Every company has its own unique culture. As the years progress, some of the rituals grow large but the meaning is often lost. This is not much different from any other cultural exchange that exists in the broader scope of human understanding.
Citrix has perhaps one of the more unique rituals involving shipping new products from Engineering. It started around 1992/3 after the initial wave of Citrix development. When Ed Janeczek was working with Bombay Furniture, one of our earliest customers, he was given a brass monkey with a small platter above its head. The monkey is probably about 8 inches (20 cm) high and is holding both sides of the platter. The tail is used to form a sort of tripod to make sure the monkey will not tip over. Bombay was showing their appreciation for the work EdJ had done with them to solve some issues. Bombay is often located in shopping malls in America and sells an assorted collection of housewares with a bit of a exotic and flashy flair. I haven’t been in America much lately so I don’t know if they are still doing well or if they still use Citrix.
Anyways, because of Bombay, EdJ was now the proud owner of a brass monkey best suited to serving small candies. I sat next to EdJ so we sometimes talked about Bombay and the story of the monkey. I remember a few jokes going around about the freezing of the brass monkey.
During one of our releases, as a joke, someone suggested using the brass monkey in our release party. Then someone else joked that we should put our product disks on top of it. Then someone else said we should look into the eyes of the monkey. I remember it being funny and yet everyone decided it was a good idea to stare down the monkey to prove, that as developers, we were not afraid of shipping the product. It was a test of will, with a big sense of humor.
It was suggested that if the monkey tipped over or that someone could not stare into the monkey’s eyes, that it would be bad luck for that release.
Somehow, the monkey ceremony became the standard mechanism to ship products within Citrix. The products were loaded on top of the monkey and everyone got the chance to look into the eyes.
I actually have some pictures of a shipping party in 1996 with the monkey ceremony. Keep in mind that some people in these pictures are still doing work while the ceremony was going on. I couldn’t tell you which product was being shipped but I would guess a version of WinFrame (perhaps 1.6).
It is interesting to note that the monkey ceremony still exists within Citrix. I have even seen the Monkey in Sydney, Australia within the last couple of years.
Here’s to you EdJ!
And thanks to Bombay for giving us one of the most unusual rituals I know of.
Live near Brisbane, Australia. Software developer currently focused on iOS and Android. Avid Google Local Guide
Red Circle Blog 
I took part in a monkey ceremony once when I worked at Citrix! Though not for the project I was working on while on loan to engineering – I didn’t get to go to that monkey ceremony. The story I was told was that the product that shipped right after the monkey was acquired did very well. It was remembered that the master floppies had sat on top of the monkey’s tray for some amount of time, so the monkey must be lucky. Each product shipped thereafter would sit on the monkey’s tray, and the whole staring in the eyes thing evolved later.
It’s nice to hear the real story. 🙂
Thanks for the information about this “monkey business” 🙂
In the past “query citr!x” shows ‘the monkey’ as the magical part of the development team, unfortunately this entry has vanished in Presentation Server. Bad sign? 😉
@jeppe
heh! I remember the monkey! I was at the WinFrame 1.0 monkey ceremony went it went golden. I remember I think 3 pressings were sent, by 3 different carriers, to make sure they got there!
Now, Jeff, I have a rarity inmy posession – one of the original, and few, South Beach beta cd’s, with the colors on the CD reversed! Still got it, and I think it’s still sealed!
I also have one of the champagne bottles from the Winframe 1.0 monkey party, with some signatures from the team!
TonyM
Tony,
If only there was some kind of Citrix fan club! That South Beach beta CD would certainly be worth something then.
I remember about them being paranoid about the couriers not shipping the product. Must be a way to feel more special about the product at the time.
It’s great to have memories of this kind of stuff. I’m glad that you stopped by to share some with me.
It brings to mind the phrase “I remember when…”
[…] There have many Citrix traditions based on celebrating holiday times and new releases. In the early days, Citrix Engineering would celebrate by taking a day off together and go cruising on the Intracoastal waterway on boats owned by some of the Citrix engineers. I can remember doing this twice and it was always a great day out. The monkey ceremony was another form of celebration that would usually happen right next to where we were working. […]
[…] photo of Scott Kinnear holding that famous monkey (is that the keg he’s standing next to?) Read more about this ceremony on Jeff Muir’s blog. Hope you like that story. Needless to say, working at CITRIX was a […]