This post is a write up of how we do Customer-Connected Engineering on the Microsoft patterns & practices team. Our Customer-Connected Engineering process has been a key part of our success and impact in the software industry. While this write up is about how patterns & practices implements Customer Connected Engineering, you might find that you can tailor and adapt some of the principles for your scenario or context.

Here is a draft of our Cloud Security Frame as part of our early exploration work for our patterns & practices Cloud Security Project. It’s a lens for looking at Cloud Security. The frame is simply a collection of Hot Spots. Each Hot Spot represents an actionable category for information. Using Hot Spots, you can quickly find pain and opportunities, or key decision points.

You can think of architectural styles as a collection of principles that shape or govern the design of your application. Many of the styles overlap and can be used in combination. Architectural styles tend to be tied both to the application type as well as to the point in time in which the application was developed.  I think the Mind Map helps show how you can group architectural styles based on types of problems they solve.
What is an Architectural Style
An architectural style is a set of principles. You can think …

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If it’s not broken, then don’t fix it …
The problem is, you may have an approach that isn’t working, or it’s not as efficient as it could be, but you may not even know it.  Let’s take a quick look at some broken approaches and get to the bottom of why they fail.  If you understand why they fail, you can then take a look at your own approach and see what, if anything, you need to change.  The more prevalent broken approaches include:
The Bolt on Approach

The Do …

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Here’s a brief set of success patterns for program managers and project managers that I’ve shared with a few colleagues.  These are the patterns I see that make a difference in getting results.
10 Success Patterns

Empathic listening.
Rapport before influence
Character trumps emotion trumps logic
Match their style
Ask WIIFY
Distinguish between responsibility and authority
Turn chickens into pigs
Adapt, adjust, or avoid situations
Know the system.
Analyze it over time.

Success Patterns ExplainedHere’s the essence of each:

Empathic listening.  Listen until the other person “feels” they’ve been heard.  Once they feel heard, they’re more …