One of this years great challenges for me has been that my team is spread out geographically over five countries and two continents.  In addition, a lot of the guys work from home and don't get the opportunity to interact face to face with other team members on a regular basis.  There's of course a lot you lose when this happens, walking down the hall and asking how someone is doing and taking them to lunch is just not possible and that makes it that much harder to build the strong personal relationships that are so critical on a high functioning team.  I linked to a post about managing teams across timezones a while back here but since then I've learned a lot and have had to take on the challenge myself.  Compared to the team I managed earlier where most of the team happened to sit in the same hallway to where most of my team today is thousands of miles apart has indeed been a difficult task.  The challenges are in fact different in some respects from what one would expect.  Of course, there are the obvious issues as well.  One of the critical issues is how people learn.  Many people learn best when they're working on problems hands on and through mentorship; this of course becomes very difficult when there's no geographic proximity.  Everyone is different and that leads me to my next insight that I've learned about: not everyone is suited to working in this type of an environment.  Some people truly do thrive being on thier own and can effectively plan and execute what they need to while others need a lot more guidance and hands on interaction.  Something definitely to think about when you think about a position that may involve this kind of arrangement.  This past week I was able to get a lot of my Europe team together in London for a few days and it was a truly great event!  Certainly a highlight for me; being able to spend some quality time with my team outside of work or projects and just being able to get together.  Of course, in the current economic climate; this kind of thing becomes even more and more difficult because of cutbacks in discretionary travel budgets as we try and do the right thing for the company (which I fully agree with and support!).  I've also been talking with some other managers about the challenges of effectively managing remote teams and how to deal with the various issues that can of course come up from time to time. 

Context & Subtlety

I find one of the toughest things to deal with is context and subtlety.  Sometimes we don't want to upset our managers so we try and hint at a problem rather than call it straight, and as managers we're also of course guilty of the same thing sometimes.  This subtlety of course becomes orders of magnititude harder to decipher over a so-so VOIP phone connection for an hour a week as opposed to over coffee in the afternoon breeze.  Context also is a problem because sometimes we forget that the person we're talking to doesn't have the same frame of reference when we mention something.  Since we don't have the same frame of reference, we arrive at a different conclusion than you may expect.  The best and simplest way I can visual this is ....say we're both standing on a game board that is numbered... you're trying to guide us both to square "15".  You're standing on square "10" so you say "Ahead 5!".  Well, what you forgot was that I was standing on square "5", not "10", and therefore when you expected us both to end up on "15", we actually ended up 5 squares apart, at "10" me and "15" for you.  Similarly, when talking over the phone (or really any conversation I would suggest) make sure you're speaking from the right context and then proceed to guide the other person where they need to be; and then join them...rather than assuming they are thinking from the same point of view. 

Personality 

Another nuance to think about is personality.  Of course in the tech world, coming across slightly socially awkward geek/introverted personalities is absolutely not rare :) (I'm one myself I must admit) but it can certainly complicate things on a team like ours.  What it can also lead to is the individual feeling that they are not "heard" because all the hints they've been dropping aren't getting addressed when of course others on the team have no idea what hints they're talking about.  In this situation, my advice is simply to speak up; hints alone are sometimes just not enough and direct/head on action is sometimes required.  I find that whenever I have open, direct and straightforward discussions with someone, it seems they tend to be the most productive and rewarding ones.  Of course sometimes it can take many weeks or months for some people to feel comfortable enough to speak this way, but it is worth the effort!

Culture

Taking into account culture is another subtle nuance that teams have to think about.  In some cultures, its simply rude to say something bluntly and to make direct eye contact; whereas in others if precisely that is not done you may be seen as "weak" or "uninterested."  I've noticed that beyond ethnic/country cultures though, a company and team culture also develops over time and that can add another layer on top that makes things even more interesting.  For example, at Microsoft - we have our own culture that we like to think supersedes others, but in reality think of it more like a thread that's part of the fabric we all weave.  Sometimes there can be conflicting priorities, for example where in one being direct is rewarded and expected while in another the expectation is the complete opposite.  I myself have lived in four countries in my life, and all of them I would say being significantly different in many ways (Switzerland, Pakistan, Canada & the US).  For the most part, it has been enriching and something I value, its given me a unique perspective I believe that is part of me, and something I can leverage and apply when working with different people from different backgrounds. 

