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Microsoft builds testing software

by on18 April 2008

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Hopes to save cash with Microsoft Experimentation Platform


Microsoft
is developing software which uses Windows Live to test software on users.

According to ZDNet the software could speed up the process of software development which is currently hampered by complicated test procedures. Dubbed the Microsoft Experimentation Platform (ExP) the software enables  testing new ideas quickly using the best-known scientific method for establishing causality between a feature and its effects.

The big idea is to use controlled experiments is to expose a percentage of users to a new treatment, measure the effect on metrics of interest, and run statistical tests to determine whether the differences are statistically significant, thus establishing causality.

The brains behind the idea is Ronny Kohavi, who joined Microsoft in 2005 from Amazon.com where he was the Director of Data Mining and Personalization. He told ZDNet that Microsoft lacked the tools to run live experiments and make data-driven decisions based on user actions.

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Last modified on 18 April 2008
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