Ramblings of a Microsoft.com PM

Moving my blog...

2009-05-19T08:22:00Z

Technical & General topics: http://jimscardelis.blogspot.com/ Wine, Food & Pacific Northwest fun: http://whiningaround.blogspot.com Thank you!...(read more)

Making Microsoft.com a better place for mobile browsers

2008-05-21T03:14:51Z

Once in awhile, I get to work on something really cool that makes a difference for a bunch of folks. Most of the time, though, the effect is only really seen inside the company by the people that use our tools or processes. Today is one of those days when something I’ve worked on is visible to the outside world. Today, we’re making a change to the code behind the www.microsoft.com home page that should make a difference to anyone coming to it with a recognized mobile browser (via the http://www.microsoft.com/...(read more)

More Art

2008-05-21T00:34:37Z

Since I last posted about going to the Seattle Art Museum, I did decide to become more involved in the Microsoft Art Collection as an “Art Ambassador”. By doing so, I will play a liaison role between the Collection’s art department and the Microsoft community. I’ll get to learn more about the art in my building, and art in general, and share that with other folks in the building. A side benefit is special education opportunities – like the lecture on the piece of the Berlin Wall we have at Microsoft...(read more)

Art, Dang It!

2008-03-30T10:34:00Z

One of the great things about living in a 'hip' metropolitan area is the plethora of art of all kinds that can be found just by looking around. For example, the city of Redmond has art installed in many interesting places -- even along some of the major paved bike trails like the one I took a 12 mile bike ride on a week or so ago. Another great place for art lovers is on the Microsoft campus, where amongst the Microsoft Art Collection you'll find works of all kinds -- even a chunk of the Berlin Wall...(read more)

Cool software

2008-03-20T02:00:37Z

Like many folks these days, my wife & I have a computer in the kitchen. Occasionally, there are files, like lists of stuff we have, that we need to access from various computers, whether from work, or just from our primary computers in our studies. To enable this, we use a piece of software called Windows Live FolderShare, which is free and enables you to not only keep files in sync across computers, but also share them with friends. I like it a lot -- https://www.foldershare.com/welcome.asp...(read more)

What I’ve been up to…

2008-03-20T01:37:02Z

It’s been a long time since I last blogged, mostly because late last Spring, I transitioned out of the Release Management role in Microsoft.com (now part of the Microsoft.com Operations Team) into a Program Management role in one of the software development groups that I used to work with as the RM on their projects. This was an interesting transition to make – on the one hand, my title in the address book didn’t really change, since Microsoft generally views Release Management as a specialized type...(read more)

Documentation in an agile world ... how much is enough, and how do you decide?

2007-02-21T02:15:00Z

This morning, I was looking through one of the stack of trade magazines that seems to find its way to my mailbox and read a very interesting article on software documentation that I wanted to share with you. In the article, (“ Documentation Strategies ” by Scott W. Ambler, in the March 2007 issue of Doctor Dobb’s Journal), the author reiterates that “ documentation is an important part of every system, regardless of the paradigm followed to develop that system.” Figuring out where to strike a balance...(read more)

Pen name

2006-08-25T09:04:37Z

>After my post the other day referencing my article in TechNet Magazine, a few folks, such as Blake Handler inquired about my old pseudonym that I used to write books & magazine articles in during the late 1990's. (Boy, typing that sure does make me feel old!) Well, way back then, when the Microsoft MVP program was something so small & new that you could fit all of the recipient's names on a postcard, I worked on a few computer books, at first contributing chapters, then co-authoring and...(read more)

My TechNet Magazine article is published!

2006-08-23T08:57:02Z

I wrote an article for TechNet Magazine about Release Management at Microsoft.com. You might find it interesting. One curious factlet: Although I've written books and was a contributing editor for a magazine last century, I used a pen name back then, so this is the first thing I've had published with my "real" name....(read more)

Previewing the new look & feel of Microsoft.com

2006-07-27T03:18:00Z

One of the projects I'm working on now is the family of systems that will become the new publishing & rendering system for at least the Microsoft.com Home Page. It's a really cool project that's pulled together a lot of the best people at Microsoft.com and has the potential to really improve a lot of things by really streamlining the content production process, while also introducing some really cool new look & feel elements. Last week, we released a visual design preview of what the new...(read more)

Changes... (been busy)

2006-05-30T08:34:00Z

I've been kind of slow posting since a number of things have been in flux back at the office. Over the last few weeks: We had a re-org in the Microsoft.com space. Some of the chips haven't finished falling yet, I think, but essentially my team moved out from the development group it had been in for several years into a new group led by Todd Weeks. This new group, which has three pillars -- Portals, which is a relatively large development organization, will be working on software for the next version...(read more)

Development methodologies & microsoft.com development teams

2006-04-14T20:40:00Z

There are a couple of variations on agile development methodologies in use in the groups that develop applications for Microsoft.com. Most groups utilize the old traditional Waterfall approach, which can be summarized as: Initiate the project -- Sell the basic idea of what the project will be about to management & other stakeholders. Get funding and set a very high level projection on project timeline. Plan -- Gather requirements, produce a vision/scope document (also known as business requirements...(read more)

MSCOM Release Checklists..

2006-04-04T20:27:00Z

The MSCOM Ops team just put a good description of Operations interacts with our software development life cycle (SDLC) process up on their blog . It's a good read. Included therein are a couple of versions of the documents that my team uses to track the project teams' progress through the SDLC as apps get developed. You might want to take a look, as I'll be expounding further on them later....(read more)

Agile?

2006-03-24T05:47:00Z

The use of Agile software development methodologies, such as MSF for Agile Development holds a lot of promise. However, 1st generation agile methodologies can be problematic when developing software for deployment in online systems, as they do not always address the architectural needs that operations requires. Randy Miller, in the MSF for Agile Development blog , talks about how second generation agile methodologies are addressing the architecture question, and other issues like testing with testers...(read more)

Deployment automation...`

2006-03-24T03:02:00Z

One of the side projects that I'm working on in Microsoft.com is called our "Deployment Automation 1.0" project. The goal is to codify some policies, processes, and standards around how we deploy projects into the operational environment. This is a big project, with people involved from several development teams, operations and management, many of whom have found different ways of doing this -- ranging from hand-written scripts to .msi files developed using a number of tools.

Wish us luck.

Oh, and if you have a favorite setup / deployment tool, I'd love to hear about it in a comment ....