Microsoft’s General Paralysis

Microsoft developer Niall Kennedy recently resigned from Microsoft after only 4 months on the job, sighting a "general paralysis" which is gripping the software company. My question is, did it really take 4 months to come to that conclusion?

I’m guessing shortly after he settled into his new digs, attended a couple of “high level” meeting, and then got the real scoop from the people on his team, he came to this conclusion. Holy crap, what did I do, and how can I spin this on my resume into a positive?

And so the brain drain continues. Another week, another round of bad press. And I haven’t even mentioned Patch Tuesday. That would be kicking the bully, when they are already whipped.

When I 1st started this blog, I had a few Microsoft rants. I never intended it to be all about Microsoft. But just like my career as an IT professional, where much of my day to day work centers around “making” Microsoft work in the workplace, Microsoft has seemed to consume my blog space. At work it’s called job security, at blog it’s called blog hog.

Welcome to the “new” 21st century Microsoft. It all seems a bit familiar, don’t you think?

I’m Guessing
http://imguessingblog.blogspot.com
imguessingblog@gmail.com

MS seems to be a revolving door lately don't they? A cursory search of articles mentioning prominent hires is outpaced by prominent departures. If they're trying to clean house through attrition, it's obviously not helping their bottom line much. Maybe they're looking farther down the road for the payoffs. Maybe they're just not thinking at all. Who knows.

I don't fault him for leaving, but publically trash-talking his former company like that is completely unprofessional.

get ready for a disaster..

oh wait. I Work for Microsoft :(
Stupid CEO and VPs why do you gotta screw us?

His problem is facing by everyone in any big organization. If you want something done, you need to get tons of approval. When it comes to funding, you have to do presentation after presentation, and then after presentation to get someone approve.

Anyone come from small firm will have the same feeling he has. We just have a similar case here at my company. We hired a trader from a smaller firm, and he left 2 days later because of all these frustration.

Here's a thought bound to draw some flames: if that is true, why shouldn't Microsft break itself up into smaller, quicker, easier to manage companies? They do seem bogged down by the own weight.

Because nimble execution of projects is not the only goal of a multinational corporation (even though many of us wish it were). Microsoft's large size hurts it in some ways but also helps it in others.

The Xbox would not exist (and Sony would have no real competition) without Microsoft's ability to throw money away on a big scale. Small companies can innovate in niches like RSS which haven't matured to the point where major investments need to be made, but a small company cannot realistically make an assault on the market share of something like the iPod.

It's sad that Niall Kennedy couldn't get the resources to do his job, but that doesn't mean that nobody at Microsoft is getting the resources to do theirs. For some business units born from acquisitions of small companies, being part of Microsoft has given them the resources to do many things they had to skimp on before. Some of the people in Microsoft Research would never have been able to pursue their projects in academia or at a small company.

You're absolutely right about the Xbox. Maybe they just need to make sure that their group autonomy includes funding and resources. No use hiring someone to do a job if they can't get it done.

Sounds like the those in the know are leaving before the Vista fiasco hits the market place

Have you actually used vista to make that comment?

I don't know about Vista, but some parts of the Live program are in disarray. OfficeLive remains unusable by a large portion of those who signed up. There are still no answers as to why the email portion as inaccessible and emails to support people are replied to with a terse massage that those working there have no idea how to fix it.

Vista is not the issue. Live is a complete rework of the "services" platform that was originally done by MSN. MS was trying to get the Live platform to where it was a complete portal for everyone to go to... a one stop shop. Problems arose because a lot of the Live advances rely on IE 7 and Office 2007 and server/services improvements... all which have lagged behind. I personally think that the problems arose because MS has suddenly adopted the "Beta for Everyone" that Google has been using for several years. Without all of the framework pieces in place, the betas have not been doing very well at all...

As to Vista, it is not for the faint of heart at the moment, but, that is changing. RC1 (I hope) will show that Vista is coming of age and will work...

Jesus, are you really that dense? It's late, so late that MSN is having to extend it's licensing agreements with business users of XP because they expire after the original projected release date of Vista and before it will actually be out. They are having so many problems getting it out that they have shuffled the management of that section several times in the past few months. In addition the OS is already full of holes as demonstrated by several techs at the latest Black Hat convention. Given Micrspuds track record with Windows 2000, ME, XP and the latest fiascoes in their "New And Improved" Live products and services, I don't need to use something to learning from past, and other peoples, experience. It already is, and is going to be, a fiasco.

thank you 1-800-psychic.

sometimes i wish people were like magic 8-balls and you could shake them and get an unbiased, clear-headed opinion. or maybe i wish people were like infants and you could shake them till they got sids. i can't remember which one i like better.

Edited... My comment was just rude. Sorry about that.

There is nothing in my post that cannot be readily found on the net. I am not psychic, I do something you dipwads don't understand. I actually do some research before I post my comments.

sids is more enjoyable... they shut up after you get done shaking them... ;-)

(I'm going straight to hell for that, I know it! lol)

~dnc

I am not psychic, I do something you dipwads don't understand. I actually do some research before I post my comments.

Yes, but given that Vista is still in beta and they wanted holes to be found at the conference, you are at best jumping to a conclusion prematurely by speaking of the time when the "Vista fiasco hits". You may be jumping to correct conclusion, you may be jumping to an incorrect one; but you are still doing so prematurely either way.

Also, see geevans' post below. He points out more thoroughly what the article mentioned and you overlooked. Kennedy wasn't leaving to avoid a "Vista fiasco".

S_D...Don't feed the H8R trolls.