Grigori Melnik: Thoughts on Agile Software Engineering and Beyond : new release

Unity 2.0 container update

gmelnik — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:18:56 GMT

Our latest work on Unity 2.0 is available on Codeplex (see change set 28516). This is the first work we’ve done on Unity as part of the EntLib5.0 effort.

Major changes in this drop include:

ObjectBuilder2 DLL is now gone. The code is now completely contained in the Unity assembly, and you won't need to reference OB2 anymore in your projects using Unity. Over time the ObjectBuilder stuff is going to lose a lot of it's generality and be just the underpinnings for the container.
We're taking a first cut at fixing our exception messages. All the extra BuildFailedException’s that ended up in the inner exception tree are now GONE. Instead, you get a top level ResolutionFailedException, and the InnerException is the actual exception that caused resolution to fail. And the exception message has been reformatted significantly to hopefully get a better description of what the container was doing, and how it ended up where it did, when the error occurred. This is in response to user feedback to provide better error messaging in Unity. We consider this to be a significant improvement, but still need your feedback. In particular, we look forward to specific suggestions about how we could change the messages to be even more descriptive and intuitive. Please reply to this post or via Codeplex discussion thread.
Silverlight projects are now updated to Silverlight 3.

Acceptance Test Engineering Guide, volume 1 BETA2 release

gmelnik — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:30:00 GMT

Today I am pleased to announce the release of the beta2 of the first volume of our Acceptance Test Engineering Guide. We are getting closer to “done”.

As it became apparent that the primary reader personas for each part in the original guide (that was released as beta1) were different and the size of the guide was approaching 800 pages, we decided to split it into 3 volumes. It allows us to ship Volume I sooner while finishing Volume II and III. Incremental delivery for the win!

Based on the first round of reviews, Volume I has undergone some serious rewriting (especially, the Gating model, which is now called the Acceptance Process Model) and the entire new chapters were added (Part II – Perspectives on Acceptance).

Here’s the current structure of the guide:

Volume I provides an overview of the acceptance process and how acceptance testing and other key practices fit into the process. This volume is intended to be read from beginning to end. It is subdivided into three main parts:

Part I – Thinking about Acceptance explains six mental models that are useful when thinking about the acceptance process.

Chapter 1 The Acceptance Process
Chapter 2 Decision-Making Model
Chapter 3 Project Context Model
Chapter 4 System Requirements Model
Chapter 5 Risk Model
Chapter 6 Doneness Model

Part II – Perspectives on Acceptance describes the acceptance process from the perspectives of key stakeholders in two different kinds of organizations: the Information Technology Department in a business and the Product Development Company. Most readers involved in the acceptance process should find some commonality with at least one of the roles describes.

Chapter 7 Business Lead’s Perspective
Chapter 8 Product Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 9 Test Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 10 Development Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 11 User Experience Specialist’s Perspective
Chapter 12 Operations Manager’s Perspective
Chapter 13 Solution Architect’s Perspective
Chapter 14 Enterprise Architect’s Perspective
Chapter 15 Legal Perspective

Part III – Accepting Software introduces the practices that are necessary for planning the acceptance process, for performing acceptance testing and for improving the acceptance process.

Chapter 16 Planning for Acceptance
Chapter 17 Assessing Software
Chapter 18 Managing the Acceptance Process
Chapter 19 Streamlining the Acceptance Process

Volume II is a collection of what we call thumbnails that describe the practices introduced in Volume I in more detail. A thumbnail is a short overview of a practice that explains what it is, when you may want to use it, the risks that it mitigates, and an overview of how to perform the practice. Thumbnails also include a list of references to papers, books, and other resources that provide more complete descriptions of the practices in question. The main purpose of a thumbnail is to describe a topic well enough to provide an overview, serve as a mental reminder for someone who has used the practice on how to do it, and give someone unfamiliar with the practice enough information about the practice and its applicability to determine if they want to learn more about it. Some of these topics and practices have entire books written about them that describe the concepts in greater detail and depth than this guide could possibly do. Volume II is intended to be used as a reference; most readers will not read it from beginning to end.

Volume III. This volume is a collection of sample artifacts generated by applying different practices in a fictional but realistic situation for the fictional company Global Bank. These artifacts are embedded in a series of case studies of what the Global Bank team may have produced while building the application. The case studies provide some context to the individual artifacts. They also provide cross-references to the practices described in Volume II. The artifacts are intended to be used as way to learn more about how to perform a practice; they can also be used as templates for your own artifacts.

