Eric Brechner - I. M. Wright’s “Hard Code”: A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft, 2nd Edition

Any large organization is prone to fall prey to its own self-made culture. Myths about how things should be or should be done turn into self-fulfilling prophecies. Any such trend is surely terminal for any organization, but it is a rapid killer in a technology company that thrives on perpetual innovation. Eric Brechner does an incredible job at pulling out the scalpel and cutting deep into such organizational fluff. He is also not shy at throwing a full punchthe occasional black eye being an intended outcome. While some of the lingo and examples are somewhat more appealing to the Microsoft insider, there is little in his wit and wisdom that shouldnt become lore across the software industry.

Great article on dev schedules by I. M. Wright. It applies equally well to infrastructure projects that my group is involved in.

Youre not getting any death threats or anything, are you?

This has got to be a jokequite frankly, this type of pure absurdity is dangerous.

Eric is a personal hero of minelargely because hes been the voice of reason in the Dev community for a very long time.

Software engineers can easily get lost in their code or, even worse, in their processes. Thats when Erics practical advice in Hard Code is really needed!

I just read this months column.... I have to say this is the first time I think you are pushing an idea that is completely wrong and disastrous for the company.

You kick ass Eric :) I was having just this conversation with my PUM and some dev leads a few months ago. Great thinking piece.

We really like these columns. They are so practical and, well, sane! I also love that I can refer back to them when Im trying to help a junior dev get up to speed and they remember the column since they are usually so entertaining.

Nice job, Eric. I think you really hit the nail on the head in this column. I think a good message to give to managers is, Dont be afraid to experiment. How things really work is so different than idealized theories.

I just wanted to let you know how much I love what you writeits intelligent, insightful, and you somehow manage to make serious matter funny (in the good way).

Were going to be doing the feature cuts meetings over the next few weeks, and your death march column was just in time. Its a good reminder of lessons that were hard learned but somehow are still more easily forgotten than they should be.

I wanted to let you know that I really appreciated and enjoyed all of your writings posted on the EE site. Until, today, I read [Stop Writing Specs]. I have to say that I strongly disagree with your opinion.

Who are you and what have you done with Eric Brechner?

Eric, I just read the Beyond Comparison article you wrote and want you to know how much I appreciate that you actually communicated this to thousands of people at this company.... Thank you for your passion in managing and leading teams the right way and then sharing the HOW part of that!