#2782

 

So for almost the last three years I’ve been working for the Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) team as a Developer and then more recently as a Development Lead. In that time I’ve learnt a lot about large scale software development on one of, if not the largest windows application shipping today – Visual Studio. I’ve also learnt a lot about managing teams. 

 

Recently I had the chance to interview for a role with the Patterns and Practices Team here at Microsoft. They’re a fully "agile shop", doing XP in a pimped out custom built space with a multi disciplinary team. Most of the P&P development team are active within the development community promoting agile both inside and outside Microsoft (many of them appear in my blog list). They work closely with enterprise customers shipping application blocks, software factories and other guidance to help them leverage Microsoft’s technology offerings around the .NET framework.

 

P&P offered me the job and after a lot of thinking about that I really wanted from my career and what I was leaving behind in VSTO I accepted. While it’s hard leaving the VSTO team the chance to work on an XP team at P&P was not something I could turn down. At VSTO was lucky to get to work with a team of truely great people. I’m going to miss working for Eric Carter and Feature Crews I worked with on a daily basis. We’ve made huge changes in the way we think about and develop software moving to an iterative development model using multidisciplinary teams and "shipping" chunks of working functionality each month – something we weren’t able to do previously.

 

In a few weeks I give up my office in building 41 and move into a shared space in building 5. I’ll be documenting my new Adventures in Agility and hopefully passing on some things I’ve learnt along the way. There might even be pictures – I have a new shiny toy arriving tomorrow. My new boss, Peter, has already given me a reading list so I had better get busy!