dogfooding

[Victor Steinbok]

I spotted this one in news preview and, if it indeed originated with
Microsoft, perhaps someone's already mentioned it. My apologies if this
is a replication.

http://goo.gl/8NBBf
> Google has started the dogfooding process of testing the Android 4.0
> "Ice Cream Sandwich" update for the Nexus S, according to one of
> Google employees Adel Saoud. Dogfooding is a practice of having
> company employees use products before releasing them to the public
> ("eat your own dog food" in this sense apparently originated in
> Microsoft back in 1988), thus weeding out bugs while the products are
> still revolving in a relatively contained environment.

UD has it: "In a nutshell, dogfooding means "using your own product". A
product which is being dogfooded tends to be a lot more polished."

Wiki [Eating Your Own Dog Food] is much more elaborate on this

> Eating your own dog food, also called dogfooding, is when a company
> (usually, a software company) uses the products that it makes.[1] In
> 1988, Microsoft manager Paul Maritz sent Brian Valentine, test manager
> for Microsoft LAN Manager, an email titled "Eating our own Dogfood",
> challenging him to increase internal usage of the company's product.
> From there, the usage of the term spread through the company.[2][3]
> Dogfooding can be a way for a company to demonstrate confidence in its
> own products, and hence a kind of testimonial advertising.[4] For
> example, Microsoft and Google emphasize the internal use of their own
> software products.

And here are the first 6 references [all with links but some are dead
and others are behind paywalls]:
> 1. Miguel Helft (December 12, 2009). "Google Appears Closer to
> Releasing Its Own Phone". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-12-12. "On
> Saturday morning, Google confirmed that it was testing a new concept
> in mobile phones, writing in a blog post that it was 'dogfooding' the
> devices, an expression that comes from the idea that companies should
> eat their own dog food, or use their own products."
> 2. Inside Out: Microsoft—In Our Own Words (ISBN 0446527394)
> 3. Brodkin, John (4 September 2009). "VMworld 2009: Virtualization,
> controversy and eating your own dog food". Network World. Retrieved 17
> May 2010. Quote: "[Paul] Maritz also poked fun at himself by claiming
> that one of his only contributions to the IT world is coining the
> commonly used "eat your own dog food" phrase. "You can read about it
> on Wikipedia, so it must be true," Maritz said.
> 4. "Microsoft tests its own 'dog food'". Retrieved 2009-11-14.[dead link]
> 5. Dvorak, John C. (15 November 2007). "The Problem with Eating Your
> Own Dog Food". PC Magazine. Retrieved 17 May 2010.. Developer World.
> InfoWorld. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
> 6. Yager, Tom (30 May 2003). "If it's good enough for Fido … Vendors
> need to follow Microsoft's playbook"

But it's also been spotted on ADS-L (the quoted post is by BAP
http://goo.gl/dDsTe ):

http://goo.gl/lB4Bl
Subject: Re: "There's a saying..."
"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
Tue, 21 Sep 2004 21:44:07 EDT
> > Re: The Data Quality Act
> > ... No, Windows' GUI was probably written in VB, not least because
> > internally at Microsoft there's a saying that developers should "eat
> their
> > own dog food ...
> > comp.programming - Jul 19, 2002 by Edward G. Nilges
>
> I believe "eat their own dog food" was discussed in ADS-L some time
> ago (it is in Fred Shapiro's collection of comptuer quotes). The
> Windows GUI dates back to an IBM-Microsoft collaboration that began
> int he mid-80's and therefore long antedates VB (Visual Basic).

Note, however, that this is "eating your own dog food", not
"dogfooding". If I missed "dogfooding", it's because the ADS-L search
engine can't find it.

VS-)

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