I'm sure you're all familiar with social networks and sure some of you may have even clicked on an ad or two (or three) on there... of course there's all kinds of intricate issues around display ad relevance to "Party at Jen's @ 7!!!!!" among other problems.  However recently I saw something that, if successful could become a very powerful force.... social networks AS advertising.  That's write... the entire point of the network is to advertise (its main goal is the advertising itself... not a way to pay for the useful (well, semi-useful?) stuff you do on it. 

The specific example I'm talking about (although I'm sure there are others) is done by Bacardi and basically the way it works is you get to download new hot music (the new Groove Armada tracks) as you grow your social network.... that's it.  So, do you want a free DRM free MP3 of Groove Armada's latest track?  Click here: http://www.bliveshare.com/share/ZOcMyHMw5RH6pQ9_crOZ/hs301  If you propogate your link (through your own blog and such) then you can get up to 3 additional tracks from Groove Armada's new album... all free.  Don't know who Groove Armada is?  This is perhaps my fav track by these guys... genius stuff.

Hello boys and girls.... yes... it has been a long time, yet I've decided to re-start blogging and this time (I hope, gulp) I can keep up with it on a continuous basis.  Feeding the monster, as one colleague calls it… is tough.   It requires a lot of time and effort to keep up with blogging.  The toughest aspect of it is simply writing good, thought provoking/funny/interesting/useful in some way content.  That takes a helluva lot of effort.  Check out my team mate Jimmy for example… he’s writing some really hot blog posts on how to keep your SQL Server rocking solid from a performance standpoint… Jimmy’s got a lot of ideas and I encouraged him to start writing about them and sharing that knowledge with the world… and he’s got a killer OneNote setup that lets him keep things accessible.  Me?  I still have .TXT’s all over my desktop for notes and I don’t think I’ll ever twitter… :)

My friends over in CISG (Connected Information Security Group) have also launched a blog... check it out for the latest free security tools that we use internally at Microsoft. 

And of course... the biggest tech story of the last year is certainly Windows 7!!!  I have been using it internally for several months and all I can say is WOW!  It's going to be an awesome release.  The Win7 team has done a great job of blogging about what they're doing... 

How are things in your neck of the woods?   

Thanks to Mark Brown for forwarding to all the bloggers :)  This is hilarious, if you've ever worked for Microsoft you'll recognize the music... its awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUSJiI4L5lw try this one instead since its still up: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=723f1933-9397-49e4-b73c-9433dfbef700

(updated URL August 29th, 08)

Akshay, my collegue from the ACE team has written a great post about managing a team across 5 time zones.  Its always a difficult challenge to manage a team of 10 regardless, but spreading them across the world definitely adds many complexity dimensions.  The team I manage is spread between just two timezones, but they are 12.5 hours apart :) 

The key factor, especially for directs that are not at the location where you are mostly, is that you continuously communicate and make sure you are listening for key indicators of potential problems before they crop up and become serious.  Along with that of course, are all of the cultural challenges that can come into play.  Microsoft does a great job in supporting their managers and we have access to a great resource that gives us the breakdown on local customs and attitudes across the world.

Attracting the Gen Y worker, I really enjoyed reading this article; if you're over 30 and wonder what the hell is going on with the new kids coming into the workforce, you might find it a bit of an eye opener :)

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033934/index.htm?postversion=2007051515

The Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs has just been released by the SA-SC (Solutions Acelerators - Security & Compliance) team and I highly recommend pretty much any IT administrator that has a mobile workforce (and who doesn't these days?) to take a look and read it.  XP & Vista provide some great technology that you can use (for free!) to secure corporate sensitive data but there can be some caveats, this toolkit does a great job of explaining that and giving some great implementation details.  The two components now available for download are:

Executive Overview
 
The Executive Overview provides customers with a high-level overview of the Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs to help them understand the business and regulatory risks of losing data on mobile PCs, and how they can use the guidance in this Solution Accelerator to mitigate these risks.
 
