SDTimes asks why MS is so reliably late with software deliveries:

“Integration, integration, integration,” said Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst at New York City-based Jupiter Research. With Visual Studio 2005, the database, development tools, operating system and enterprise servers are more integrated than ever before, and that creates cross-dependencies. “If SQL Server slips, Team System slips,” added Tom Murphy, vice president of integration and development at research firm Gartner, referring to the life-cycle development edition of Visual Studio 2005. “When you architect systems that are interdependent, there are advantages. But that also makes them difficult to change.”

Here's a phrase MS could add to their development methodology handbook: "Loose Coupling"