Microsoft presents the development team of Windows 8

In a blog post Building 8, Steven Sinofsky has presented the composition of the development team of Windows 8.. There are 35 feature teams, and each includes 25-40 developers, testers and program managers as well.

We organize the work of Windows into “feature teams,” groups of developers who own a combination of architectural elements and scenarios across Windows.  We have about 35 feature teams in the Windows 8 organization.  Each feature team has anywhere from 25-40 developers, plus test and program management, all working together. Our teams are all focused on building a global product, and so some of our teams are located outside the US and are also delivering globally. –Steven Sinofsky

These are the following Windows 8 Teams:

• App Compatibility and Device Compatibility
• App Store
• Applications and Media Experience
• App Experience
• Core Experience Evolved
• Device Connectivity
• Devices & Networking Experience
• Ecosystem Fundamentals
• Engineer Desktop
• Engineering System
• Enterprise Networking
• Global Experience
• Graphics Platform
• Hardware Developer Experience
• Human Interaction Platform
• Hyper-V
• In Control of Your PC
• Kernel Platform
• Licensing and Deployment
• Media Platform
• Networking Core
• Performance
• Presentation and Composition
• Reliability, Security, and Privacy
• Runtime Experience
• Search, View, and Command
• Security & Identity
• Storage & Files Systems
• Sustained Engineering
• Telemetry
• User-Centered Experience
• Windows Online
• Windows Update
• Wireless and Networking services
• XAML

The number of teams is significantly increased compared to Windows 7, from 23 to 35.

It is interesting to note the presence of an App Store team, which then reveals the central role of this feature in the next system of Microsoft.

There is also a group called the XAML (the language used to build interfaces in Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation), so presumably it will be possible to create immersive applications without being limited to HTM5.

There is also the Hyper-V team, but we do not know if this virtualization tool will also be present in builds consumer, or only on servers.

It is very reassuring that there is also a team “In Control Of Your PC”, in which Microsoft will try to get rid of bloated pre-installed software by PC manufacturers, unwanted toolbars and programs from starting automatically without prompting you.