Updates from Cubeville
About a month ago, a decree came down from Battle Command Central: port to Windows Vista by June 1st or be dropped from a major deployment platform. Considering that the deployment platform in question here represented several million dollars in yearly revenue, our course was clear: scramble.
The project was difficult. I attempt a synopsis here:
So: a tough project, one that defines the critical path, one where failure is simply not an option, one that concerned millions in annual revenue. Naturally, my team jumped at the chance. We took it on. We're damned good. We're also damned cocky.
The next month-and-a-half was hell, in the most awesome sense of the term. We ran on all cylinders, working at 110%. Undocumented Microsoft APIs were explored and conquered; bold new deployment strategies were tested and adapted within days; beautifully-architected solutions were implemented.
Two weeks passed; we were ahead of schedule. We had a list of major issues, and a working patch installer to test with. The Vista Patch, against all expectation, was go!
Two more weeks passed: we had addressed all major issues, and were in cleanup mode. As Friday arrived, we all stumbled in, weary but elated. We had been working all-out for four weeks now, but we had a gorgeous solution to the seemingly insurmountable problem. We were on schedule! We were going to slay this beast; glory would be ours!
On 4PM that Friday, an email arrived in our collective inboxes. The first sentence read:
From: Product Management
All -
[major deployment platform manager] sent me an e-mail yesterday that said they would not field Vista until next year.
I left early that day.
I slept for over twenty hours over the weekend. After my slumber marathon, I awoke this Sunday to the latest Dilbert:
The remainder is best chronicled by a conversation I had with another victim of this recent change-of-direction:
H: Is it wrong that this strip came out the weekend they cancelled the Vista port?
Michael: wrong? or painfully right?
H: I feel horribly violated by this: my life is being chronicled by someone on the other side of the country. Accurately.
Michael: hehehe... you and the rest of americubicle
H: yeah, but there's a very disturbing temporal correlation!
Michael: Yes, we and the esteemed Mr. Adams are both following the industry's lead
H: oh, come on. The weekend-of is a helluva lot more specific than "new OS out!"
Michael: Coincidence. What should be more worrying is that we're advancing at the same pace as a comic strip that's cataloging things that are entrenched enough to be satirized.
And it's back to business as usual.
The project was difficult. I attempt a synopsis here:
- Port a product consisting of over 17 million (yes, million) lines of code ranging from Fortran to .NET assemblies, built over a variety of compilers and environments, to a new OS. Keep in mind that the bulk of the product is unmanaged C/C++ built on VC2003, which is unsupported on Vista!
- Include numerous third-party libraries that may or may not be Vista-friendly. Wrap if necessary. Rewrite whatever needs it.
- Here's the clincher: Deploy this as a minimally-invasive "patch" to the currently deployed product, touching as little as possible. Remember, the product is already fielded, so you can't touch the original installer.
So: a tough project, one that defines the critical path, one where failure is simply not an option, one that concerned millions in annual revenue. Naturally, my team jumped at the chance. We took it on. We're damned good. We're also damned cocky.
The next month-and-a-half was hell, in the most awesome sense of the term. We ran on all cylinders, working at 110%. Undocumented Microsoft APIs were explored and conquered; bold new deployment strategies were tested and adapted within days; beautifully-architected solutions were implemented.
Two weeks passed; we were ahead of schedule. We had a list of major issues, and a working patch installer to test with. The Vista Patch, against all expectation, was go!
Two more weeks passed: we had addressed all major issues, and were in cleanup mode. As Friday arrived, we all stumbled in, weary but elated. We had been working all-out for four weeks now, but we had a gorgeous solution to the seemingly insurmountable problem. We were on schedule! We were going to slay this beast; glory would be ours!
On 4PM that Friday, an email arrived in our collective inboxes. The first sentence read:
From: Product Management
All -
[major deployment platform manager] sent me an e-mail yesterday that said they would not field Vista until next year.
I left early that day.
I slept for over twenty hours over the weekend. After my slumber marathon, I awoke this Sunday to the latest Dilbert:
The remainder is best chronicled by a conversation I had with another victim of this recent change-of-direction:
H: Is it wrong that this strip came out the weekend they cancelled the Vista port?
Michael: wrong? or painfully right?
H: I feel horribly violated by this: my life is being chronicled by someone on the other side of the country. Accurately.
Michael: hehehe... you and the rest of americubicle
H: yeah, but there's a very disturbing temporal correlation!
Michael: Yes, we and the esteemed Mr. Adams are both following the industry's lead
H: oh, come on. The weekend-of is a helluva lot more specific than "new OS out!"
Michael: Coincidence. What should be more worrying is that we're advancing at the same pace as a comic strip that's cataloging things that are entrenched enough to be satirized.
And it's back to business as usual.