As always, we look forward to your feedback! Feel free to submit it through the Codeplex site (Issue Tracker or Discussion Forum) or simply email it to me.

EntLibContrib – May 2009 Release and future plans

gmelnik — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:02:59 GMT

Two of our community champions François Tanguay and Stephen Phillips just pushed out a new release of EntLibContrib. This is the final round-up of all of the user contributions built around the Enterprise Library v3.1 core. They are now working on the upgrade to the EntLib v4.1 core.

The latest release of EntLibContrib contains the following functionality:

Common Block extensions
- TypeConfigurationElement<T>, AnonymousConfigurationElement
Data Access Application Block extensions
- MySql, SQLite and SqlEx providers
Exception Handling Application Block extensions
- SqlException Wrap Handler
Logging Application Block extensions
- LogParser, TimeStampParser
Policy Injection Application Block extensions
- PostSharp4EntLib
- New matching rules: And, Or and Not
- New call handlers: CursorCallHandler, OneWayCallHandler, SynchronizedCallHandler, ThreadSafeCallHandler, TransactionScopeCallHandler
Resource Application Block 3.1
- Configurable providers for Globalization and Localization
- Full application block complete with support for the console, instrumentation and group policies
Validation Application Block extensions
- New validators: CollectionCountValidator, CompositeRulesetValidator, TypeValidator<T>, ObjectValidator<T>, EnumDefinedValidator
- Designtime enhancements: Lightweight type picker, Test command
- Other extensions: Default validators, Argument Validation, ExternallyConfigurableObjectValidator

The Enterprise Library Contribution Project is to be revamped and upgraded to work from the Entlib v4.1 core - This will also include VS2008 solutions and projects and be built using .NET framework v3.5 SP1. To start the ball rolling the Resource Application Block has been upgraded to v4.1 and a new Query Application Block v4.1 has been added to provide the next level of integration for data storage. With the DAAB you got separation from the Database vendor with QAB you get separation from the data storage type with providers for the DAAB, Xml files and Web Services.

Other separate releases hosted on the EntLibContrib site are:

Standalone Validation Application Block 1.2: adds deep WPF automatic object validating data-binding via a new ValidationBinding markup extension.
Extended SQL Data Access Block 3.1.1: Now integrated into the main EntLibContrib release.

Other contributions in the source code but not in the latest release:

Query Application Block 4.1 New - Next level of integration up from the DAAB providing a common interface for data stored in a DB, XML file or Web/WCF service
Resource Application Block 4.1 New - Upgraded to include Unity integration and to work with EntLib4.1 core and VS2008
The Application Block Software Factory (needs GAX)
The Strong-Naming Guidance Package (needs GAX)

Kudos to Stephen and François! Great job, community! It’s good to see passion around improving and extending the EntLib. I would like to acknowledge the following contributions and contributors in particular:

MySQL Data provider = Wesley Hobbie
SQLite Data Provider = Kenneth Scott
Extended SQL Data Provider = Chris Dufour
SQL Exception Wrap Handler = Tom Hollander
LogParser = Alois Kraus, Randy E. and Mark Seemann
PostSharp4EntLib = Gael Fraiteur
Policy Injection Extensions = Olaf Conijn and François Tanguay
Resource Application Block = Steve Phillips
Validation Application Block extensions = Tom Hollander, Olaf Conijn, Martin Lapierre, Martin Bennedik and François Tanguay
Standalone VAB = Daniel Cazzulino
Common Extensions = Francois Tanguay

Look forward to the next EntLibContrib release!

Enterprise Library 5.0 – tentative product backlog published, story/feature prioritization is open – your participation is invited!

gmelnik — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:01:00 GMT

EntLib Community!

First of all, let me thank all of those who actively took part in providing their ideas and suggestions for the next version of EntLib. There are over 50 comments posted to my original invite and a similar number of emails, all of which have been reviewed by the EntLib team. In addition, we have analyzed the results of the EntLib satisfaction survey, examined discussions and issues posted on the EntLib community site and conducted extensive consultations with the members of our Advisory Board.

The list included over 100 items, most of which are exposed now. If we missed anything important there is still room for you to add some suggestions of your own.

