My project gets underway

Over the past two weeks, my group has been trying to make a decision as to what my project was going to focus on.  As a reminder, my group writes security guidance documents for use by Microsoft customers of all sizes.  Anyway, for about two weeks, I was actually pushing two projects forward through the first phase of our methodology (known as the Envisioning Phase).

My management decided last Friday that they actually wanted to go in yet a different direction, and I am confident that this is the direction the project is going to go.  I don't feel comfortable spilling the beans about the topic for the guidance I will be working on yet, since we are so early into the project it could change significantly before we get out of this phase.  I can say that it is a project that will likely last at least a year, and that it focuses on large enterprise issues.  I can also say that it should be a very cool project...

Yesterday was the first full day I could devote to the project.  Unfortunately, my dev lead on the project was on vacation, so we really couldn't do much more than schedule meetings and do some background research.  Today, things kicked off with a bang!  We had at least 3 meetings specifically devoted to the project, with numerous follow-ups scheduled later this week and into next week.  The Envisioning Phase is all about deciding the vision and the scope for your project, and that means talking to people and getting their input.  We will be talking to various groups throughout Microsoft, as well as various customers to make sure we have a solid understanding on the pain points and concerns in our topic area.  Since people all over Microsoft have ideas and input for our project, we are having a lot of meetings and email conversations to flesh out what exactly we are doing in the project.

The main deliverable for this phase is a Vision/Scope document that describes what we will and will not be doing for the project.  This is a document that I will write, and that will drive the work to be done in the remaining phases of the project.  You can get more info on our methodology (called Microsoft Solutions Framework) here.

Long story short, things just got really interesting around here.  Stay tuned....