xterm I just ran across this fantastic post by an MS Senior Engineer. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2003/10/28/53298.aspx It's short, give it a read.
saeidw That was good read. They do quite a lot of testing to get one feature out. That's a good thing quality-wise, it adds value to the software. Although, I can see how that might slow things down when they need to issue an actual bug fix. It has to pass through all these channels (and it might get sent back a few times if it doesn't meet the standards) before it reaches the customer.