We have also done “T-shirt sizing” of the stories – a rough, relative estimation of the effort involved in delivering a given story.

At this point, we would like to invite you to select and prioritize candidate features/stories you care about. Please review them carefully along with the associated effort estimates and cast your votes. Do remember to stay within the budget (100 points). Here’s the link to the online survey.

NOTE: Due to the limitation of the surveying tool that doesn’t permit ranking matrices wider than 10, I had to flatten the survey that resulted in the 2nd page being rather long. It does NOT require you to answer all 20 questions though. You can vote for as few as top 5 and then move to the next page and vote for Integration Packs. Also note, that the backlog with the codes is posted on a separate page (see the link in the survey) and you can open it in a separate window, screen or print for referencing. Alternatively, simply review the backlog and take notes of the features you care about and then simply select them as your priorities.

We will analyze the results and produce the prioritized backlog defining what the team will focus on in the next several months. We will share the results of the prioritization exercise with the community.

Just Released – Hands-on Labs for Enterprise Library 4.1 and Unity 1.2

gmelnik — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:38:00 GMT

I know it’s easy to get lost in the plethora of announcements and buzz from MIX’09, but today we are releasing a set of hands-on labs for all the application blocks in Enterprise Library. We believe that this valuable release will not go unnoticed by the community of devoted EntLib users and want to take this opportunity to highlight it for new users as well. After all, the labs are meant to help you get up to speed with EntLib.

This release includes a refresh of the labs for the following blocks:

- Caching Application Block

- Cryptography Application Block

- Data Access Application Block

- Exception Handling Application Block

- Logging Application Block

- Security Application Block

There are also two entirely new hands-on labs covering Interception and Dependency Injection with Unity. The Validation Block hands-on lab was released back in December and the overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve received on it encouraged the team to produce the rest.

You can download the entire set in both C# and Visual Basic .NET: Hands-on Labs for Enterprise Library 4.1
If you prefer to download the Unity lab as a standalone, it’s also available: Hands-on Labs for the Unity Application Block 1.2

You can do them in any order. They will guide you through common scenarios of using EntLib in various application contexts. Some labs go into advanced topics and you may want do them a couple of times. Also, don’t be shy about improvising and departing from the scenarios written in the lab instructions.

The labs may also be of value to trainers and academics, since they can be used as teaching aids in the classes devoted to Enterprise Library specifically or in courses on Component-Based Software Engineering, Enterprise Application Development, and Aspect-Oriented Programming.

With this release, the EntLib team reiterates its commitment to enhancing learnability and increasing ease of use of Enterprise Library. Please, try them. Whether you love them or feel frustrated (especially if you feel frustrated), please send us your feedback.

Enterprise Library FAQs wiki now open

gmelnik — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:13:01 GMT

Greetings, the Enterprise Library user community!

Today the patterns & practices EntLib team together with the EntLib support team from Avanade is pleased announce the Enterprise Library Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) wiki. We’ve done a sweep of discussion topics through the Codeplex site and our mailboxes and distilled a collection of tips, tweaks, pointers and trouble shooting methods to most frequently asked questions. Check it out!

This is a part of our continuing effort to improve learnability and ease of use of the Enterprise Library.

Importantly, this is a live wiki, not a static document (though if you prefer a printable version, we’ve made one available too). Feel free to comment on any of the answers with your additional suggestions or tricks you want to share. Also, if you have encountered the same question many times and you know how to answer but do not see it on the list, go ahead, add it. Please make sure your answers are meaningful and helpful (an easy way to determine if they are, is whether somebody had thanked you for those answers previously :)

Just Released: Validation Application Block Hands-On Lab

gmelnik — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:35:03 GMT

Here’s a gift for the New Year’s. We have produced a new hands-on lab on validation with Enterprise Library. It contains 13 exercises that walk you through capabilities of the Validation Application Block in various application contexts:

The first 11 deal with a Windows Forms data processing application that takes the information entered by the user to populate and process business entities. The Validation Application Block is used to validate the created business objects before processing them in gradually more sophisticated ways.
Starting with Lab 7, the Windows Forms validation–integration feature is used to directly validate the input for the form's controls.
Labs 8 through 11 deal with the extensibility of the application block.
Lab 12 shows how to use the ASP.NET validation-integration feature of the application block to validate the ASP.NET control's values, using a Web forms version of the simple data entry application from the previous labs.
Finally, for Lab 13, the ASP.NET application works as a front-end for a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service while the WCF validation–integration feature of the application block is used to declaratively validate the service parameters on the server side.

