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David Overton's Blog » Interesting discussion from one of the developers in the Windows team on "Why Vista Slipped"
Interesting discussion from one of the developers in the Windows team on "Why Vista Slipped"

Blogging as a Microsoft Employee is always a tricky decision as what to tell or not tell.  I personally feel that it is very important that the true is always told and that information if not confidential should be disclosed as desired.

A recent post has caused lots of controversy as it discussed from one managers point of view the reason why Vista slipped in the 1st place. Some may find the contents of the posting quite damning, yet the reality is that in a complex project, some things are not perfect, or even fixable. The things that Philip has highlighted are often based on human characteristics, such as trust, friendship and self protection. Great in some circumstance and bad in others.

Vista is still a great product, and when it does ship will significantly move the bar for quality operating systems, but this is not to say that it won’t have had a hurdle or two to jump or lost a few pounds during this marathon race.

For now, enjoy Philip’s blog and perhaps reflect what you might do to protect yourself when 10,20,50 or even 2000 people are reliant on what you do, and not all of them like you or even know you.

http://blogs.msdn.com/philipsu/default.aspx - Philip’s blog

Ttfn

David

Posted Sun, Jun 18 2006 3:08 AM by David Overton
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Comments

iQubed wrote re: Interesting discussion from one of the developers in the Windows team on "Why Vista Slipped"
on Sun, Jun 18 2006 8:56 PM
That's a really interesting insight by Philip on his blog but it doesn't really surprise me. It's something that almost every complex software project suffers as it gets closer to the release date. I've spent most of my career in software development and release dates are almost never accurate from day one. I don't blame the software developers who work within the systems and processes they are given. When a project manager asks you to estimate how long a task will take, it is usually a 'finger in the air' exercise. The problem is that if you could forsee every problem and issue that was going to come up, you'd be able to cure famine, make world peace and make the blind see again! Project plans never contain enough contingency time or enough test time.

Will anyone remember Vista shipped later than some executives said once it is released? I would guess not. If Philip's post causes Microsoft to look at its software development processes and maybe give their developers more freedom and not less than he should be heartily congratulated, given a pay rise and promoted!

P.S. Some comments on his blog inevitably made comparisons between Linux and Windows development. The release of Debian Sarge from Debian Woody was so ridiculously slow and their attitude was (although this now changing!) we'll ship when we're ready!!
Tim Long wrote re: Interesting discussion from one of the developers in the Windows team on "Why Vista Slipped"
on Sun, Jun 18 2006 9:55 PM
Interesting stuff indeed, but schedule pressure is not something confined to Microsoft or even large projects. Every software project I ever worked on in my 20 years of developing embedded firmware was subject in some way or another to schedule pressure. In some ways it is a necessary evil but mostly it is unproductive. It is a phenomenon that goes directly to the perpetual conflict between engineering and marketing. Interestingly this has all been well documented by Steve McConnell in his book "Rapid Development". Steve enumerates all of the classic mistakes and lists a number of best practices and strategies for countering schedule pressure. There's no ambiguity. It's a great book for anyone involved in software development. Published by? Microsoft Press.

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