Update: Erin Stellato [LinkedIn], program manager extraordinaire,  responded to my off-topic comment (that inspired this post):

Thanks, Erin!

If you would like to suggest or view other suggested changes to a Microsoft product or platform, head over to the page labeled Microsoft Azure | Share your Ideas. I have to warn you to not get your hopes up for a speedy response.

Note: I also manage a few products at Data Integration Lifecycle Suite. I understand feature requests must be prioritized, and that’s part of my job as a product owner and product manager. I sympathize with Microsoft managing the same kinds of issues.

In my opinion, Microsoft delivers fantastic products. Microsoft’s data platforms are the best value when comparing features and cost, hands down. With all this going for their data platforms, I know responses to customer^* requests could be managed differently – and I believe they could be managed better.

Feature Categories

The feature categories are listed by the number of Ideas. The most-requested feature category, by Idea count, is SQL:

The closest category, Azure Active Directory, has about 57% as many Ideas at the time of this writing.

Put Debugger Back Into SSMS 18

The top Idea in the SQL category is “Put Debugger back into SSMS 18“:

The request was submitted four years ago, likely just after the release of SSMS 18. I noticed the omission right away, as I use Debug functionality often when debugging complex database solutions (when the SSIS Catalog was first released years ago, I learned more by Debugging T-SQL scripted from related dialogs than from the documentation).

Put Debugger back into SSMS 18 Details

Click the “Put Debugger back into SSMS 18” Idea to view details:

About one year ago (at the time of this writing), Microsoft added a note. The note contains a suggestion to use the T-SQL debugger included with Visual Studio. Visual Studio and SSMS share some features, and I believe the platforms share some code. If a T-SQL debugger is available in VS, I am curious why it’s not available in SSMS.

Scanning the previous page, one sees lots of notes from Microsoft dated “1 year ago” – some marked Completed, some marked Declined, and some Under Review. It’s good to see Completed items, it gives me hope the most-requested Idea may be addressed at some future date. I’m even glad to see Declined requests – I much prefer feature requests marked as Declined over shifting feedback platforms or marking feature requests “Works as Designed”.

I would think the most popular request would be prioritized, but there may be valid business reasons that it is not. Regardless of the reason(s), I hope the Debug feature is added back into to SSMS soon.

Peace,
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^*Customers procuring less than Enterprise license counts. Again, as a product owner and manager, I understand prioritizing features by the number of requests and relative value to the bottom line. I do the same thing.