay in the game.
Lesson 9. Drive or be driven.
Lesson 10. You’re the sum of your network.

For elaboration on these lessons, check out my post Proven Practices for Individual Contributors. If you like the post, be sure to check out my related posts:

Patterns and Practices for New Hires
Lessons Learned in patterns & practices (Shaping Software)

Discover the How to Your Why

J.D. Meier — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:24:01 GMT

I have a guest post by Janine de Nysschen on how to Discover the How to Your Why at Sources of Insight. This is a follow up to Janine's previous guest post, Discover Your Why. It's basically about putting your purpose into action. When you lead with your why and your how, you can bring your best game wherever you go. What you do is simply a channel for unleashing your best why and how. You’ve probably noticed this in the movies you see, or the stories you read. The context for the story might change, but you connect with the underlying themes. It’s the journey and the destination. This post is about leading your journey with your why and how for getting results at work and life.

PM Skills for Life

J.D. Meier — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:38:07 GMT

I wrote a post on PM Skills for Life on Sources of Insight. PM is short for “Program Manager.” I’ve been a PM for the past several years, and learned a ton along the journey. I attempted to do a roundup of some of the key skills and how they help with skilled living. Enjoy!

Discover Your Why

J.D. Meier — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:01:33 GMT

Do you know why you do what you do? Your why defines the difference you want to make in this world, and it inspires everything you do. For example, I originally joined Microsoft to help change the world and improve the quality of life for people through software. In fact, a lot of fellow Softees, joined Microsoft with the hopes to build a better world. When you live your why, a lot of other things fall into place. Sounds great, but how do you actually discover your why …

Well, I have a guest post from Janine de Nysschen on how to Discover Your Why on Sources of Insight. Janine is the founder of Whytelligence and has more than 25 years of experience in the strategy and intelligence arena.

Even if you already know why you do what you do, check out Janine’s advice to be sure you don’t fall into the logic trap – you should be emotionally connected to your purpose. So put on your curiosity cap and read discover your why with an open mind. Discovering your why, just might change your life.

Proven Practices for Getting Results

J.D. Meier — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:18:05 GMT

My other blog, Sources of Insight is focused on effectiveness. I launched it as a way to put more focus on getting results and to help give my mentees a more focused path (I’m a mentor at Microsoft and regularly carry ~8 mentees.) One of the mantras on Sources of Insight is “Stand on the shoulder’s of giants!” The idea is that I share the best insights and actions I can find for work and life, from books, people, and quotes, along with my experience both inside and outside Microsoft.

Given my history on the patterns & practices team, my blog is heavily geared towards principles, patterns and practices to help people make the most of what they’ve got. I don’t care whether you’re an architect, an engineer, a tester, or whatever … we’re all in this together, and life throws curve balls. The purpose of the blog is to give you an unfair advantage, by sharing the world’s best insight and action for work and life. It’s ultimately a collection of patterns and practices for skilled living.

One of the things I haven’t been happy with is my tag line on Sources of Insight. I’ve tested several flavors but they didn’t resonate for one reason or another. My latest one seems to be working out pretty well. It’s simple and to the point: “Proven Practices for Getting Results!” It was actually a challenging exercise to find a tag line that actually worked for my readers. I bounced it against a broad set of people for feedback, from marketing experts to developers to you name it. I wrote up some of my lessons learned in designing an effective tagline in my post, The Design of an Effective Tagline.

Be sure to stop by and say hi. Feel free to introduce yourself and let me know any hot issues you’d like to see information on and, if it’s on topic, I’ll see if I can work it in. The main focus in the blog is a set of hot spots for life: mind, body, career, emotions, financial, relationships, and fun.

Lessons Learned from Bruce Lee

J.D. Meier — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:16:58 GMT

I have a post on Lessons Learned from Bruce Lee on Sources of Insight. Bruce Lee was one of my early inspirations. He was a patterns and practices kind of a guy. In fact, Bruce influenced my software engineering approach. Rather than lock into a single style, he took the best techniques from various martial arts and measured against effectiveness. For example, he took a boxer's hands and a wreslter's grappling skills.

Here is a summary of my lessons from Bruce:

Be YOUR best.
Absorb what is useful.
Keep an open mind.
Aim past your target.
Stay flexible.
Focus on growth.
Master your mind and body.
Apply what you know.
Make things happen.

My favorite Bruce Lee quote is "Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own.” It's all about finding what works for you and not blindly adopting things.

I've included a more exhaustive list of my favorite Bruce Lee quotes in my post, Lessons Learned from Bruce Lee. Whether you're a Bruce Lee fan or on a path of personal development, I think you'll enjoy the tour of Bruce's insight and words of wisdom.

Six Sources of Influence

J.D. Meier — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:34:49 GMT

If you need to be a change agent at work, or make things happen in your life, Six Sources of Influence is for you. I wrote up a post on Six Sources of Influence on my Sources of Insight blog. The Six Sources of Influence was my favorite part of my Influencer Training here at Microsoft. The focus of the training was to improve my skills at analyzing and executing change, especially for persistent or resistant problems. I'm a fan of the model and I'm using it almost daily.

The power of the Six Sources of Influence is that rather than get stuck in a default pattern or a one-trick pony routine, you can get a better lens on the situation by evaluating the six sources. To visualize the model, think of a simple two-column table of motivation and ability, sliced in 3 parts: personal, social, and structural. You can then walk the model to figure out the key leverage points or centers of gravity. Instead of lucking into success, you can target your time and effort to actually produce more effective change and get results.

Check out my post on Six Sources of Influence and take it for a test drive.

Sources of Insight is 10 Months Old

J.D. Meier — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:34:55 GMT

My other little blog is growing up so fast ... Sources of insight is 10 months old. I originally started it to improve my blogging skills as well as to put more focus on personal development. I mentor a lot at work, so I used Sources of Insight as a channel to share patterns and practices for improving effectiveness. I named it Sources of Insight because I draw from books, people, and quotes, as well as other sources (such as movies.) It also reflects a lot of my learning on the job and experience from the school of hard knocks. I try to keep the tone less technical so more people can enjoy it, while still providing deep insights.

I've learned a lot along the way. The biggest lesson I've learned is that working on a blog is working on your life. It's like getting up to bat and each post is a chance to hit the ball out of the park, or maybe get a single or double, or maybe just strike out. There's a definite ebb and flow to it, just like life. I think that's what I like about it.

If you stop by Sources of Insight, be sure to say, "hi." Tell me what you like, don't like or want more of. The key goal on Sources of Insight is to share the best patterns and practices for personal development. If you don't know where to start, I recommend starting with the About, then You 2.0, and then Living Your Process. If you need a boost of motivation, cherry pick your favorites from my list of Motivation Quotes. If you want to fill your quiver with some of the best techniques for getting results, then be sure to read Rituals for Results. It's a fast tour of some sure-fire ways to improve your results.