The March, 1983 meeting saw Autodesk rapidly evolving toward an operating company focused on the development and promotion of its hit product, AutoCAD. No regular minutes from the meeting exist--only Dan Drake's notes on what people agreed to do. Those tasks speak eloquently to the direction of the company.The attached ``Software Control Policies'' was the first attempt to come to terms with the reality of quality control and effective product management of what was rapidly becoming a mass market product.
by Dan Drake
1983 March 8
We've found several times that people come away from monthly general meetings with different ideas of who has volunteered to do what. We can't afford to discover these disagreements a month later at the next meeting; and the minutes, even if they come out on time, don't cover these matters conspicuously if at all.
This is an attempt to list all the little tasks that were allocated at the last meeting. It doesn't claim to be definitive, but it gives you something to disagree with, preferably to the relevant project manager, if you find yourself listed for the wrong task.