The Delphi Renaissance

I was chatting with Dan Miser about the new Delphi 2007 yesterday and he made an interesting comment about the product:  “yeah. i like the renaissance going on with Delphi”.  I thought to myself that “renaissance” was a really cool way to describe what is going on with Delphi and CodeGear as a whole.  I’d like to take a few minutes to describe what I think is fueling this renaissance.

 

I think its interesting to take a look at what is going on in the inside of the Delphi team.  Many measures were taken during this development cycle to improve the quality of the product and the productivity of the team.  The product is continuously built and tested as developers check into the source code repository.  Its pretty much a criminal act to check in something that either breaks the build or our automated tests.  The obvious benefits of this are that you ship a better quality product in a timely fashion and the overall productivity of the team is increased because we don’t loose as much time to product breakages.  There were also several other key efforts to improve our automation of the mundane including string resourcing, help system production and the construction of developer builds.  In addition to process improvements the team as a whole really pulled together in these last two months working really hard to create the best possible Delphi 2007.

 

CodeGear Enablement.  When it comes to management, you really have to watch what is done and not what they said.  I do think many positive steps have been implemented to enable CodeGear products and their respective teams to succeed.  This isn’t rocket science, just good old fashioned common sense.  Enable CodeGear to focus on the tools business.  Pay attention to developers.  Continue to invest in successful products.  Invest in new products.  The morale and energy in CodeGear is much higher than it has been in years.  In Scotts Valley alone we have many talented employees who had previously left the company who have now returned.  We have many talented new employees as well.  A high quality Delphi 2007 release was delivered in a timely fashion.  We are on the verge of releasing several other products.  These are the positive signs and benefits of enablement.

 

I think what makes great products is the convergence of motivated and talented people who care about the products and customers.  To enable this convergence the products and teams must be provided the environment and means to succeed.  These things are all key to creating a renaissance.

 

-Steve

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Posted by Steve Shaughnessy on March 21st, 2007 under Uncategorized |