Recently, two leaders on the Microsoft patterns & practices team sought a community-oriented approach to developing and delivering software.

Enter CodePlex, a site developed by Microsoft’s Jim Newkirk in conjunction with Ascentium. Built on top of SQL Server and Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server, CodePlex takes full advantage of AJAX to provide a highly interactive experience. Users can start a new project, join an existing one, or download software created by the development community.

Formally launched in June 2006 and featuring wiki pages, source control, and issue tracking, CodePlex is now the official open source project hosting site for Microsoft. And this initial feature set continues to grow. The site holds to an agile development schedule that produces a new release every three weeks. CodePlex users provide direct input to identify and prioritize updates of features.

And Ascentium’s user experience research plays an increasingly significant role to ensure that the site meets the specific—and often challenging—needs of the development community. Methodologies such as deep user interviews with users around the globe, feature prioritization, persona and user-based design evaluation, usability testing, and analytics are now integral parts of the agile development process.

Featuring thousands of users and contributors across more than 3,000 projects as of late 2007, CodePlex continues to thrive.

See all success stories