Mark Zbikowski

NOTES ON 25 YEARS WITH MICROSOFT

IDCEE ‘13

MSFT in ’81 Many rolesIndividual contributorDevelopment managerArchitect

EXPERIENCE

IDCEE ‘13

Was Microsoft ever THAT small?

I don’t believe it

MSFT in ’81 Many rolesIndividual contributorDevelopment managerArchitect

EXPERIENCE

IDCEE ‘13

I don’t believe it

Slacker.

MSFT in ’81 Many rolesIndividual contributorDevelopment managerArchitect

EXPERIENCE

IDCEE ‘13

Many projectsMostly OS/PlatformsSome dogsSome successful

Small to large teams

EXPERIENCE

IDCEE ‘13

1982

IDCEE ‘13

IDCEE ‘13

In their mind:

Hardware defines the software

IDCEE ‘13

DOS 2.0

IDCEE ‘13

That’s only two songs.

At 128Kbps.

Single directory for 4096 files

Fixed sized partitions

IDCEE ‘13

Don’t always do exactly what customer wantsWhat he asks for is his solution to a problem.

Find the problem and do the right fix

But remember, the customer does pay the bills

LESSON 1

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IDCEE ‘13

Piece of cake

Still a piece of cake

•User-installable device drivers•Enhanced shell•Multitasking•Graphics•Remote access•Networking•…

IDCEE ‘13

Have a roadmap

Don’t add only customer-generated features

Avoid tactical features; be strategic

LESSON 2

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24K bytes

IDCEE ‘13

No way!

Upgrade the customer“Help” him by giving him a little more in the direction your roadmap is taking you

LESSON 3

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DOS 2.0

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Good thing you have that extensible

file system, eh?

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Uh Oh…

WELL DEFINED INTERFACES?

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Piece of cake

We’re going to be late

We’re going to be late

Uh oh..Uh oh..

Take schedule hits if they’re right, earlier rather than laterBe open and honest about schedules.Communicate often.

LESSON 4

IDCEE ‘13

Sharing interfaces with partners is not enough, don’t hide detailsSharing != CollaborationKeep that legal protection!

LESSON 5

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IDCEE ‘13

DOS 3.0/3.1

DOS Roadmap:ProtectedMultitaskingGUI

IDCEE ‘13

NEXT FOR MZ…

“New DOS”ProtectedMultitaskingGraphical

IDCEE ‘13

IBM/MICROSOFT JOINT DEVELOPMENT

IDCEE ‘13

#1: What are we going to build?

When did a list offeatures ever stay

“small”??

#2: What constraints are there?

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Don’t let today’s technology be a limiting factor

NO unnatural acts (like writing an entire OS in 16

bit segmented x86)

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LESSON 6

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LESSON 6

Only one?

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LESSON 6

What are those?

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LESSON 6

‘New’ is good, right?

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LESSON 6

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LESSON 6

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LESSON 6

But ‘New’ is good!

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LESSON 6

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LESSON 6

Legacy matters – know your customer’s assets!

Who you are breaking?Who pays the cost of

fixing?

LESSON 7

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Understand your constraints early

LESSON 8

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Don’t design/useone-size-fits-all

process

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LESSON 9

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Don’t compromise your hiring standards

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LESSON 10

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New Object-based World Order

Understand the difference between a collection of

technologies or features and a

productIDCEE ‘13

LESSON 11

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LESSON 11

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C++

PYTHON

HASKELL

IDCEE ‘13

}

IDCEE ‘13

Only gastronomes buy snails

Use features that help the project, not the programmer

Just because you use a higher level language does not mean you shouldn’t care about what

the CPU executes. IDCEE ‘13

LESSON 12

IDCEE ‘13

Directory

Service

Kerberos

ObjectFile

Store

Distributed

FileSystem

IDCEE ‘13

“We’ll solve that later”

IDCEE ‘13

Directory

Service

Kerberos

IDCEE ‘13

Directory

Service

Kerberos

IDCEE ‘13

Directory

Service

Kerberos

Distributed

FileSystem

IDCEE ‘13

Directory

Service

Kerberos

ObjectFile

Store

Distributed

FileSystem

IDCEE ‘13

Directory

Service

Kerberos

ObjectFile

Store

Distributed

FileSystem

IDCEE ‘13

Directory

Service

Kerberos

ObjectFile

Store

Distributed

FileSystem

IDCEE ‘13

Cross-group dependencies will kill you

LESSON 13

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Are you sure there aren’tmore?

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OFS: Three customers!

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Reviewing a spec doesn’t count as

involvement

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OOPS.

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OFS: Two customers…

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OFS: One customer…

Oh no…

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OFS: Zero customers

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Designing interfaces without a client is suicide

LESSON 14

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IDCEE ‘13

Cairo Shell => Windows 95 Shell

IDCEE ‘13

Cairo Shell => Windows 95 Shell

Cairo Directory Service => Active Directory

IDCEE ‘13

Cairo Shell => Windows 95 Shell

Cairo Directory Service => Active Directory

Cairo Distributed File System => Windows DFS

IDCEE ‘13

Cairo Shell => Windows 95 Shell

Cairo Directory Service => Active Directory

Cairo Distributed File System => Windows DFS

Cairo OFS Content Query => MSSearch

TECHNOLOGIES != PRODUCT

IDCEE ‘13

LESSON 15

GREAT EXIT?LOTS OF BUZZ?LOTS OF USERS?

All “second order”…

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

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IDCEE ‘13