Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s decision to change the way the company builds and tests software could be backfiring, according to Petri.
Nadella’s decision to change up the ratio of developers to software tests – which was around 1-to-1 – has meant that Microsoft products feel unfinished, according to the report. The company laid off a significant amount of its workforce in July, many of whom came from the testing side of development.[related-posts]
Microsoft’s system has changed. The company used to have an extra step that allowed for testing off the full code but this has now been cut to improve speed. This idea is not controversial in-and-of itself – holding developers accountable for the code they write doesn’t seem so bad – but the qualms come from the speed of the transition which, according to Petri, happened very fast.
For example the first big update to Windows 10, which was released earlier this month, is filled with bugs that should not be present, and this is because of the new system.
Satya Nadella is considered by many Microsoft employees to be a breath of fresh air after Steve Ballmer, who had a reputation for being loud and stuck in his ways (as evidenced by his reaction to the iPhone).
