Feb 29, 2012 Update: This post and accompanying downloads have been updated based on the Visual Studio 11 Beta which was released today.

I’m very pleased to announce the availability of the Visual Studio 11 Beta ALM Virtual Machine along with 6 hands-on-labs / demo scripts. This marks an exciting milestone in our journey towards RTM. You can now roll up your sleeves and start learning about the many capabilities we announced at TechEd North America last year and have been talking about in greater detail since then. You can download and install the beta of Visual Studio 11 (and Team Foundation Server 11, .NET Framework 4.5, etc.) and even use it in production with our “go live” support. But if you would like a fast way to understand what is new for application lifecycle management in this release, this virtual machine is pre-configured with all of the necessary software and sample data for you.

Before I get into what’s included, there are a few quick limitations to disclose:

• This is a Hyper-V virtual machine and works with Windows Server 2008 x64 (Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is recommended). If you try to load this with Virtual PC it will blue screen since Virtual PC does not support 64-bit operating systems. I have not yet had a chance to try hosting this VM with the Windows 8 consumer preview, but I was successful using the Windows 8 developer preview to host an earlier version of my virtual machine so it should work. I will update this post later once I have a chance to test that.
• Windows is configured to set the system clock to February 15, 2012 every time you start this virtual machine. This is to support the project management hands-on-lab. If you want to work with this virtual machine beyond the specific hands-on-labs scenarios, you will need to disable the Set Date and Time task (Task Scheduler -> Task Scheduler Library -> Set Date and Time -> Right-Click -> Disable).
• Please take a few minutes to read the attached “Working with…” document for some important instructions on properly importing and working with this virtual machine.

With the limitations out of the way, onto the fun stuff…

This virtual machine is configured with:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Ultimate Beta
• Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Team Foundation Server Beta
• Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010
• Microsoft Project 2010
• Microsoft Office Professional 2010 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
• Sample users and data required to support hands-on-lab scripts which accompany this download and exercise some of the new Visual Studio 11 application lifecycle management capabilities introduced in this release.

Downloading the virtual machine and labs:
I suggest using a download manager for these files since they are very large. My download manager of choice is Free Download Manager. You can use your own favorite download manager, but you may need to adapt the instructions below as appropriate.

1. Download and install Free Download Manager. This utility provides:
- Auto-resume support for interrupted downloads.
- Multiple simultaneous download streams for (usually) a much faster download experience.
- As the name implies, it's completely free.
2. Select the URL’s below and copy (CTRL+C) them to your clipboard.
###Start - Do Not Include This Line###
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Agile Project Management in Team Foundation Server 11.docx
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Building the Right Software - Generating Storyboards and Collecting Stakeholder Feedback with Visual Studio 11.docx
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Diagnosing Issues in Production with IntelliTrace and Visual Studio 11.docx
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Exploratory Testing and Other Enhancements in Microsoft Test Manager 11.docx
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Making Developers More Productive with Team Foundation Server 11.docx
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Unit Testing with Visual Studio 11 - MSTest, NUnit, xUnit.net, and Code Clone.docx
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part01.exe
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part02.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part03.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part04.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part05.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part06.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part07.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part08.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part09.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part10.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part11.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part12.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part13.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part14.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/VisualStudio11ALMBeta.part15.rar
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Working with the Visual Studio 11 ALM Beta Virtual Machine.docx
###End - Do Not Include This Row In Your Selection###
3. Launch the user interface for Free Download Manager (either from the Start Menu or via the system tray icon if FDM is already running).
4. Click File -> Import -> Import List of URLs from Clipboard.
5. When prompted for a download group, accept the default and click OK.
6. You are now free to minimize Free Download Manager while the files download. By default, they will be saved to c:\downloads.
7. Expand the files and self-extracting RAR set and see the “Working with…” document for more instructions.

While you are waiting for your downloads to finish, here are some screenshots from the VM and labs to whet your appetite…

The virtual machine is based around 2 sample web applications being built by our friends at Fabrikam Fiber – a provider of cable and telecom services. They are using Visual Studio application lifecycle management tools to manage their source code, run their builds, test their web sites, and plan and track the project.

The new PowerPoint Storyboarding tool will make it easier to refine requirements and ensure that your team is building the right software before you write a line of code. The “Building the Right Software” lab will show off this experience.

The Fabrikam Fiber Web Team has uses the Team Web Access portal to help them collaborate more effectively as a team.

The Fabrikam Fiber Web Team maintains a common backlog within web access to track future work and begin assigning this work to iterations.

Items from the backlog can be broken down into iterations and decomposed, with a view on capacity for each team member so that you avoid overcommitting people beyond what they can successfully deliver.

The Fabrikam Fiber Web Team uses the new task board in web access to track work throughout the project. Check out the “Agile project management…” lab to learn all about the new project management dashboards.

Team Explorer has been completely re-imagined in this release to make it easier to work with source control, work items, and to quickly access “My Work” – bugs, tasks, code reviews, and the items you care most about on a daily basis. You can even “suspend” what you were working on if you get interrupted and easily come back to it later. And you’re going to love the new local workspaces capability. Check out the “Making Developers More Productive…” lab for a tour of these features.

And of course Team Explorer Everywhere – which allows Eclipse-based developers to access Team Foundation Server – has also received a new look in this release. NOTE: Team Explorer Everywhere is not available in this virtual machine, but it can be downloaded separately.

Visual Studio 11 will enable 3rd party unit testing providers such as NUnit and xUnit.net to work right alongside the existing MSTEST unit tests. You can even mix and match these within the same solution! Check out the “Unit Testing” lab to learn more.

Also in the “Unit Testing” lab, you will also discover the powerful new code clone capability. This allows you to find semantically similar blocks of code; this might unlock new refactoring opportunities, or indicate blocks of code which need common a common bug fix.

Microsoft Test Manager 11 provides even greater support for exploratory testing. This allows you to put your tester’s hat on, find bugs, and Microsoft Test Manager will automatically capture rich diagnostics in the background which can be surfaced to developers if a bug if found, or used to create formal test cases for subsequent test passes. Learn more in the “Exploratory Testing” lab.

As features are implemented, the Fabrikam Fiber Web Team can seek feedback from stakeholders to ensure that what they built meets the expectations of end-users, privacy lawyers, the CEO, or whomever else needs to provide acceptance testing of the software. The new Feedback Client facilitates this process by capturing rich data while a stakeholder is evaluating your software. This data – which can include video recordings, text and audio annotations, and screen clippings – can all be stored in Team Foundation Server for easy access by the development team and full traceability back to the original requirements.

Finally, we know that application lifecycle management doesn’t end when you produce a release and hand it off to the operations team. Visual Studio 11 extends the capabilities of IntelliTrace to allow you to capture rich IntelliTrace files from machines running in your production environment using low-impact PowerShell commandlets. This gives you rich, historical debugging information right at your fingertips – allowing you to see exactly why bugs are happening in your production environment.

I hope you will enjoy playing with these bits as much as I have. If you have suggestions for how to improve this virtual machine and set of demos / hands-on-labs please let me know.