Microsoft: Seeking Devs with All Levels of Experience for NATIONWIDE Remote Research Study

[Gina-Microsoft]

Hi friends-

I'm with Microsoft User Research and we're looking nationally for developers with all levels of experience (from college graduate to senior developer) for an upcoming remote research study. This is a great opportunity to share feedback with Microsoft User Researchers and have a direct impact on the future of Microsoft products and technology.

These two hour studies will take place remotely via online meetings starting Tuesday, August 7th. Each participant will be offered their choice of technical software, hardware or games from a list of our most popular products.

If this is something you are interested in, you can reply back to me Gina at ***@microsoft.com with “dev" in the subject line with the following information:

1. Name/Phone:
2. Job Title/ Company:
3. How many years of experience do you have developing?
4. How many years have you been with your current employer?
5. Do you use Agile methods?
6. What languages do you develop in?
7. Do you use any non-Microsoft tools?
8. Do you develop mobile applications?
9. Have you published any apps on a website or in a marketplace?


Thanks for your time!!

Gina
Microsoft User Research
***@microsoft.com

[Simon Trew]

Dear Gina,

1. Name/Phone:

Simon Trew. 07180 678543

2. Job Title/ Company:

Simon Trew, Senior Software Developer, Aeroflex Ltd

3. How many years of experience do you have developing?

First published paid program when I was 12, so about 28 (I am 40 years old)

4. How many years have you been with your current employer?

Nine months

5. Do you use Agile methods?

No. Have used them at previous companies and they tend not to work because people have somehow taken "two weeks" to be an absolute rule not a guideline. Not every bit of work fits naturally into two weeks, and I am sure it was never meant to be a golden rule. Agile companies I have worked for, or companies changing to agile methods, have tended to fail with them because of this.

6. What languages do you develop in?

C++ mainly, but plenty of others: Java, Perl, Fortran, C, Python, a few in house languages.

7. Do you use any non-Microsoft tools?

Not at the moment, but I have done very much cross-platform development. Found a bug in gcc's strcpy and intel's C++ compiler.

8. Do you develop mobile applications?

No.
9. Have you published any apps on a website or in a marketplace?

No. I read the Microsoft rules for its app site and it seemed far too onerous. Apps are pile it high, sell it cheap, and you can't have too high a bar to entry (I think it's too high). I used Windows Mobile a few years ago to develop a few years ago, but at that time we didn't have app stores so it was very hard to get it pushed to market-- app stores are the answer there cos they do the marketing for you. But the barrier to entry is too high, in my opinion. (Not just for MS but with Apple etc too.) I realise the concerns for security etc but it must be easy to get in, since most apps don't cost much, I am not going to spend a lot of hours writing an app to get no payback when I have to get past those hurdles. This is not a fault of MS or its competitors--- it's going in the right direction. But it is a lot of 50ps and not one lump of a million quid. A totally different model and it will take time for software engineers to get used to that, but I think Microsoft did erect too many barriers with the Windows 8 App Store, which I looked at well before it was even available to subscribe to, and read all the contracts. And this is when Windows 8 App Store had exactly 0 apps on it.

This is my sincere feedback from someone who uses MS products every day, know how hard MS actually are trying to do the right thing, and know they are not perfect. It was a privilege to be an MVP for a couple of years, I asked before the rounds of nominations for the next year not to be considered; I don't think I would have got it again cos I was too busy to contribute at that time, and to me MVP is about what you give back, not what you take. Interesting to hear Melinda Gates on Desert Island Discs the other week, too.

Keep well and I hope this helps. I do have a tendency to pack the maximum amount of words into the minimum amount of thought, so I apologies for that. Just wanted to give you some things to add to your research, I hope I did the right thing. Believe me my code is a lot tighter than this waffle!

My best wishes

Simon Trew