Security Analysis
 
The Security Analysis discusses in depth a number of unique risks associated with data on mobile PCs, and analyzes how Microsoft's key encryption technologies, EFS and BitLocker, can help customers mitigate those risks. The Security Analysis now available on TechNet and the Microsoft Download Center.

The following will be released soon:

Planning and Implementation Guide

The Planning and Implementation Guide describes how to plan for, configure, deploy, and operate EFS and BitLocker in a customer’s organization. A Beta version of the Planning and Implementation Guide is currently available.

EFS Assistant

The EFS Assistant lets customers centrally control EFS settings on all their mobile PCs (and many desktop PCs, too). The EFS Assistant will help customers find all the files on their mobile PCs that need to be encrypted, regardless of where users save them. And the EFS Assistant operates transparently to end users, eliminating training issues or other impacts.  A Beta version of the EFS Assistant is currently available.
 

So on Friday I went to the Microsoft IT all hands, led by Stuart Scott our CIO.  Stuart's done some amazing things in a very short amount of time in cleaning up some of chaos around here and he also did something extraordinary which I'm sure might have been tough to pull off: He got Steve to come out and talk to IT.  Now you got to remember, in most organizations, IT are the techies, but in Microsoft, a company that builds a lot of what runs most IT shops, techies abound and IT isn’t the only bastion of techies, the entire company is.  As an IT organization however, Microsoft IT has some unique opportunities: we dogfood like crazy nearly every single Microsoft product, waaay before we'd even put it out for beta testing (not only do we do it, we help the whole company do it, e.g. helpdesk support & bug tracking & reporting etc).  Another important opportunity for IT is helping to improve Microsoft's products by providing direct feedback to the Product groups building the software.  While they may sometimes get silo'ed concentrating on what they need to develop and deliver, IT has to implement it, make it all work together and support it.  If we can do it; then the there's a good chance our customers can do it; so that’s a valuable source of feedback early in the cycle for the Product groups.

Anyway so Steve comes and quite literally he blew us away.  Most people, even most Softies have only ever seen Steve being extremely passionate about Microsoft and pumping up the crowd (which he does a great job of, by the way!) but here we average joe's got to see another side of Steve: his reasoning, resoluteness & attention to detail which really showed us how much he cares and how much he's aware of the details around here.  Steve made it clear that Microsoft has always been good at innovating, but we also need to make sure our execution is world class; we gotta make sure the trains keep running.

When I was young, I never looked up to sports stars or TV heroes; my hero's where people with power, leaders.  It’s simple really, the people who have leadership abilities and the power to execute are the ones who can truly make things happen (and there's no better example than Bill Gates and his unbelievable work with the Gates Foundation). 

Steve made some extraordinarily insightful comments which had people nodding their heads yes (and a friend turned to me and commented: “THAT’S why he’s the CEO!”) I think Steve's going to surprise a lot of the haters in the next 5-10 years, you ain't seen nothing yet!

I've recently started using LinkedIn and I'll tell ya; it can be addictive.  Anyway so here's an open invitation; go ahead and add me to your network - I'm open to anyone adding me (as long as you are real and not a spam bot).  If you're a fellow Microsoft employee then especially feel free to get in touch; I'd like to meet more of you wonderful smart folks! :) 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the ACE Team did a Channel 9 video with Robert Scoble (in fact, its very possible we were the last one he did before leaving Microsoft).  It should be posted very soon, I'll put up the link to it here.  It'll probably be divided in a few sections as it was quite lengthy, but all great stuff if you want to see how a Security team works at Microsoft!

Well I'm back.  Ya, its very exciting.  A lot of things have been happening around work, personal life + vacation that has held me up from posting anything new in quite some time but I'm happy to be back blogging. 

I'm currently using IE7 beta 3 and I must say, bravo IE team!  IE7 as its shaping up to be is definitely the best all around browser out there, hands down.  Yes Firefox does give it a bit of a run for its money, but IE is slicker, has support for more sites and features (think multimedia/active-x etc.) and also its faster.  The load up time is fast and the rendering engine seems to be faster as well (faster then IE6 anyway).  Don't get me wrong, I like Firefox fine and support people having a choice in what platform they want to use, but my personal choice is going to be IE7. 

