Steven Sinofsky
Encyclopedia
Steven Sinofsky has been the President of the Windows Division
at Microsoft
since September 2008, responsible for the development and marketing of Windows
, Windows Live
, and Internet Explorer
.
(Arts and Sciences, 1987) and a masters degree in computer science
from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1989).
In 1994, when the Office Product Unit was formed, Sinofsky joined the team as the director of program management, and led the design of the shared technologies in Microsoft Office 95
and Microsoft Office 97
. He spent about four years as a software design engineer and project lead in the Development Tools group, where he helped lead the development of the first versions of the Microsoft Foundation Classes C++ library for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Visual C++.
He previously oversaw the development of the Microsoft Office
system of programs, servers and services, responsible for the product development of Microsoft Office 2007
and its new ribbon UI. Prior to that he also oversaw the development of Microsoft Office 2003
, Microsoft Office XP
, and Microsoft Office 2000
.
Sinofsky has been actively involved in recruiting for Microsoft. His particular task was to convince engineers not to move to Google. Sinofsky has blogged in detail about his efforts at Steven Sinofsky's Microsoft TechTalk, about what it's like to be a Microsoft
employee, and what new hires in general most of the time never suspect or know about Microsoft, Bill Gates
, Steve Ballmer
, and Windows.
, Windows 7.
Sinofsky's philosophy on Windows 7 was to not make any promises about the product or even discuss anything about the product until Microsoft was sure that it felt like a quality product. This was a radical departure from Microsoft's typical way of handling in-development versions of Windows, which was to publicly share all plans and details about it early in development cycle. Sinofsky also refrained from labeling versions of Windows "major" or "minor", and to instead just call them releases.
Under Sinofsky's leadership, the Windows Division successfully shipped the successor to Windows Vista
, Windows 7, which received universally positive reception and praise among technology enthusiasts and mainstream users and currently has a rapidly growing user-base of over 450 million. The success of Windows 7 contributed to record-breaking revenue
earnings for Microsoft in 2010.
Sinofsky's successful leadership-style has influenced many other Microsoft divisions to follow his principles and practices on product development.
Sinofsky and Windows executive Jon DeVaan
worked as editors for the Engineering Windows 7 blog.
Sinofsky is currently working on Windows 8 and regularly blogs about the feature set of Windows 8 and the process of developing the new OS in his blog; Building Windows 8.
", as well as Internet Explorer 10
and Windows Live Wave 5, the future successor of Windows Live Wave 4.
of Harvard Business School.
The book discusses Sinofsky's struggle with refocusing the Windows Division after the Vista debacle, and the planning and development of the next major version of Windows that would come after Vista. Sinofsky talks about the focus of making a desirable high-quality product, while making no promises to the public, and shipping and delivering that product on time.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
at Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
since September 2008, responsible for the development and marketing of Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Windows Live
Windows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...
, and Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
.
Education
Sinofsky received his bachelors degree from Cornell UniversityCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
(Arts and Sciences, 1987) and a masters degree in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1989).
Career
In July 1989, Sinofsky joined Microsoft as a software design engineer.In 1994, when the Office Product Unit was formed, Sinofsky joined the team as the director of program management, and led the design of the shared technologies in Microsoft Office 95
Microsoft Office 95
Microsoft Office for Windows 95 was the version of Microsoft Office designed specifically for Windows 95, succeeding Office 4.3. Previously, Microsoft had released Office 4.2 for Windows NT for several architectures, which included 32-bit Word 6.0 for Windows NT and Excel 5.0 for Windows NT ,...
and Microsoft Office 97
Microsoft Office 97
Microsoft Office 97 was a major milestone release of Microsoft Office, which included hundreds of new features and improvements, introduced "Command Bars", a paradigm in which menus and toolbars were made more similar in capability and visual design featured natural language systems and...
. He spent about four years as a software design engineer and project lead in the Development Tools group, where he helped lead the development of the first versions of the Microsoft Foundation Classes C++ library for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Visual C++.
He previously oversaw the development of the Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
system of programs, servers and services, responsible for the product development of Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007 is a Windows version of the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was released to volume license customers on November 30, 2006 and made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007...
and its new ribbon UI. Prior to that he also oversaw the development of Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2003 is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on October 21, 2003, it was the successor to Office XP and the predecessor to Office 2007.- Overview :...
, Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Office XP is a productivity suite written and distributed by Microsoft for their Windows operating system. Released on March 5, 2001, it is the successor to Office 2000 and the predecessor to Office 2003, and was known as Office 10 in the early stages of its development cycle...
, and Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Office 2000 is a release of Microsoft Office that succeeded Microsoft Office 97 and was designed as a fully 32-bit and Y2K compliant version to match Windows 2000 features. All the Office 2000 applications have OLE 2 capacity, which allows moving data automatically between various...
.
Sinofsky has been actively involved in recruiting for Microsoft. His particular task was to convince engineers not to move to Google. Sinofsky has blogged in detail about his efforts at Steven Sinofsky's Microsoft TechTalk, about what it's like to be a Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
employee, and what new hires in general most of the time never suspect or know about Microsoft, Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
, Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer
Steven Anthony "Steve" Ballmer is an American business magnate. He is the chief executive officer of Microsoft, having held that post since January 2000. , his personal wealth is estimated at US$13.9 billion, ranking number 19 on the Forbes 400.-Early life:Ballmer was born in Detroit, Michigan to...
, and Windows.
Sinofsky at the Windows division
Steven Sinofsky became the president of the Windows division in September 2008. His first heavily-involved projects included Windows Live Wave 3 and Internet Explorer 8. Sinofsky also headed the development of the next major version of Windows to come after Windows VistaWindows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, Windows 7.
Sinofsky's philosophy on Windows 7 was to not make any promises about the product or even discuss anything about the product until Microsoft was sure that it felt like a quality product. This was a radical departure from Microsoft's typical way of handling in-development versions of Windows, which was to publicly share all plans and details about it early in development cycle. Sinofsky also refrained from labeling versions of Windows "major" or "minor", and to instead just call them releases.
Under Sinofsky's leadership, the Windows Division successfully shipped the successor to Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, Windows 7, which received universally positive reception and praise among technology enthusiasts and mainstream users and currently has a rapidly growing user-base of over 450 million. The success of Windows 7 contributed to record-breaking revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
earnings for Microsoft in 2010.
Sinofsky's successful leadership-style has influenced many other Microsoft divisions to follow his principles and practices on product development.
Sinofsky and Windows executive Jon DeVaan
Jon DeVaan
Jon DeVaan is currently the senior vice president for Windows Development at Microsoft.He started at Microsoft in 1984 working on application programs for the Macintosh and was an original programmer on Excel 1.0. DeVaan played an important role in defining the engineering practices of Microsoft...
worked as editors for the Engineering Windows 7 blog.
Sinofsky is currently working on Windows 8 and regularly blogs about the feature set of Windows 8 and the process of developing the new OS in his blog; Building Windows 8.
Future work
Sinofsky is currently managing the teams that are working on the successor to Windows 7, codenamed "Windows 8Windows 8
Windows 8 is the codename for the next version of the Microsoft Windows computer operating system following Windows 7. It has many changes from previous versions. In particular it adds support for ARM microprocessors in addition to the previously supported x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD...
", as well as Internet Explorer 10
Internet Explorer 10
Windows Internet Explorer 10 is the next version of Internet Explorer currently being developed by Microsoft, and the successor to Internet Explorer 9. On April 12, 2011, Microsoft released the first "IE10 Platform Preview", which only runs on Windows 7; later platform previews only run on Windows 8...
and Windows Live Wave 5, the future successor of Windows Live Wave 4.
Book
One Strategy: Organization, Planning, and Decision Making, published by John Wiley in November 2009, was co-authored by Sinofsky and Marco IansitiMarco Iansiti
Marco Iansiti is a professor at the Harvard Business School, whose primary research interest is technology and operations strategy and the management of innovation. He is the Director of Research and the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School...
of Harvard Business School.
The book discusses Sinofsky's struggle with refocusing the Windows Division after the Vista debacle, and the planning and development of the next major version of Windows that would come after Vista. Sinofsky talks about the focus of making a desirable high-quality product, while making no promises to the public, and shipping and delivering that product on time.
External links
- Steven Sinofsky: President Windows, and Windows Live division Steven Sinofsky's biography at Microsoft's executive biography page.
- Steven Sinofsky's Microsoft TechTalk - Blog about working at Microsoft.
- Engineering Windows 7 - Blog about features and development methodology of Windows 7.
- One Strategy: Organization, Planning, and Decision Making - John Wiley catalog retrieved 2010-01-24.