Microsoft often relies on product reviews with Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates to coordinate the technical activities of its highly decentralized development teams. These product reviews, known within the company as "Bill Reviews," give Gates the opportunity to interact with the product teams and directly impact the features and architecture of the company’s products, although there are limits to what can be accomplished.

Focused on Upcoming Products

A Bill Review is a meeting, typically lasting two to three hours, and is not meant to be a discussion of past successes. It is instead almost entirely forward looking—focusing on the technologies, features, and strategies for upcoming releases.

Although the exact list of people who attend a review will vary, a typical Bill Review includes the following:

• Gates, sometimes accompanied by one of his technical advisers
• Product team leaders, such as the product unit manager as well as the managers of the development, testing, and program management teams
• The relevant set of executives (e.g., the vice president responsible for the product)
• Representatives from other groups—typically those who are dependent upon the product or who provide critical technology to the product.

For many years, Bill Reviews were an annual staple for all product teams, but as the company grew, so did the demands on Gates’s time, forcing many product groups to forgo the opportunity to annually review their plans with him.

Among other goals, the Jan. 2000 reorganization, in which Gates handed the role of Chief Executive Officer to Steve Ballmer and became the Chief Software Architect, was designed to allow him to spend more time coordinating the technical activities of product groups. Gates is now free, in some cases, to become a "virtual member" of the product design team, something that would have been impossible with his previous set of responsibilities. According to recent interviews, he has taken such a role in the development of "Longhorn," the next client version of Windows.

Addressing Common Issues

Although each Bill Review is different and the issues discussed vary by product, certain themes recur in each review.

Is the project redundant? Gates always looks for ways to make Microsoft more efficient. One way is to increase the amount of code that is shared among groups. Because of the decentralized nature of the company, product groups are often unaware of what is going on in other divisions, a fact that often leads to multiple groups attempting to solve the same problem in different ways. A Bill Review is a way for Gates to examine different approaches and make decisions about how to reduce redundancies.

Is the project strategic or tactical? While Microsoft is certainly interested in projects that increase short-term revenue, the company is more interested in projects that have relevance beyond their potential for direct product sales. The Visual Studio tools, for example, generate relatively small revenue compared with more widely used products such as Office. But by simplifying the development of Windows applications, Visual Studio increases sales of Windows.

Is there a business plan in place? Microsoft is not interested in technology for the sake of technology, although the dot-com explosion led to a number of speculative ventures (such as .NET My Services) that lacked a clear business plan. While a Bill Review is fundamentally a review of technology, Gates is also interested in understanding the business plan that will enable the product to be successful.

Is the team solid? Beyond reviewing technology and product plans, a Bill Review can be a review of the team itself. Because Gates gets to spend only a small amount of time with each product team, a Bill Review is one of the few opportunities he has to get to know the leadership team and be convinced that they are thinking through important issues, are aware of the risks, and are being straightforward about potential problems.

Possible Outcomes

Preparing for a Bill Review can be a long process. Therefore, product teams tend to schedule them with the hope of achieving some desired outcome. The following are the most typical results that a product group looks for:

Decision between competing products. When multiple product teams are developing competing products or technologies, eventually the company must select one path to pursue. A Bill Review is a critical element in this culling process. For example, at one point both the Xbox and Windows CE groups were working on game consoles. After a series of Bill Reviews with each of the product groups, the company decided to proceed with Xbox, which is based on a subset of Windows 2000. The CE-based solution was killed.

Internal protection. A Bill Review is a chance to enlist executive support for difficult or controversial projects. Even though the company has more than 50,000 employees, headcount is a scare resource and groups that face entrenched internal skepticism often find they must continually defend their very existence. Having Gates personally support a project can lift that pressure and give the team some breathing room. Some well-known examples of projects to which Gates has lent personal support include the Tablet PC and Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT).

Prepare Gates to deal with partners and competitors. Many product groups must deal with partners whose agendas don’t always align with Microsoft’s. A Bill Review gives these teams an opportunity to help him understand the points of tension between Microsoft and the partner so he can better prepare for executive meetings. It also helps prevent Gates from making agreements or promises that the product groups aren’t prepared to act upon.

Limitations of the Process

A Bill Review is an important event for any product team and it demonstrates the unique value Gates adds to the company, but there are limits to what the process can accomplish.

First, a Bill Review, by definition, can only be conducted by Gates. Gates has indicated that he will eventually retire from Microsoft and although the company has many executives who have demonstrated strong business leadership, Gates’s combination of technical depth and business acumen is unique. Although Ballmer could conduct a "Steve Review" or Platforms Group Vice President Jim Allchin could conduct a "Jim Review," neither would be a substitute for the product reviews conducted by Gates.

In addition, a Bill Review can never identify all the potential landmines or redundancies. For example, while a Bill Review settled the dispute over which architecture should be used for Microsoft’s game console, Windows Server 2003 still offers at least two different ways to install an operating system on a bare-metal PC. This happens, at least in part, because the agenda of a Bill Review is driven by what the team expects will catch Gates’s interest. This means that reviews often focus on critical areas such as the overall product architecture, but might miss areas such as setup and installation, maintenance, and management. As the recent outbreak of the SQL Slammer worm demonstrated, these areas can impact customers as much as architecture, yet they tend to receive little or no attention in a Bill Review.

Finally, even though Gates is the chief software architect, there are limits to what he can do in a review. Once product plans and schedules are developed, major changes are difficult to undertake. If the feedback from Gates is extremely negative, current plans might be altered, but the more likely result is that the current version will proceed as planned and changes will be made in forthcoming versions.