After more than 23 years at Microsoft, I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time for me to take a break. Starting March 12th 2018, I\u2019ll be taking a leave of absence for a year. Deciding to do this has been one of the most gut-wrenching decisions of my life. As someone who has largely defined myself by the work I\u2019ve done, it\u2019s incredibly hard to imagine life without going to work and working 10 hours every day. But, after a few years of debate with my wife, we\u2019ve decided that it\u2019s time to take a break and dedicate more time to home and family for a while.<\/p>\n
I have no fear of having nothing to do. I have learned over the past 10 years that a farm is an endless source of work. I have a farm backlog so long I\u2019m not sure I will be able to finish half of it in a year (and yes, I use VSTS to manage it). It feels like an infinitely long list. While farming will likely be the lion\u2019s share of my time investment while I\u2019m away, I\u2019m planning a bunch of other things too. We\u2019re going to do some traveling that we\u2019ve never gotten around to. I\u2019m looking forward to that. There are also some \u201chobbies\u201d that I\u2019d like to spend some more time on. I haven\u2019t had much time in a while for woodworking and I\u2019m looking forward to getting some more time for that \u2013 particularly lathe work. I\u2019ve also, recently, picked up baking (the Great British Baking Show was the clincher for me) and I\u2019ve really been enjoying it. As usual, I suspect my eyes are bigger than my stomach and I\u2019ll never get to everything I imagine I\u2019d like to do, but I can dream, right?<\/p>\n
Taking a year off, of course, means that I will no longer be leading the TFS\/VSTS team. That\u2019s a very hard decision for me to make. I started the team about 15 years ago and have grown it from 2 people working in a \u201cspare room\u201d to almost 800 people spread across the globe. I\u2019m incredibly proud of what we\u2019ve built and very fond of the team I\u2019ve had the privilege to work with. Stepping away from both is a big decision. It\u2019s reassuring to me that we\u2019ve built a very strong and talented team. I know the product is in good hands and it will keep getting better.<\/p>\n
Nat Friedman (of Xamarin fame) will be assuming the leadership role for TFS\/VSTS. I\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with Nat over the past couple of years (since the Xamarin acquisition) and I\u2019ve always been incredibly impressed with him. I really admire the principled way that he works and the great culture that he builds. He\u2019s a very clear thinker and an excellent communicator. He understands development and developers deeply. I\u2019m confident that Nat is going to do an excellent job leading the team and continuing to advance the product. Please join me in welcoming Nat.<\/p>\n
My 23 years at Microsoft have been some of the best of my life. I simply can\u2019t express enough how grateful I am for the opportunities I\u2019ve been given. I know there are those who don\u2019t always think incredibly fondly of Microsoft. Although I can\u2019t say that I agree with everything we\u2019ve ever done, I can say, I have worked with a tremendous number of people across Microsoft and they are terrific people who want nothing more than to create great products and make customers happy. I wish everyone could see Microsoft the way I see it. I am proud to have been a small part of what we have become. It is a great place to work and a great place to do good work. I think things have gotten even better in the past few years with some of the cultural and strategic changes that Satya has brought. I\u2019m looking forward to coming back to Microsoft and finding a new challenge in a year.<\/p>\n
My expectation is that I\u2019ll be fully stepping away for a year \u2013 meaning, among other things, that I will discontinue posting to this blog. I have really enjoyed sharing my thoughts over the years and engaging in vigorous debate. Through my blog, I have attempted to put a humble and understanding face on Microsoft. I\u2019ve tried to provide my perspective on some of the things we do and why I think they make sense, while acknowledging when they don\u2019t. I\u2019ve also tried to be an available ear for problems and to help get them routed to someone at Microsoft who can resolve them \u2013 no matter how big or small. There are countless good leaders at Microsoft who will, no doubt, continue to do that.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no good time to leave a team and a product you love. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I have to say that I\u2019m incredibly excited about the future of TFS and VSTS. We\u2019ve made a lot of progress over the last year or two and the next year is going to be one of the most exciting yet. We\u2019ve been hard at work on some really cool investments\u00a0 that I think are going to significantly improve the experience. It\u2019s disappointing to not be able to see those changes through to the end but I know Nat and the team will do a great job carrying forward. I encourage you to keep and eye out for great news in the coming months. The best way to continue to track the latest and greatest on TFS and VSTS is the DevOps blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n For those of you who have been with me on this journey, thank you. I\u2019ve enjoyed it and I hope you have too. Good luck over the next year and I hope our paths cross again. I think I will create a personal blog somewhere to, at least, continue to share thoughts and stories on farming and whatever else crosses my mind. Once I get that sorted out, I\u2019ll post a link to it on this blog.<\/p>\n Thank you very much,\nBrian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After more than 23 years at Microsoft, I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time for me to take a break. Starting March 12th 2018, I\u2019ll be taking a leave of absence for a year. Deciding to do this has been one of the most gut-wrenching decisions of my life. As someone who has largely defined myself by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":14617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-13945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-personal"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" After more than 23 years at Microsoft, I\u2019ve decided it\u2019s time for me to take a break. Starting March 12th 2018, I\u2019ll be taking a leave of absence for a year. Deciding to do this has been one of the most gut-wrenching decisions of my life. As someone who has largely defined myself by the […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/bharry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}