Ever heard about the MS Product Line Architecture (PLA) on Lync2013?

Microsoft has launched an excellent (improving) consulting program for their Lync2013 technologies. I personnally believe that this an excellent idea, for several reasons.

1. Lync2013 is an excellent, but complex, product suite. You need to know how to architect it properly if you want to take full advantage of the existing features (non mentioning the security issues; advanced features on video; advanced capabilities on federating services [means in human langage that you integrate devices that are not on your network] etc.);

2. Microsoft shows with that kind of approach that, even being a mature and dominant software house, they can learn and improve with listening to their users (or early adopters). This is, of course, a smart commercial tactic, but it doesn't really matter. If you want to deploy Lync2013, it implies that you made already your philosophical choices. Only the final results matter - a good, strong, cost effective project that brings value for money;

3. Continuous project management improvement / post implementation debriefs will structure and improve our project management discipline. Which makes, at the end of the day, that we, as consumers, are wining time and money. Have a look at the PLA blog: PLA Blog

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