"Going Dark"

Whidbey is progressing toward its ZBB date, with only a few more weeks to go. For the past week, and the following, teams within DevDiv have “gone dark”. ZBB is about dropping to ‘zero’ bugs and getting ready for the final Beta and ultimate release. In an effort to remove normal distractions, teams have been asked division-wide to cancel non-essential meetings, lower response time to email, and otherwise focus solely on fixing bugs and driving down their bugs.

Each team has approached in a slightly different manner that best fits them. Some have gone ‘off-site’ to a conference room where no one can simply stop by, while others have offered coffee carts to keep developers wired into their goal of fixing bugs.

Here’s the challenge; focus on bugs while maintaining a level of support to the community (both internally and externally). Getting feedback from the community and providing support is an important part of developing a great product. And one that is being balanced right now with an intense focus on driving to zero bugs with incorporating feedback and providing support.

However a team decides to implement their ‘dark’ period is up to them, but the goal and intent for all is the same…remove distractions to focus on bugs in order to be well positioned for a successful Beta2.

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 27, 2004
  Are we going to see antoher CTP drop before Beta 2? If so, do you have any schedule on that?
• Anonymous
  September 27, 2004
  Are we going to see antoher CTP drop before Beta 2? If so, do you have any schedule on that?
• Anonymous
  October 05, 2004
  The comment has been removed