How Software is Built

Interviewers: Scott Swigart and Sean Campbell

Interviewee: David Campbell

In this interview with David Campbell we talked to him about:

• How the development methodology of SQL Server has changed.
• How the changes affect the ability of customers to give feedback.
• How virtualization makes it easier for users to test-drive SQL Server.
• As products and open-source projects grow, the developers have to realize that they are not the target user.
• David’s belief that the best product doesn’t necessarily have the most knobs.
• Building a community around a closed-source product like SQL Server.

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Interviewers: Scott Swigart and Sean Campbell

Interviewee: Justin Erenkrantz

In this second part of a two part interview with Justin Erenkrantz we talked to him about:

• How the Apache project ensures good collaboration.
• The Apache Foundation’s philosphy of having no single person as the leader.
• Apache’s security committee.
• The process of removing someone from a position of responsibility within the Apache Foundation.
• What would make someone want to be part of the Apache Foundation’s group of projects.

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Interviewers: Scott Swigart and Sean Campbell.

Interviewees:Blaine Wastell and Glenn Block.

In this interview with Blaine Wastell and Glenn Block of the Patterns and Practices Group at Microsoft we asked them about:

• About the Patterns and Practices Group
• What makes them different from a typical product development group
• The software development methodology they use
• Some of the things that Patterns and Practices group has produced for developers.
• The role of CodePlex for their group.

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Interviewers: Scott Swigart , Richard Bowler

Interviewee: Matt Gibbs

In this interview with Matt, we asked him about:

• Approaching open and closed source SDL
• Development challenges for UI Framework and Services team
• Handling security within feature development
• Incorporating SDL into ASP.NET
• Launching multiple distributions with open source
• Testing against multiple operating systems
• Testing cycle for features
• Managing bug fixes and feature stability
• Following a development cycle
• Microsoft philosophy on product development

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Interviewers: Scott Swigart

Interviewee: Rod Johnson

In this interview with Rod, CEO of Interface 21 and founder of the Spring framework, we asked him about:

• Development methodology of Spring framework
• Contributors to Spring
• Selection of code and features for the Spring framework
• Ways in which developers support open source
• Open source development cycle
• Importance of technical support
• Code aggregation in open source development
• Choosing open or closed source within small businesses

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Interviewers: Scott Swigart, and Sean Campbell

Interviewee: John McCreesh - Open Office

John McCreesh

In this interview with John who is the Marketing Program Lead for Open Office we asked him about:

• What the process is for delegating work out to members of the OpenOffice team
• How OpenOffice handles end user requests for features
• The engineering steering committee for OpenOffice
• Large Company contributions to OpenOffice
• How the Q/A process is handled for OpenOffice
• How OpenOffice generates appropriate documentation for end users
• How much goes into keeping OpenOffice cross platform (Mac, Linux, Windows) vs. emphasis on creating new features.
• The Office 2007 Ribbon, innovation, and standards as it relates to OpenOffice

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Interviewers: Scott Swigart, Sean Campbell, and Richard Bowler
Interviewee: Phil Costa

Phil Costa

In this interview, Scott Swigart, Sean Campbell, and Richard Bowler interview Phil Costa who is the Director of Product Management for Flex and ColdFusion at Adobe, with responsibility for product definition and strategy of the Flex product line. Prior to joining the Flex team, he was product manager at both Macromedia and Allaire and led XML and Internet middleware research at Giga Information Group. Phil has a Master’s degree in English from Boston University and an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College.

In this interview, Phil talks about Adobe’s decision to open-source the Flex SDK. In specific, Phil talked about:

• Background on the Adobe Flex SDK
• Why open-source the Flex SDK
• Risks in open-sourcing the Flex SDK
• Why the MPL license was chosen
• Advantages in open-sourcing the Flex SDK
• The risks of people forking the build

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