NCompass Labs / Microsoft Corp.

 

Co-op Work Report

Rainier Project

Name:

Nick Bilogorskiy

School:

SFU

Department:

Computing Science

Work Term:

2

Semester:

Summer 2001

Permission to view:

Yes

Introduction

As this was my second straight Co-op term with the company I was already familiar with the product and the team. However, just as the term started both the product and the team had changed as Microsoft Corporation acquired NCompass Labs Inc. The product had to be re-branded and re-released as Microsoft .NET Server family member.
Goodbye Resolution… Hello Microsoft Content Management Server.
The team was changing as well as some people refused to relocate to Redmond, Washington. As key people in different areas of the product left the company it was a challenge to manage human resources to deliver the re-branded product on schedule, and I have to say our managers did a great job.

The project I worked mostly on this Co-op term was called Rainier. The goals for the project were:

·         Microsoft re-branding

·         Scalability and performance improvement

·         Security flaws elimination

The result of this project was Microsoft Content Management Server 2001, evaluation version available to download at http://microsoft.com/cmserver and enterprise version to be shipped in the September 2001.

My Projects

There are 3 sub-projects I’ve completed within Rainier project.

First, I worked on the Server and Content Connector installation re-branding. Particularly, I worked on integrating Microsoft Licensing and Product Key technologies into our installation, adding a check for NTFS file system, and reorganizing Content Connector installation program.

This was a challenge as I had to pick up a new language – InstallScript and learn a new development environment – InstallShield Windows Installer edition from scratch in short period of time. It was also a lot of responsibility as towards the end of the term I was the only installation developer left as entire installation team left the company so I didn’t have anyone to rely on.

My second task sounded like a simple one. I had to replace all instances of Ncompas with Microsoft, Resolution with MSCMS, etc in WBC. It turned out that it’s easier said than done, because

1.       WBC is a huge ASP application, consisting of 444 files in 105 folders.

2.      It couldn’t have been done with a “Search and Replace” editor function, as some occurrences of NCompass and Resolution were variable names, include filenames, and so on, thus requiring a logic change.


Overall Experience

I never had so many managers in my entire life.
At different times throughout the term I reported to:

·         Scott (Installation Team Manager),

·         James (Applications Team Manager),

·         Mike (Project Manager),

·         Kai (Director of Development),

·         Claudia (Director of Quality)

·         Mohammad (Quality Control Manager)

·         Doug (VP of Development)

·         And sometimes… to all of them at once!

My objectives for this work term were (in this order):

1.       Gain knowledge and learn new technologies.

2.       Make new friends and make a good impression.

They were both achieved completely.