Acknowledgments

The WF project began in earnest about three years ago. A small team of engineers felt strongly that there was substantial promise in a few novel ideas about how to change the way programs are built. Our first trial by fire was proving to the Microsoft Office team that our brand-new technology was the right foundation for their planned workflow features. Things accelerated with that success, and we are proud that the first public release of WF will be a part of the .NET Framework 3.0 released with Microsoft Windows Vista (WF also underlies the workflow features in Microsoft Office 2007). Many people helped improve the design of WF as it underwent revision and refinement along the way to its public release. It is impossible to thank everyone who contributed, but we are grateful to them all for their efforts.

Our reviewers did a great job telling us what made sense and what did not, and pointing out errors and omissions in drafts of the various chapters. Angel Azcarraga, Don Box, Krzysztof Cwalina, Joe Duffy, Omri Gazitt, Ian Griffiths, Mark Michaelis, Dennis Pilarinos, Jeffrey Richter, Andrei Romanenko, Akash Sagar, Chris Sells, Clemens Szyperski, Nate Talbert, and Eric Zinda deserve credit for making this book better, through their feedback and advice, than it otherwise would have been. Ian provided especially pointed and insightful comments. Aditya Bhandarkar provided exceptional help on the design-time sections. Don not only provided constructive suggestions, but was also generous enough to write the Foreword.

Writing this book in those precious hours outside of our day jobs has been a challenge. We would like to thank Karen Gettman and Curt Johnson at Addison-Wesley, and all the publishing professionals there who patiently assisted us along the way, and who in the end realized our words as actual printed pages and helped bring those pages to you.

Mistakes that remain are ours.

I consider myself fortunate to have been deeply involved with WF since its birth. WF was by far the most intense and fun project I have worked on at Microsoft. Writing this book, for me, was indeed a continuation of building the technology. Now that the book is done, I can finally rest.

Over the years, Don Box has been a constant source of inspiration for me. I will always remain indebted to Don for encouraging me to write this book. Don was kind enough to spend time with me and help me discover and shape the story I wanted to tell. Thanks, Don.

Bob Schmidt and I shared a common vision for the type of book we wanted to write. It has been a great pleasure to work with Bobfirst while building the technology, and later during the writing of this book. Thanks, Bob, for making the journey enjoyable.

Thanks go out to the Code Ninjas for making the impossible, possible.

I will always be grateful to Abhay Parasnis for creating a unique environment that not only fostered deep technical innovation, but enabled shipping brand-new technology in an incredibly short period of time. Being wired to do my best work in startup environments, I will always carry fond memories of the WinOE days.

I am immensely grateful to my parents for their unreasonable sacrifices, and to Pushpa for her unwavering support.

I would like to thank my wife, Bina, for always being there for me, and our daughter, Anya, for being wonderfulyou both make everything worthwhile.

Dharma Shukla

July 2006

I joined the WF team as its first program manager, convinced there was an opportunity to change the way programs are built. I have since had the good fortune of contributing my ideas and energy to the development of this new technology. The opportunity to also write a book about WF, and the ideas that sparked and sustained my enthusiasm, has been especially rewarding.

I will always be grateful to Dharma Shukla for asking me to co-author this book with him. His insights, his passion, and his relentless pursuit of clarity always make our discussions invigorating. His vision gave this book its élan.

I am thankful that Don Box lent us his support, his guidance, and his sharp editing eye. His knack for zeroing in on the essence of incipient ideas helped focus my efforts.

Abhay Parasnis deserves kudos not only as the driving force behind the WF project, but also as an exemplary role model whose leadership inspired me in ways he could not know.

I give heartfelt thanks to my wife, Elaine, for her steadfast support and quiet sacrifices. I pledge summers full of ice cream and baseball to our boys, Thomas and Andrew, for patiently respecting my frequent book-writing sessions and also for knowing when to barge into my office for some fun. As they always have, my parents provided me with invaluable support, not least their example of how a devoted team can do great things.

Bob Schmidt

July 2006