It’s ironic that Steve Sinofsky, former head or Microsoft Windows (not sure of his exact title), has become a user and strong supporter of Apple products. He’s knowledgeable about the internal workings of software development in large corporations. Interesting comments and observations IMO.
I'd kinda like to see him working for Apple directly. His observations have been good.
I think the opinion is oversimplifying the matter. Although there might be a “natural function” of a development cycle factor involved, it’s likely to be a lot more than that.
Moving legacy code to Swift. Merging MacOS, iOS, WatchOS, TvOS, HomePodOS to Common base Merging Intel and Arm code bases
We’ve also seen Apple make more use of specialized chips. This requires refactoring the software, which can require a substantial rewrite of existing code.
This guys has some really good insights. I like his comments.
Yep ... I like his comments too. I've authored a couple of small tools at work that were written to make something specific easier. Because it was specific, the feature set was small and what it did was do its thing very well with no bugs. The tools proved popular with staff who requested, and were provided with, more features and it only took 18 months for the bugs to multiply to the point where the tool will never be bug-free now. Extend that scenario to a major piece of software like Apple's IOS and even when the hardware is controlled I can appreciate the development teams experiencing ever increasing challenges in addressing bugs. Now Microsoft has products that needs to run on hardware that is not controlled, so the whole deal with bugs is seriously out of control.
Steve is a very knowledgeable guy and keenly recognizes the strategic influences over software development. I've heard him speak several times and read his book which he signed for me (and a lot of other folks). As I've mentioned before, coping with bugs isn't the biggest problem that software development organizations are faced with. Steve knows this from his leadership days at Microsoft.
Strategic factors, like prioritization, customer commitments, staffing, and the number of concurrent battles being waged, are major challenges on their own. Execution factors, like project progress, writing/building/testing/integrating/versioning/releasing code, and managing defects and technical debt, are major challenges on their own. Where many organizations struggle is maintaining coherency between strategy and execution, one of the negative aspects of the "strategy to execution gap."
If you were to walk into many software development organizations and separately talk to folks on both the strategy side and on the execution side you'd more often than not come away with the impression that you are talking to two independent organizations, each one engaged in somewhat similar but also very different efforts. I'm not talking two different groups working on two different products, but two different views and cultural perspectives of the world in terms of goals and priorities, progress against the schedule, must-have features versus nice-to-have features, technical/schedule/funding risks, defect severities, impediments, and so on and so forth. It's not as simple as trying to force both sides to be on the same page because we are talking about culture. Culture is what determines how things actually get done when there is nobody actively engaged in controlling every minute aspect of the operation of an organization, including how everyone thinks about their role, place, and contribution to the outcome of a larger shared endeavor. You can't control how people think, and especially in knowledge driven enterprises.
Bugs are fairly easy to attack because there are relatively few decisions to be made and it's almost entirely tactical. Bridging the strategy to execution gap requires aligning cultural perceptions, making the right decisions at the right time, applying the right business and technical knowledge, getting everyone applied towards meeting the same strategic goals, and engaging the right combination of execution tactics to achieve high levels of execution performance. Bugs can give your organization a black eye but failures to bridge the strategy to execution gap can lead to failed projects/products, cash incinerators, career termination, and worse.
Wish Apple implement using Touch ID to get back to Home screen. TouchID is used to unlock iPhone and for purchases. Why not implement TouchID to get back, return to Home Screen instead clicking Home Button. Home button last longer. Is there any negative side effects to such feature ?.
Just read his whole twitter thread.. wow, that was certainly the most interesting, and insightful thing I have ever read from anyone at Microsoft (yeah I know he's an ex). But damn, so on point. Especially with how he understands and appreciates Apple's massive scale and consistency, relative to everyone else. I don't think many people quite appreciate how insanely complex Apple's operation is, especially at that scale.
And for those saying iOS11 is the buggiest yet? Utter horse-shit. There is zero objective data to support that. I remember every SINGLE iOS release, the internet saying its the worst/buggiest ever. Whats happening is that there are a lot MORE people using every release, and in general people become whinier, and more entitled, with higher expectations, using an OS in more and more use cases. Along with clickbait and social media meant to amplify the most negative voices. It all adds up to "this is the worst iOS ever!" bullshit every single time. Zero perspective, zero context.
I think the opinion is oversimplifying the matter. Although there might be a “natural function” of a development cycle factor involved, it’s likely to be a lot more than that.
