Introduction: In order to adapt to the rapidly changing trends in the tech industry, Microsoft is shortening the development cycle of Office by reorganizing departments and adjusting development processes, aiming to provide the best service to users. However, during this process, they must still avoid making enterprise users feel lost due to moving too fast.The following is the full text of the article:For nearly a decade, the operations of Microsoft Office have been very regular, almost as precise as a clock: every two and a half or three years, this 5,000-person R&D team would release a new version of Office on schedule without fail.But now, upgrade cycles of two or three years are considered outdated. Although timely releases are commendable, the speed of upgrades also needs to be accelerated. Moreover, in today's era, the various types of Office clients, servers, and services do not necessarily need to follow exactly the same upgrade cycle.The Microsoft Office team has clearly recognized this reality. It is reported that the team plans to launch OfficeBlue, the first upgrade of Office 2013 with the development code name Gemini, this autumn. If this is true, it will be exactly one year after the release of their latest generation client product, Office 2013. But before that, the Office department also plans to update the subscription-based Office client and server products in June or July, adding some new features.Many users and developers doubt whether Microsoft can successfully implement this ambitious plan. Can such a large team like Office complete these development tasks within such a short time?Microsoft executives said that the company quietly started planning for faster product upgrades and update cycles several months, even years ago. Jeff Teper, Vice President of the Office Server and Services Division at Microsoft, said: We have been preparing for this change in cycle for two years.To implement this change, they have deployed new management, planning, and technical processes.In the past, everyone in the Office team followed the same plan. Teper mentioned that there were three important stages inside Office, then three Office beta versions, before the release of a new product. He pointed out that they have changed the pace. For example, the exact date of the RTM version of Office 2013 (October 11, 2012) was determined two years ago.Now, different teams within the Office team follow different schedules. While the release dates of mutually dependent products like Outlook and Exchange may be related, other teams no longer march in lockstep. For instance, the anti-spam department of Office RT and Exchange does not need to follow exactly the same development plan.Nevertheless, Microsoft has reorganized the Office 365 and service teams so that Exchange Online and SharePoint Online can be co-designed and developed.We now view Exchange, SharePoint, and Yammer as one product. Teper said, which can significantly speed up decision-making.Teper also stated that the Office team plans to release many new features in June or July this year, some of which are Office's own features, while others aim to connect with Windows Azure, Dynamics, and Windows Intune. Although he did not disclose details, in future updates, Yammer might be integrated into SharePoint.Challenge: Not Too Fast, Nor Too SlowOne of the major challenges faced by the Office team and other Microsoft departments in changing the product development cycle is that business users have become accustomed to the original upgrade frequency and have made corresponding procurement and upgrade plans. Therefore, if Microsoft's product teams move too fast, it could confuse users.A part of our challenge lies in the fact that consumers and IT departments cannot digest new technology in the short term. Teper said, which is why people skip certain new products and only upgrade every two or three generations of Office or Exchange.With the help of cloud computing, users can enjoy new features faster. When Microsoft launched Office 365 in June 2011, its web services were still working hard to improve functionality, adding some features that had already been integrated into SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync in 2010. Microsoft sped up somewhat when developing Office 2013, while adding features to both server and cloud services.However, the team plans to first introduce new features to the cloud-based version of Office and Office servers in the future, and then to the local version of Office clients and servers. They also plan to accelerate the update speed of the local software version, but have not yet publicly disclosed a timeline.Teper stated that the public commitment is that Office services will be released before Office servers, and some features may only be available in the service.We need to stay ahead of our customers, not behind them. Cloud computing can provide the best experience for users. Teper added. Microsoft believes that companies that are not ready for shorter upgrade and update cycles, or those unwilling to upgrade frequently, will continue to use the local versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and Office.In fact, the actual implementation of the Office team has been better than what they have promoted. Although the company has not widely publicized it, they have indeed been able to update Office services every quarter, or even every month. Teper said that they hope to keep a low profile to win more time to strengthen their cloud computing development capabilities.Whether it is the local version or the network version, Exchange and SharePoint are now one team. But this does not mean that Microsoft plans to keep the local and network versions of these services synchronized. He mentioned that for most enterprise users, releasing new server software every quarter is neither feasible nor beneficial to businesses. Many enterprise users are even uncertain whether they want Microsoft to include new features in the patches of these products, or just make corrections.So far, the Office team plans to maintain a frequency of at least one Office server patch per year. These patches will contain a small number of new features, or none at all. Cumulative updates for Office servers will also be released every two months and will not contain any new features.Yammer: Updating Once a Quarter Is Not Fast EnoughWhile the Office team is trying hard to avoid alienating enterprise users due to updating too quickly, the Yammer team is exerting influence from another angle, making Office more flexible.When Microsoft acquired enterprise social network provider Yammer in June 2012, the initial plan was to let Yammer operate independently, separated from Office. At the time of acquisition, many people thought we needed to remain independent. But after we began interacting with the Office team, we found that we were both heading towards one product. Adam Pisoni, co-founder and CTO of Yammer, said.We joined Microsoft at a perfect time, and the team's mindset was very open. Pisoni added. The Office team was fully focused on developing the Wave15/Office 2013 product at that time and deeply considering how to accelerate development speed while maintaining scale.Although the Office team plans to update cloud services monthly, the Yammer team believes the pace should be faster. You should speed up for some users. Sometimes, you even need to update weekly. Pisoni said.