Building Software at Scale - How Microsoft builds SQL Server Joint meeting of Austin SPIN and IEEE Computer Society
February 10, 2011
Speaker: Conor Cunningham, Principal Software Architect, SQL Server Engine at MicrosoftAbstract:
This talk will cover how Microsoft develops, releases, and supports SQL Server (an approximately $3.5 Billion/year product). There are unique challenges to running a software group at the scale of > 1000 people, though many of the challenges are very similar to smaller organizations as well. The talk will cover: • An overview of the SQL Server product (to see the components) • How Microsoft organizes its people by roles (Developers, Testers, Program Managers, etc.) • The engineering model we use (developed in-house) • How individual projects run in our engineering model • Project Management Techniques (various Agile Methods) that work in large organization engineering • Offshoring portions of a product • Testing and Automation • Software Process Management + Communicating with Management
About the Speaker: Conor Cunningham has worked at Microsoft for well over a decade. His primary interests are building database engines, query processors, and specifically query optimizers. He also works in distributed systems, algorithms, and in business process management/efficiency strategies. Conor also has worked at Lombardi in Austin (now part of IBM) on Business Process Management (BPM) solutions. Conor has run software projects using a variety of methods from Waterfall to SCRUM/various Agile methods. Conor blogs about SQL Server Queries on a blog called “Conor vs. SQL.” He is the author of a number of peer-reviewed academic papers, has authored more than 10 patent disclosures on database engine design, and wrote a chapter for the book “SQL Server 2008 Internals” on how the SQL Server Query Optimizer works. He lives with his family in Austin, TX. |