Things I like:

• Integrated search (yes its not a novel concept but good nonetheless)
• Tabbed browsing (finally!!) I like the implementation better in IE ('x' to close tab on each tab)
• Network Connectivity Troubleshooter (screenshot)
• Easily pick and choose Search provider (screenshot)
• Easily Manage IE add-ons (screenshot)
• Faster
• RSS Support.  Its great that its supported, I don't know if I'd want to use IE as my primary feed reader but its good for people who just need the basics

Although I'm running an internal build, you can download a public version of the IE7 Beta 3 here: http://www.microsoft.com/ie

So, we just wrapped up our session with Robert Scoble for our team's Channel 9 video, it was a really cool experience.  We had people from our team talk about security in general, our process and what we do, security code reviews and we demo'ed in depth the new RC1 version of the Threat Analysis & Modeling tool (which is available for download here, if you want to learn more about the new features in RC1, read more about it here).  It makes a huge difference when the interviewer is good at pushing the conversation forward and asking the right questions, Robert's got this thing down :)

I'm not sure when it will get posted, but when it does I'll post a link here.

This was a really annoying *feature* of Office.  If I click on a link to a Word doc, it opens the document in IE.  Here at Microsoft a lot of our docs are stored on internal SharePoint sites, which are webpages.  When I try to open one of these docs, it'll open in IE.  Or, I have to save it, find it in File Explorer and open it there to get it to show up in the Office app. 

The main reason this is annoying is that you don't get the Office toolbars to show up and its nearly useless for editing (fine for reading but still annoying).  Anyway there is a pretty convoluted way to fix this, so .doc, .xls, .ppt files actually open in the associated Office program instead of IE.  Follow the directions in the following doc:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q162059/

Although I haven't installed the latest Beta 1 refresh of Outlook 2007 yet, I've already decided what my favorite feature of Outlook 2007 is.  Hands down, its the To-Do Bar.  Outlook has had task integration for the longest time but it just hasn't been seamless for me (and I suspect, a lot of other people) and the end result is people use Mail and Calendaring a lot, but not much else.  The To-Do Bar was the missing piece that integrates everything nicely.  You can get lots of details from Melissa's blog here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/melissamacbeth/archive/2005/12/20/506047.aspx

For the latest updates in Beta 1 refresh, check out this later posting here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/melissamacbeth/archive/2006/03/16/553227.aspx

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's what the To-Do Bar looks like:

It ties all the important elements of Outlook together like the Today page was never able to do.  It forces you to be proactive and informed about what's coming up all at once.  It also allows for easy prioritization and "quick view" of your next tasks immediately.  I know it may sound like a small detail, but the productivity boost for Information workers is awesome and readily apparent when you start using it.  Trust me, you'll love it!

Recently, I sent out an email to some folks soliciting an informal mentor here at Microsoft.  Keeping in mind that many Microsoft employees also read the blogs here, I've decided to make the posting public.  If you are  a former Microsoft employee or retired from Microsoft, I'd love to hear from you as well.  (Note: I realize Microsoft has an excellent formal mentor program, but unfortunately I don't qualify for it yet because you have to be an FTE for at least one full year before signing up).  My email is posted on the right ->

I am a young, hard working, ambitious & politically astute individual who is seeking out a senior informal mentor. I wouldn’t expect you to dedicate tons of time to this project, I realize you are likely to be a very busy professional but hear me out and see if what I have to offer piques your interest:

• I am aggressive and play hard
• But I’m humble enough to listen to and act on good advice
• I’m smarter then the average bear :)
• I work harder then the average bear too
• I’m part of a younger generation that brings new ideas to the table: trial by fire in the dotcom era, blogging, personal media and instant and always are second nature
• Working from 6AM to 3AM is no big deal, been there, done that
• I fully support Microsoft and am passionate about what we can do here
• I have an extreme passion for my work related to security

What I’m looking for in you:

• Have worked at Microsoft for at least a few years (or in another senior capacity at other large organizations)
• Be willing to take out ½ an hour a month to a few hours a quarter
• Be excited and passionate about mentoring, willing to give advice and share insights
• L65+

If you happen to receive this and have some advice on who I might be able to contact, please feel free to start a conversation.

Ahmad Mahdi - CISSP
Security Technologist
Microsoft