MicroISV Evangelism program code named "Glidepath"

As many of you who read this blog know, I'm the Technical Evangelist here at Microsoft responsible for reaching out and engaging the MicroISV community who build software for Windows. Our definition of MicroISV is the 1-10 person, self-funded software company. This is not limited to any particular business model and, in our view, includes shareware, advertising-based software and even developers who ship OEM/retail products only.

Right now I'm starting a new program, code-named "Glidepath", to aggregate many of the disparate offerings we have here at Microsoft that support MicroISV development as well as reach out to the community for other content (documentation as well as code) and guidance that would be useful to the MicroISV.

Part of what "Glidepath" will deliver is workflow-based guidance (think step-by-step instructions) for the many different aspects of being a MicroISV (development, sales, marketing, PR/blogging, etc.). This is not just wizards. This is Visual Studio-based delivery of code, documentation and workflow to give you both the high-level information you need to deal with things like e-commerce DRM (supplied by third parties) as well as code and documentationthat implements the necessary functionality. Imagine 3 clicks that allows you to select a DRM vendor, insert the necessary code into your solution, taking you to the vendor's web site to sign up and finally deliver step-by-step instructions on how to complete the process of hooking the inserted code into your application.

I'd like to know what you think should be included in such a package. Initially we're thinking about such technical viewpoints as Application Architecture, Deployment, Data Access, as well as non-technical viewpoints such as PR/blogging, e-commerce and sales.

If you create content in any of these areas I'm also interested in finding a way to link to or possibly even include your content in the "Glidepath" package.

Please either leave a comment on this blog entry or click on the email link and send me a message directly.

I look forward to your feedback.

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 27, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  February 27, 2006
  There are a huge number of choices that have to be made when developing new software. Some of these include
  - Programming language
  - ANSI or Unicode support
  - English only or multiple spoken language support
  - Which O/S and which sub versions to support
  - Which compiler(s)
  - Which API. (Win32, MFC, .NET, AJAX, COM, DCOM, ActiveX, etc..)
  - Which help compiler (e.g. HTML help)
  - Which installer
  - Code signing (or not)
  - 64bit support (or not)
  - How to protect against hacking
  - Legal and licensing issues
  - Trademark issues
  - How to manage upgrades
  - Outsourcing graphic design (or not)
  - Use of 3rd party libraries
  - How to set a price and collect the money
  - And a million other minor things...
  
  Rather than trying to cover all the permutations (which is just not possible), maybe you should write up a couple of best practice case studies. Of if not best practice then maybe a couple of examples of practical development enviroments that work for small developers.
  
  You are welcome to contact me at
  david [-at-] passmark [-dot-] com
  
• Anonymous
  February 28, 2006
  What I really badly need as a small developer is a walkthrough sample how to use MSI for a single application.
  
  I mean not for Microsoft office or MS Windows like but for single.
  
  Just basic regular set of screens: "welcome", license, select the installation path, should it show readme, should it run now, are you ready. I cannot figure it out from MSDN for the reasonable time and simply use one well known free installer.
  
  I suspect that MSI could do better job auto handling all these special permissions "to install only" than the free installer that I use now. However the time required to understand MSI simply is not acceptable for me.
  
  By the way, new VS  2005 MSDN documentation become worse for the understanding. I suspect that Microsoft developers were not properly involved into this process and people who wrote the documentation simply don't understand what the developers need. I.e. the documents become more uniform, more beautiful more formal and less understandable. The ideas behind the functions, its purpose in comparison with other similar ones, its caveats, often are not mentioned.
  
• Anonymous
  March 01, 2006
  Vadim,
  
  I heartily agree with both of your comments.
  
  Both of these are symptomatic of the problems I'm trying to solve with project "Glidepath".  There are too many features and details and not enough basic understanding.
  
  I will take your comments about installation and make sure that type of information is included in "Glidepath".  I am already in contact with the VS product group and plan to make a major pitch in the direction of better/easier-to-understand docs.
• Anonymous
  March 04, 2006
  Hi Michael,
  I think developers really struggle with marketing. A clear "how to" guide on how Microsoft can help developers gain exposure would be helpful. There are a number of existing marketing resources specifically for software developers that also would benefit your audience including:
  
  Software Marketing Resource -
  http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com
  
  Dave Talks
  http://www.davetalks.com
  
  There are others too.
• Anonymous
  March 06, 2006
  Thanks for those links.  
  
