Questions about the MSFS development team

[sandgate]

OK. Here I am in January thinking, like thousands of other enthusiasts, about how different will FSX be over FS9 when it is released towards the end of this year. Wondering what new features it will have, reading the posts of others listing wishlists, and thinking "Yes, I'd like to see that too!"

And while I am thinking these things, somewhere in Redmond is a team of programmers working on this new version, taking decisions what to add, what not - what is feasible, and what isn't!

And the more I though about this group of people working on MY new version of Flightsim, the more I started to wonder about them, and how little I know about them. And these are some of the questions that arose in my mind:

1. How many programmers are in the team that work on FSX?
2. What is the average age of these programmers?
3. How many male - How many female?
4. How many fly themselves in the real-world - male/female
5. What sort of hours do you put in each day - do they increase as the ship date nears?
6. Do they all live in the Redmond area?
7. How many moved from out-of-state to work on FS at Redmond?
8. How many work from home (Given the excellent communications we enjoy at present
8. How many actually fly FS after it is released, and for how long?
9. Do they fly any other flightsims and compare?
10.Have they ever released a version,played it, and later thought "I should have done those trees a bit better!

I would be interested is someone, particularly off the FSX team, enlightening me as to the answers to questions.

Best regards

John

[tgibson]

Hi,

Some of those questions have been answered in the several blogs that people working on FS have created. Here is a link to one, that contains links to the others:

http://blogs.msdn.com/tdragger/default.aspx

Hope this helps,

[n4gix]

Here are some answers garnered from actually reading the forums and blogs:

>1. How many programmers are in the team that work on FSX?

~40

>2. What is the average age of these programmers?

~35

>3. How many male - How many female?

I only know of one female for sure, there may be more...

>6. Do they all live in the Redmond area?

At least two are telecommuters

>8. How many work from home (Given the excellent communications
>we enjoy at present

See #6 above.

[sandgate]

Hi Tom & Bill

Thanks for taking the trouble to respond.

I have actually been reading Taildraggers blog and have looked at one or two others but couldn't find all the info I listed. However, you seem to have sharper eyes than me, and have at least started to paint the picture for me. I will revisit these blogs to see what else I might glean.

For me, it would be nice to be able to picture the persons, the situation and the atmosphere of the team as we approach yet another new release.

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards

John

[pixelpoke_MSFT]

>OK. Here I am in January thinking, like thousands of other
>enthusiasts, about how different will FSX be over FS9 when it
>is released towards the end of this year. Wondering what new
>features it will have, reading the posts of others listing
>wishlists, and thinking "Yes, I'd like to see that too!"
>
>And while I am thinking these things, somewhere in Redmond is
>a team of programmers working on this new version, taking
>decisions what to add, what not - what is feasible, and what
>isn't!
>
>And the more I though about this group of people working on MY
>new version of Flightsim, the more I started to wonder about
>them, and how little I know about them. And these are some of
>the questions that arose in my mind:
>
>1. How many programmers are in the team that work on FSX?
>2. What is the average age of these programmers?
>3. How many male - How many female?
>4. How many fly themselves in the real-world - male/female
>5. What sort of hours do you put in each day - do they
>increase as the ship date nears?
>6. Do they all live in the Redmond area?
>7. How many moved from out-of-state to work on FS at Redmond?
>8. How many work from home (Given the excellent communications
>we enjoy at present
>8. How many actually fly FS after it is released, and for how
>long?
>9. Do they fly any other flightsims and compare?
>10.Have they ever released a version,played it, and later
>thought "I should have done those trees a bit better!
>
>I would be interested is someone, particularly off the FSX
>team, enlightening me as to the answers to questions.
>
>Best regards
>
>John
>
1. How many programmers are in the team that work on FSX?

"Programmers?" around 20.
Just under 50 full time employees in the group, with some contingent ("contract") staff. Not all work on FS, and a good portion of that number are managers, testers, and prgram managers (the folk who help keep the specs and schedule), who make the program successful, but don't necessarily contribute content or code.

2. What is the average age of these programmers?

Over 35

3. How many male - How many female?

Too few female. It can change as people come to or leave the group, but right now, 3.

4. How many fly themselves in the real-world - male/female

I can't remember, but probably over 30% of the team have a license.

5. What sort of hours do you put in each day - do they
increase as the ship date nears?

Different people work different ways and on different areas. I work between 65-80 hours a week. Yes, hours increase as the release date nears.

6. Do they all live in the Redmond area?

No. I live in Seattle, fo example. :)


7. How many moved from out-of-state to work on FS at Redmond?

A few, maybe 5 ish, but that can change...

8. How many work from home (Given the excellent communications
we enjoy at present

It fluctuates. A few people work part time at home.


8. How many actually fly FS after it is released, and for how long?

Probably 20% fly the previous version regularly. Everybody uses current code as we work on it.


9. Do they fly any other flightsims and compare?

A few.


10.Have they ever released a version,played it, and later thought "I should have done those trees a bit better!

Ummm... sort of but not really.

In general we implement features while we design features, so a lot of work gets done many times over. 3rd party people have the luxury of a stable code/feature base, so sometmes they can improve over what we did.

For the most part there's little in the way of implementation that I feel bad about after shipping.

Now, after a couple of years on the market? Sure, but that's because you've seen the same stuff 1000s of times not 100s of times.

Cheers,

Jason

[sandgate]

Hi Jason

Thank you very much for your detailed response. I now have more of a picture of 'The Team' and how you operate.

Interesting that you say the average age of the programmers is over 35, as traditionally one always thinks of programmers as being late teens - early twenties (still, I suppose they were once! :-) ).

I am in awe of the number of hours you work each week - I guess you have to like your job to keep up those hours - or have an unhealthy fear of starvation! It's obviously not an abundance of females that attracts you to work those hours!

Thanks once again for all the info and best of luck for the new release.

Best regards

John