Moving legacy code to Swift. Merging MacOS, iOS, WatchOS, TvOS, HomePodOS to Common base Merging Intel and Arm code bases
We’ve also seen Apple make more use of specialized chips. This requires refactoring the software, which can require a substantial rewrite of existing code.
The interesting thing with iOS11 is that it supports all 64bit hardware with full support (other than model specific features). It runs reasonable well judging purely anecdotally on my 5s (well mostly still has quirks).
If they want to keep support then having a feature locked low OS that each year works on improving core and legacy performance as a base for the feature OS's on each hardware platform. Use that to keep all 64Bit hardware supported as long as feasible. I'd assume they'd tie free upgrades to paying for iCloud or Music Subscription.
With "Marzipan" they could make it a common app target while the feature OS's remain targets for feature apps.
It’s ironic that Steve Sinofsky, former head or Microsoft Windows (not sure of his exact title), has become a user and strong supporter of Apple products. He’s knowledgeable about the internal workings of software development in large corporations. Interesting comments and observations IMO.
I'd kinda like to see him working for Apple directly. His observations have been good.
Oh, hell no. By all accounts he was a controlling lunatic at Microsoft who held and fed log-term grudges endlessly. He’d be letting a nightmare loose inside Apple.
It’s ironic that Steve Sinofsky, former head or Microsoft Windows (not sure of his exact title), has become a user and strong supporter of Apple products. He’s knowledgeable about the internal workings of software development in large corporations. Interesting comments and observations IMO.
I'd kinda like to see him working for Apple directly. His observations have been good.
Oh, hell no. By all accounts he was a controlling lunatic at Microsoft who held and fed log-term grudges endlessly. He’d be letting a nightmare loose inside Apple.
It maybe comes with having a first name of "Steve"....
Both Steve's were notoriously difficult, demanding, opinionated and hard to work with. Both Steve's transformed their organizations from the brink of obsolescence and mediocrity to modern, competitive powerhouses....
It’s ironic that Steve Sinofsky, former head or Microsoft Windows (not sure of his exact title), has become a user and strong supporter of Apple products. He’s knowledgeable about the internal workings of software development in large corporations. Interesting comments and observations IMO.
I'd kinda like to see him working for Apple directly. His observations have been good.
Oh, hell no. By all accounts he was a controlling lunatic at Microsoft who held and fed log-term grudges endlessly. He’d be letting a nightmare loose inside Apple.
All rumors and assumptions. Same with Forstall. Some rumors said he was a controlling lunatic, others say he was let go of because Tim Cook didn't want to deal with conflict / debate in the same manner that Jobs did and didn't want people who rocked the boat.
According to Gurman’s report in Bloomberg multi-person conferencing with FaceTime is being explored but probably won’t be ready. But what we will probably get is Animoji integrated into FaceTime. Seems like messed up priorities, unless multi person FaceTime is so difficult to implement and Animoji is easy? But who’s asking for Animoji in FaceTime?!?
<<"In my view the 'moment' is being manufactured a bit right now because of the perception that the Apple products have become less stable or...'buggy'," he said, while commenting that in his own view, Apple's hardware and software are at "quality levels our industry has just not seen before.">>
That's some heavy PR spin. iOS 11 has been the buggiest release yet.
Presumably you’ve got some detailed and non subjective data to back up that claim?
Apple's quality levels were indeed impressive between 2007 and 2012, and the products were kicking the industry in the ass, forcing it out of its complacency. The quality and attention to detail got me to move from Windows PCs to Apple's platforms.
However, 2013's introduction of iOS 7 began a downward plunge in software quality; from OS to applications, in design and execution.
"Quality levels our industry has just not seen before" is a load of butt-kiss crap. I'm not surprised this guy is so inattentive to the actual details, considering the messy product he was in charge of at Microsoft. Where was this guy when Apple product was actually its best? That's not today.
In 2009 Apple were pushing quality the industry had never seen before, because the industry was rotten to the core and abuse of consumers was turned into an art, not seen in, or tolerated from, any other industry. Geeks worldwide had been convinced to spread myths and special pleading that protected software and computers from legitimate criticism. Apple weren't having it.
In 2018, Apple are pushing the same kind of lax attention to details the rest of the industry had already mastered a decade ago. Now we are back to screwing the customer, except everyone is still mentally stuck back in the "Apple is doing wondrous things" mindset. There's still the same kind of rabid, "Apple can do no wrong" fan base ready to defend everything Apple leadership does, and assault any criticism with its historic vitriol and arrogant dismissal.
