tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post111176899144822696..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: 20% There, 20% Here?Who da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1113420457292357962005-04-13T12:27:00.000-07:002005-04-13T12:27:00.000-07:00Simon's right. It's about ownership. If you're n...Simon's right. It's about ownership. If you're not in my group and you have a kick ass feature idea, SWEET, let's talk about getting it done. I don't want you just ramming it in unless we've planned for ownership: who tests, fixes bugs, does usability testing, documentation, maintenance work, etc. I've had teams dump shit in our areas of ownership before and it's usally basically a drive by. Nothing better than discovering something 6 months later that you now own.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1112509986773924232005-04-02T22:33:00.000-08:002005-04-02T22:33:00.000-08:00"Woe unto you should you go and randomly check som..."Woe unto you should you go and randomly check something in, even if it's not breaking anything."<BR/><BR/>Erm... have you never heard of risk management? Change control?<BR/><BR/>There's a big difference between having a large repository of cool source code, and having a project reaching a milestone and then having some idiot check in a whole bunch of changes which fry everything - especially if the people whose job it is to work on it don't know about the changes.<BR/><BR/>Source access control is NOT to protect a fiefdom. It's to stop lone well-intentioned idiots from destroying a lot of other peoples' hard work.<BR/><BR/>*sigh*Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1112113121712625552005-03-29T08:18:00.000-08:002005-03-29T08:18:00.000-08:00Every group is different within Microsoft. You nay...Every group is different within Microsoft. You naysayers may be in a lucky one. Our group was told to halt any small projects, or be terminated. That management tier has moved on, but the damage was done. A lot of our smarter employees, err, "loosers," have done their bit to "reduce headcount."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1112066843528769792005-03-28T19:27:00.000-08:002005-03-28T19:27:00.000-08:00Clearly you've never had your Skunkworks squashed....Clearly you've never had your Skunkworks squashed. If you can keep it below the radar until its widely adopted - you might pull it off.<BR/><BR/>It does not change the fact that is discouraged if not outright forbidden. Ask my friends who were working on Skunkworks for the company in their off hours using company resources. Their GM found out and made them stop immediately or risk termination.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111859909304435312005-03-26T09:58:00.000-08:002005-03-26T09:58:00.000-08:00What a bunch of whiney BS. There are so many skun...What a bunch of whiney BS. There are so many skunkworks projects going on it isn't even funny.<BR/><BR/>Why don't you losers do your bit to reduce the headcount if that's what you want?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111846381072848322005-03-26T06:13:00.000-08:002005-03-26T06:13:00.000-08:00Nope it is our current (and recently promoted) Sr....Nope it is our current (and recently promoted) Sr. VP of IT. The basic line was "we should spend our times doing our jobs and let the teams whose jobs it is to provide tools and other useful utilities do their jobs." It doesn't matter what the benefit was. I credit these decisions with us hiring too many former IBMers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111816438279734782005-03-25T21:53:00.000-08:002005-03-25T21:53:00.000-08:00Wasn't it the former CFO that banned skunkworks de...Wasn't it the former CFO that banned skunkworks development?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111799633509024772005-03-25T17:13:00.000-08:002005-03-25T17:13:00.000-08:00Skunkworks were officially killed from the top thr...Skunkworks were officially killed from the top three plus years ago. Didn't you get the memo?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111785442601134172005-03-25T13:17:00.000-08:002005-03-25T13:17:00.000-08:00>I really, really want all these>smart people at M...>I really, really want all these<BR/>>smart people at Microsoft to <BR/>>unleash disruptive innovation<BR/><BR/>Ah the good old days, like it was described in many of the stories in Inside/Out. I miss those times. Its almost as if skunkwork projects are frowned upon..Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com