How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

FilipeFreitas.net » How do they write software at Microsoft: a PM intern???s perspective

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:32:48 GMT

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re: How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

Kal — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:24:49 GMT

Hi,

That was a decent write. Gives an insight into microsoft way!! thanks

Kal

re: How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

Patrick — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:50:48 GMT

Very nice insight into the development methodology of a team at Microsoft.

I have a few questions of practical nature.

In what kind of language are the specs written, could you give an example of a feature description?

Do you write the specs in Microsoft Word, or do you use a tailor-made system to do that? How do you version control the specs?

With kind regards,

Patrick

re: How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

Shaobin Tao — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 06:29:09 GMT

HI,

Kind of surprised to know that PM writes spec. I thought PM was only responsible for schedules.

re: How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

VBTeam — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:16:36 GMT

Hey Patrick, Shaobin

First of all, thank you so much for the interest and for the great questions!

Patrick:

Specs are written in plain English, as everyone across the company needs to understand them :) You can have a look at the online specs here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa948851.aspx

Now the MS Word question. As strict as Microsoft is about getting the right things in the spec (e.g. you have to think a lot about security, extensibility, localization, performance, accessibility, etc.), what tool to use is up to you. You like mindmaps - use a mind mapping tool. You prefer HTML - great! Provided you get the right things in there and the team likes that, you are good. Plus, different teams use different tools, so you cannot say there is something really standard to use across the company. For me, however, MS Word works just fine, so this is my tool of preference.

Shaobin:

Yes, you are right that one of the very important things PMs are responsible for are schedules. But if you think about it, in order to define or meet a project plan, you need to have really deep understanding of what the project involves. I cannot stress enough on how crucial this is, and this is one of the major reasons PMs are responsible for writing and maintaining the spec.

I think that it is a great discussion item though, so my question is - what is your understanding, who do you think should be responsible for the specs?

Thanks,

Slavi

re: How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

John Morad — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:22:46 GMT

Well, I know how do you guys write a software at Microsoft...

I can see that from the number of bugs in VS2005 :-)

However, thanks for your post...

re: How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

hmm — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:25:20 GMT

thanks for the great post. It would be wonderful if you could continue to explore the "life and responsibilities of a PM at MS" (you can then collect said posts and publish them under that name as a book ;) ).. good job though .. look forward to more similar posts.

re: How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective #1

Shaobin Tao — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:41:15 GMT

HI, Slavi:

In one of the companies I worked for before(I still think their workflow is one of the best I ever know), there was a product definition group(PD). The group is a bridge between marketing and R&D dept. The PD group is in close contact with marketing group and transform marketing team's idea into product specifications.

BTW, PD writers are NOT necessarily programmers. But they are really good at using the software. After the initial docs are written, R&D managers will have meeting with PD people and discuss the feasibilties and costs of each features they request. The process is iterative and software engineers will provide their own concerns, estimates with respect to the documents.

In brief, the PM usually does not write specs(marketing is supposed to know the market best). But he/she definitely knows how all stuffs are supposed to unfold eventually.

Regards,

在微软我们怎样开发软件:一名准项目经理的视角(之一)

Joycode@Ab110.com — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:42:22 GMT

[ 原文作者 ] ： Slavi Marinov [ 原文链接 ] ： How do we write software at Microsoft: a PM intern’s perspective