'Dogfooding' determines the fate of new Microsoft products

Seattle Times | at | by Mike

Running the computer network at a big business is a hard job. It's even harder if your company is the most scrutinized technology business in the world. But it really gets rolling when you're expected to run test versions of software that don't have all their bugs worked out - "eating your own dogfood," in Microsoft parlance.

That's the job of Rick Devenuti, vice president and chief information officer. Devenuti, 45, grew up in Federal Way, the son of a Boeing engineer. He worked his way through the University of Washington selling jewelry at Friedlander's in Southcenter in the evenings and on weekends.