The lab instructions are available as a CHM for easy navigation and as a PDF for printing.

There are two ways you can complete this lab set: you can manually complete it from start-to-finish or you can use the starter solutions to complete only the labs you want to. By using the provided starter solutions, you can complete any of the labs in the order you prefer.

Download Validation HOL

Next up is our new Interception hands-on lab. You may expect to see it released in January.

Just Released: Unity Application Block 1.2 for Silverlight

gmelnik — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:01:41 GMT

If you are building rich application experiences in Silverlight, you can now use the power of dependency injection. It was possible to use Unity on Silverlight before, but you had to make some tweaks since Silverlight has some differences from the desktop common language runtime (CLR). We are happy to announce the official release of Unity for Silverlight.

The following capabilities and packaging of the Unity container have been adjusted in this release:

The single Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll file in the Silverlight version contains all the classes from the three separate desktop DLLs: Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll, Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder2.dll, and Microsoft.Practices.Unity.StaticFactoryExtension.dll. You only need to reference and deploy the one assembly in your Silverlight projects.
Because of differences in the Silverlight security model, only public types can be created and injected by the container. The desktop version allows you to also inject internal types.
XML configuration is not supported.
The Unity interception mechanism is not supported.

An updated quickstart is also included.

See Chris’s post for more details on how this release was produced.

As always, submit your feedback and/or questions via Unity community forum.

Merry Christmas! and … Joyous Coding!

Patterns & practices goodness – early Christmas

gmelnik — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:02:39 GMT

Earlier this week I’ve announced the releases of Enterprise Library 4.1, Unity 1.2 and Acceptance Test Engineering Guide BETA1. This is not all. Additionally, our group has just shipped:

SharePoint guidance is coming soon too. You can check their current drop on Codeplex.

These are very impressive and important deliveries. I am proud to be part of such a productive team!

Of course, shipping is not enough. A more important question is how many people are actually using our assets. In the next week or so, we’ll be revving our p&p exit survey which gives us additional insight into this aspect. I’ll post a link to it and invite everyone who has used our guidance or components to participate in the survey.

News: Acceptance Test Engineering Guidance BETA1

gmelnik — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:46:00 GMT

I am pleased to announce the release of the Acceptance Test Engineering guide BETA1. You can download it from http://codeplex.com/TestingGuidance

Common Scenarios Addressed:

How to Plan for Acceptance Testing
What Kinds of Acceptance Tests to Run
How to Create and Run Acceptance Tests
Defining What “Done” Means
How to Justify Your Approach

Contents at a Glance:

PART I – THINKING MODELS: an overview of acceptance testing and explains several models that are useful in conceptual thinking about acceptance testing. It also includes items that are necessary for planning acceptance testing. This part is intended to be read from beginning to end.

PART II – THUMBNAILS: a thumbnail is a short overview of a practice that explains what it is, when you may want to use it, the risks that it mitigates, and an overview of how to perform the practice. Thumbnails also include a list of references to papers, books, and other resources that provide more complete descriptions of the practice in question. The main purpose of a thumbnail is to describe a topic well enough to provide an overview, serve as a mental reminder for someone who has used the practice on how to do it, and give someone unfamiliar with the practice enough information about the practice and its applicability to determine if they want to learn more about it. This part is intended to be used as a reference; most readers will not read it from beginning to end.

PART III – SAMPLES: a collection of sample artifacts generated by applying different practices in a fictional real-world situation for Global Bank. These artifacts are embedded in a series of case studies of what the Global Bank team may have produced while building the application. The case studies provide some context to the individual artifacts. They also provide cross-references to the practices described in Part II. The artifacts are intended to be used as way to learn more about how to perform a practice; they can also be used as templates for your own artifacts.

Webcast

Gerard, Jon and I did a webcast talking about the concepts and the way we are writing this guidance.

Feedback

Your feedback is invited. Please post it under Discussions on Codeplex. Also, if you have an interesting experience with acceptance testing that you’d like to share and perhaps be profiled in our guide as a case study, we’d like to hear about it.