From NT OS/2 to Windows 2000 and Beyond--A Software-Engineering Odyssey

The Windows NT project started in 1988 with 12 engineers. Windows 2000 involved teams totaling more than 5,000 people--the largest group of engineers Microsoft has ever assembled for a single project. What did it take to scale the development effort by orders of magnitude in just ten years? How well has the initial design stood up over time? This talk will examine the software engineering challenges encountered and lessons learned during the Windows NT development effort, as well as look forward to the future.

Mark Lucovsky is Lead Architect in the Windows NT Group. He was one of the founding members of the Windows NT group, joining Microsoft in 1988 from Digital Equipment Corporation. Mark's contributions to Windows NT include designing and implementing the process/thread structure, the debugging architecture, and the user-mode runtime environment including the bootstrapping of the various subsystems and service processes.