Microsoft Makes Changes in Windows Unit

March 23, 2006

As a followup to my story regarding Microsoft’s delay with Windows Vista, I read today that Microsoft is making changes in their Windows Unit. Some predicted this would happen while others thought it really didn’t matter to Microsoft. It looks like it did matter to Microsoft, but one analyst had some interesting comments to make:

Michael Cherry, an analyst with independent research firm Directions on Microsoft, questioned whether changing executive leadership would solve the problems that led to the Vista delay and other setbacks.

More fundamental, he said, is a cultural problem in which management is afraid to tell top executives that projects can’t be completed in time, or with the myriad features that have been promised.

“You have to go back to some basic discipline, and I don’t think that the Windows division and Microsoft has shown a lot of discipline,” he said. “And part of that is being sure about what you can do, is setting reasonable goals and sort of sticking to them.”

I like that last part. Those of us in the Software Development industry know of “Scope Creep” all too well. With a feature driven company like Microsoft, I can only imagine the difficulty of program and project management when it comes to managing change. I hope for Microsoft’s sake the changes they make will generate wake-up calls with the necessary decision makers.