In a new 25 page filing to the US District Court of Columbia, the DOJ expressed its dissatisfaction with Microsoft’s progress concerning the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP) aimed at improving technical documentation provided to licensees. However, it noted improvements since Microsoft has appointed one of its most senior engineers to head the project, Robert Muglia, senior vice president for Microsoft’s server and tools business.

In its filing the DOJ stated: “Microsoft has informed the Plaintiffs that Robert Muglia, Senior Vice President for Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business, has been assigned direct responsibility for managing the project to rewrite the technical documentation. Microsoft has further agreed that Mr. Muglia will continue in this capacity until the project is completed, and will be available to the Court to report on the effort at status conferences. Plaintiffs consider it very important that this project have the continuing attention of Mr. Muglia, who is an experienced, senior level engineer.

“Accordingly, with Microsoft’s consent, the Plaintiffs intend to submit a proposed Order
embodying this commitment. The proposed Order would direct Microsoft to maintain Mr
Muglia as the engineer responsible for the technical documentation rewrite project until further order of the Court or until the project is completed. The proposed Order would also require Microsoft to make Mr. Muglia available to update the Court on the project at Status Conferences and as otherwise needed.”

The slow rate of progress of Microsoft’s documentation rewrite project may mean that Mr Muglia has an in effect court ordered tenure as head of the project at Microsoft until at least 2009 and possibly until 2012.

Mr Muglia headed an investigation at Microsoft into its documentation for third party licensees, which concluded that a broad rewrite of large portions was necessary rather than trying to fix the growing bag of hundreds of individual complaints one by one. His assessment obviously impressed the DOJ, which wrote in its submission:

“Plaintiffs, after consulting with the TC (technical committee) and Craig Hunt, the California Group’s technical expert, were impressed by Mr. Muglia’s analysis of the current predicament and share his view that a rewrite of the documentation may well prove more successful in resolving Plaintiffs’ concerns with the documentation than the current approach.”

The DOJ went on to say that it believed that a substantial documentation rewrite warranted at least a two year extension of its final judgment and possibly up to five years.

“Even under the most optimistic scenario the proposed rewrite of the technical documentation will take a substantial period of time to complete. In light of the protracted delays in resolving Plaintiffs’ concerns with the technical documentation, Plaintiffs are convinced that it is necessary to extend the term of the Final Judgments as they relate to communications protocol licensing. Microsoft has agreed to consent to a two-year extension of this part of the Final Judgments, which is of course subject to the Court’s approval.7 Microsoft has also agreed that Plaintiffs may, in their sole discretion, apply to the Court in Fall 2009 for an additional extension of all or part of the extended provisions of the Final Judgments for a period of up to three additional years (that is, potentially through November 11, 2012), and that Microsoft will not oppose such an extension.”

The DOJ gave an indication of the enormity of the task facing Microsoft by outlining the size of the team devoted to the documentation rewrite project.

"Altogether, more than 210 Microsoft employees and contingent staff are involved in work on the technical documentation. Of these, more than 150 product team engineers and program managers are actively involved in the creation and review of the technical content of the documentation. In addition, there are 26 full-time employees and 29 contingent staff working as technical writers, editors, and production technicians.There are also more than 20 other technical architects, managers and other employees from the Windows product development organization and the Competitive and Regulatory Affairs team who devote a substantial amount of time and effort to the technical documentation and the MCPP in general.

"Significant attention and involvement in the technical documentation and the MCPP extend through all levels of the Microsoft organization and draw upon the resources of numerous product engineering, business, technical, and legal groups, as well as company management." {moscomment}

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