http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3614936
It takes a dual processor computer a full day to do a full build of
Vista, which really slows down the testing process. Vista has two
thousand developers working on a product with 50 million lines of code
over the last five years. That translates to around 1,000 lines per
developer per year, whereas the average developer writes around 6,200
lines of code per year (Su did not cite his source).
Part of the reason Vista developers are less productive, he said, is
they've been sidetracked with other jobs, such as fixes to Windows XP,
the 64-bit Windows Server 2003 port, and so on. But the main reason for
this slowness is "a bygone culture of belittlement and aggression.
Windows can be a scary place to tell the truth," Su wrote.
"When a vice president in Windows asks you whether your team will ship
on time, they might well have asked you whether they look fat in their
new Armani suit." He describes a /Dilbert/-like environment where people
simply lied to give the answer that was wanted rather than the truth.
<mjb> See, Dilbert is so REAL!!
"Another problem Su sited was poor decision-making, but he also added
that steps were being taken to fix that problem. There were 11 layers of
management between Gates, chief software architect until last week, and
any developer on a team. One meeting had six vice presidents and 10
general managers and everyone had a different way of operating, so there
was no consistency through the project."
<mjb> Reminds me of the movie "Wall Street" (a personal favorite of
mine!) where Michael Douglas ("Gordon Gecko") is telling all the
stockholders why Teldar Paper is losing money and way too fat
(...because of all the Vice Presidents and extra layers of bureaucracy).
One analyst took some positives from Su's post.
"The interesting thing here is that this is so open. That's probably a
good sign," Michael Silver, research director for Gartner Group, told
/internetnews.com/.
"Open discussion is good. There are a lot of people at Microsoft that
are frustrated by such public troubles as the Vista slip and they're
looking for change. Frank discussion can help that happen. I'm sure
Microsoft would like it to be less public, but being seen as stifling
this sort of discussion would be worse."
<mjb> What do you want to bet this guy is fired or transferred to the
Siberian Front equivalent soon (if not already)?? <g>
(Thanks, Carl/VFUG for the link!)
--
Michael J. Babcock, MCP
MB Software Solutions, LLC
http://mbsoftwaresolutions.com
http://fabmate.com
"Work smarter, not harder, with MBSS custom software solutions!"
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