Product Engineering

In the modern engineering model, design and architecture are iterative processes. Instead of using the traditional, slow process of creating detailed plans up front, we create sketches of the future state design at a relative level of detail and fidelity. Then we use rapid prototyping to validate and refine our design and get feedback about how it works. Everyone on the team applies deep and shared customer knowledge in every design decision. Throughout the design process, we solicit ideas from a diverse audience and draw upon the work of other teams.

Each sprint team applies them to each project. A checklist defines every step that an engineer should take in the modern engineering approach to do each development task. This encourages engineers to think not only about what they’re delivering, but also about how they’re delivering it. Engineering Fundamentals serve as requirements, and each fundamental has acceptance criteria that features inherit. Sprint teams make sure that the service they deliver adheres to the fundamentals. New employees use them as guiding principles to learn how to do engineering in our organization. And the Engineering Fundamentals are embedded in Visual Studio Team Services—where the engineers do their daily work—so they’re easy to find and use, as shown here.