  I agree that especially MicroISV developers struggle with many things beyond development and we are working on both including content and links to those resources and more.
  
• Anonymous
  March 06, 2006
  How much value would people who don't use Visual Studio get out of your plan? I guess I'm asking for some ratio of benefits do you envision being surfaced only in Visual Studio versus "open channels" like a website? For someone not using Visual Studio are they going to get 50% of the value being planned? 10%? 5%?
• Anonymous
  March 07, 2006
  Steve,
  
  Almost all of the content being delivered by Glidepath will also be posted on a public site.  However, the benefit of the workflow-based guidance will be less usable outside of Visual Studio although still helpful.
  
  To your point, I expect that everyone will benefit 75% from the content and an additional 25% with the live experience inside Visual Studio.  Also, there will be additional features which are still in development that will only be available in a "live" environment which will increase developer productivity.
• Anonymous
  March 11, 2006
  I definitely agree - there needs to be some technical documentation/guidance for architecting, developing and deploying your product that is geared for the MicroISV.
  
  Since I already work for an ISV (sigh, not owned by me), I know there is information out there to solve my technical questions, I just have to sift through it for the nuggets.
  
  Having it integrated into VS would be great starting point, especially if someone else has done it before me and can spare me the time, money and of course share the pain of their experience.
  
  On the other hand, the area I know I need improvement in is the non-technical side. I am trying to layout a road map on how to evolve myself from a technical worker-bee to someone who runs a successful ISV. (Whether it's my current day-job or my own MicroISV, remains to be seen.)
  
  I know there are excellent discussions on http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/, but how do you improve your soft skills needed to run an ISV?
  
  Within the last couple of months I learned about two very interesting programs.
  
  The first, is Microsoft Architectural Certification. A cool new apprenticeship program, geared to making sure you have what it takes as an architect within your particular niche of the IT industry. I have had a chance to talk to someone who is already certified, and it's a very appealing program but, it's going take a while for it to gain enough momentum.
  
  http://www.microsoft.com/architecture/default.aspx?pid=share.certification.
  
  The other is Fog Creek Software Management Training Program.
  
  http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FogCreekMBA.html
  
  It completely rocks. Too bad I have a day job, wife, kids and a life outside work. Oh yeah, did I mention I am 1,000+ miles from New York?
  
  Where am I going with all this? I would love to see some resource and/or program that helps me with creating a road map for professional development, connects me to my peers and resources that I need to develop the skills and knowledge to make my ISV successful.
  
  And while your at it, you could do something about world peace and come over tomorrow morning and fix my kitchen sink?
• Anonymous
  March 18, 2006
  An intesting angle would be to look at also enabling SaaS tools for ISV's through VS.  Increasingly software is being delivered as a service in the microISV space.
  
  We use Visual Studio exclusively to develop our SaaS range of products for small business.  See:
  www.veetro.com
  
  What would have helped us was a plug n' play solution directly into a payment gateway, affiliate and infrastructure solution.
• Anonymous
  March 23, 2006
  I would love more information for ISVs.
  
  I have a successful ISV. I use Visual Basic 6 for my application.
  
  My download files are abour 2 MB. My competitor used .NET and his application is 27 MB. According to download.com, I get 23 times more downloads than him. Obviously.
  
  Yet, I can never seem to find any information on using Visual Basic 6 on MSDN. Could you point me to some links where I can get code samples etc?
• Anonymous
  March 29, 2006
  James,
  
  Check out: http://msdn.microsoft.com/VBRun/ , the MSDN Visual Basic 6.0 Resource Center.
  
  I do feel your pain about the download size and would recommend to all MicroISVs who are currently distributing .Net applications to consider an alternate download that would not include the .Net run-time as your user may have already downloaded it.  There are ways of detecting this and sending your user to the .Net framework download site automatically.
  
  In addition, the .Net 2.0 framework will be built-in to Windows Vista so this problem, at least, will go away, once and for all once Vista is in the hands of users.
• Anonymous
  April 25, 2006
  It’s all about the user today. Businesses will compete and win when they can present users — from employees...