http://shapingsoftware.com Patterns and Practices for Software Success. Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:22:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/12/24/customer-connected-engineering-at-patterns-practices/ This is a simple frame for testing your vision, your pitch for a project, or your proposed solution.  One of my mentors uses it all the time to test the thinking and to make sure the team stays on track.  I've adopted because it's a great way to stay focused ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/12/15/customer-problem-competition-and-success/ Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Eric Brechner. Eric is author of the book, and blog, I.M. Wright’s “Hard Code.”  At Microsoft, Eric is Director of Development Excellence on the Engineering Excellence team.  His group is responsible for improving the people, process, and practices of software development ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/12/07/lessons-in-software-from-eric-brechner/ The Microsoft patterns & practices team has been around since 2000. The patterns & practices team builds prescriptive guidance for customers building applications on the Microsoft platform.  The primary mission is customer success on the platform.  As part of that mission, patterns & practices delivers guidance in the ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/11/30/patterns-practices-best-practices/ My recent road trip was a great reminder how quality is durable.  As I passed through familiar territory, it was interesting to see how many building and places stood the test of time.  Whether it was a business or a building, it was quality that survived in the long run.  ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/11/11/drive-from-quality/ On the Microsoft patterns & practices team, we use Vision / Scope as a key milestone.  It’s where we frame the problem, identify the business opportunity, and paint a vision of the solution.  It’s a forcing function to get clarity on the customer, their scenarios, and our scope ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/09/24/vision-scope-examples/ 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.  ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/08/20/cloud-security-frame/ How do you convince a team of venture capitalists to bet on you?  There's a lot of ninja techniques but here I'll share the fundamentals. Vision and Scope At patterns & practices, we use Vision Scope milestones to sell management on how we'll change the world.  Knowing the vision and scope for ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/08/09/vision-scope-template/ Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Mike de Libero.  Mike has been doing software development for more than 9 years in a variety of settings.  He’s worked as a freelance developer.  He’s also worked on a small team of developers maintaining 30+ programs at one time.  He’s even ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/07/20/lessons-in-software-from-mike-de-libero/ Editor's note: This is a guest post from James Waletzky. James is a Development Lead at Microsoft and he maintains a blog about software engineering at http://blogs.msdn.com/progressive_development. James has shipped quite a few products and has worked on the Microsoft Engineering Excellence team, where he taught developers about ... http://shapingsoftware.com/2009/07/06/lessons-in-software-from-james-waletzky/