The Common Engineering Roadmap, a set of standard engineering criteria that Microsoft plans to use in building Windows Server System products, could result in better levels of integration and operational consistency across these products. Customers may also benefit by using the criteria to improve the consistency and quality of their in-house applications. However, the ability for Microsoft to grant itself exemptions from the roadmap without penalty could dilute the value of the program.

Common Engineering Roadmap

Announced at the May 2004 Tech Ed conference, the Common Engineering Roadmap (CER) defines criteria to improve operational and management consistency across the separate products that make up the Windows Server System—for instance, ensuring that each product uses the Windows Installer for installation, configuration, and patching. Under the direction of Senior Vice President of Server Applications Paul Flessner, senior management representing the various Windows Server System products, including Windows, SQL, Exchange, BizTalk, and SharePoint Portal Servers, will regularly review common engineering criteria each year; the first set of criteria are documented as the Common Engineering Criteria (CEC) 2005. Although the current white paper on the CER focuses on the servers in the Windows Server System, the criteria also apply to selected components of Windows Server 2003, such as Internet Information Services (IIS) and Terminal Services, and selected feature packs, such as Windows Update Services (WUS 2.0).

Once the common criteria are set, each product team will review how its product currently stacks up against the criteria and determine how to implement the criteria in the next release. Product teams can also request exemptions for the criteria they do not plan to address. Microsoft says that exemptions will only be granted when complying does not make technical sense—for example, Speech Server could be exempt from a requirement to support clustering because clustering may not be feasible for this product, which works with a private branch exchange (PBX). But other than the embarrassment of not complying with the published criteria, there is nothing to prevent Microsoft from granting exemptions so that a noncomplying product can ship to meet revenue or sales goals.

2005 and Beyond

The CEC for 2005 applies to products that launch after July 2004, as these products will have the "2005" moniker. Some of the 2005 criteria are beneficial, such as support for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) Management Packs and improved documentation, while others, such as support for 64-bit processors, will be of less value in the first iteration.

MOM management packs. Products must include a MOM management pack at product launch, and the management pack must be refreshed with subsequent service packs.

Training and prescriptive guidance. Products must include core training, such as deployment planning and prescriptive guides at launch.

64-bit support. Products must support 64-bit processors, although the criteria seem only to account for the Intel processor. Under the 2005 CEC, servers should either fully support 32-bit emulation on 64-bit architectures or support native execution on the 64-bit architecture.

In subsequent years, Microsoft says it will add new relevant criteria to the CER. Some of the criteria will relate to the products themselves, such as offering true native 64-bit versions of the servers for the Intel (and likely the AMD) 64-bit processors, while others will attempt to improve consistency in terms of documentation, training, support, packaging, licensing, and pricing.

Resources

A Microsoft white paper describing the Common Engineering Roadmap and the criteria for 2005 can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/overview/engineeringroadmap.mspx.