Full circle. This has happened before. Apple has twice now attained greatness, and twice now chosen to piss it away for myopic Wall Street stupidity and insular, arrogant overconfidence. Who's going to turn the ship around a third time?
Comments
Moving legacy code to Swift.
Merging MacOS, iOS, WatchOS, TvOS, HomePodOS to Common base
Merging Intel and Arm code bases
We’ve also seen Apple make more use of specialized chips. This requires refactoring the software, which can require a substantial rewrite of existing code.
Strategic factors, like prioritization, customer commitments, staffing, and the number of concurrent battles being waged, are major challenges on their own. Execution factors, like project progress, writing/building/testing/integrating/versioning/releasing code, and managing defects and technical debt, are major challenges on their own. Where many organizations struggle is maintaining coherency between strategy and execution, one of the negative aspects of the "strategy to execution gap."
If you were to walk into many software development organizations and separately talk to folks on both the strategy side and on the execution side you'd more often than not come away with the impression that you are talking to two independent organizations, each one engaged in somewhat similar but also very different efforts. I'm not talking two different groups working on two different products, but two different views and cultural perspectives of the world in terms of goals and priorities, progress against the schedule, must-have features versus nice-to-have features, technical/schedule/funding risks, defect severities, impediments, and so on and so forth. It's not as simple as trying to force both sides to be on the same page because we are talking about culture. Culture is what determines how things actually get done when there is nobody actively engaged in controlling every minute aspect of the operation of an organization, including how everyone thinks about their role, place, and contribution to the outcome of a larger shared endeavor. You can't control how people think, and especially in knowledge driven enterprises.
Bugs are fairly easy to attack because there are relatively few decisions to be made and it's almost entirely tactical. Bridging the strategy to execution gap requires aligning cultural perceptions, making the right decisions at the right time, applying the right business and technical knowledge, getting everyone applied towards meeting the same strategic goals, and engaging the right combination of execution tactics to achieve high levels of execution performance. Bugs can give your organization a black eye but failures to bridge the strategy to execution gap can lead to failed projects/products, cash incinerators, career termination, and worse.
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/7x0eif/how_apple_plans_to_root_out_bugs_and_revamp/du4z6bx/
And for those saying iOS11 is the buggiest yet? Utter horse-shit. There is zero objective data to support that. I remember every SINGLE iOS release, the internet saying its the worst/buggiest ever. Whats happening is that there are a lot MORE people using every release, and in general people become whinier, and more entitled, with higher expectations, using an OS in more and more use cases. Along with clickbait and social media meant to amplify the most negative voices. It all adds up to "this is the worst iOS ever!" bullshit every single time. Zero perspective, zero context.
If they want to keep support then having a feature locked low OS that each year works on improving core and legacy performance as a base for the feature OS's on each hardware platform. Use that to keep all 64Bit hardware supported as long as feasible. I'd assume they'd tie free upgrades to paying for iCloud or Music Subscription.
With "Marzipan" they could make it a common app target while the feature OS's remain targets for feature apps.
Both Steve's were notoriously difficult, demanding, opinionated and hard to work with.
Both Steve's transformed their organizations from the brink of obsolescence and mediocrity to modern, competitive powerhouses....
However, 2013's introduction of iOS 7 began a downward plunge in software quality; from OS to applications, in design and execution.
"Quality levels our industry has just not seen before" is a load of butt-kiss crap. I'm not surprised this guy is so inattentive to the actual details, considering the messy product he was in charge of at Microsoft. Where was this guy when Apple product was actually its best? That's not today.
In 2009 Apple were pushing quality the industry had never seen before, because the industry was rotten to the core and abuse of consumers was turned into an art, not seen in, or tolerated from, any other industry. Geeks worldwide had been convinced to spread myths and special pleading that protected software and computers from legitimate criticism. Apple weren't having it.
In 2018, Apple are pushing the same kind of lax attention to details the rest of the industry had already mastered a decade ago. Now we are back to screwing the customer, except everyone is still mentally stuck back in the "Apple is doing wondrous things" mindset. There's still the same kind of rabid, "Apple can do no wrong" fan base ready to defend everything Apple leadership does, and assault any criticism with its historic vitriol and arrogant dismissal.
Full circle. This has happened before. Apple has twice now attained greatness, and twice now chosen to piss it away for myopic Wall Street stupidity and insular, arrogant overconfidence. Who's going to turn the ship around a third time?