Take a look at the new version of this page: [ beta version ]. Tell us what you think.

ABSTRACT

Like many software companies, Microsoft has been doing distributed application development for many years. However, recent changes in the market have altered the rules, both in terms of customer expectations and programming models for ubiquitous interconnected smart devices. These changes have provoked two dramatic shifts in the way we develop software. The first is the creation and use of the .NET Framework as a simple, secure, and robust platform for device-independent software development, data manipulation, and communications. The second is an agile yet highly disciplined approach to designing, testing, implementing, and verifying our software which presumes all bugs are unacceptable and must be found and fixed early before they impact internal groups, external partners, and eventually our customers. This paper discusses the nature and impact of these two dramatic shifts to the development practices at Microsoft.

REFERENCES

• 1: Refactoring: improving the design of existing code, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1999
• 2: Erik Meijer , Clemens Szyperski, Overcoming independent extensibility challenges, Communications of the ACM, v.45 n.10, October 2002 [doi>10.1145/570907.570929]
• 3: James W. Newkirk , Alexei A. Vorontsov, Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .Net, Microsoft Press, Redmond, WA, 2004
• 4: Mary Poppendieck , Tom Poppendieck, Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 2003
• 5: Ken Schwaber, Agile Project Management With Scrum, Microsoft Press, Redmond, WA, 2004

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.9 Management
          Subjects: Life cycle

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.9 Management
          Subjects: Programming teams; Software quality assurance (SQA); Productivity; Software process models (e.g., CMM, ISO, PSP)

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Human Factors, Languages, Management, Reliability, Security, Standardization, Verification

Keywords:
.NET, Microsoft, SOAP, WSDL, XML, agile, collaboration, contracts, coordination, design, interfaces, lean, quality, refactoring, reliability, scrum, security, test driven development, versioning