marcus's Team System motivation and experience

Retiring my blog

marcalt — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:37:24 GMT

I have not been a really frequent blogger in the last 1,5 years so I decided to officially retire my blog and recommend other blogs for you to stay up to date. Background is that I had really been busy selling the product and be sure my motivation and passion for Visual Studio 2010 is higher then with any release before. Be sure to use it as soon as you can.

So if you look for coolest and newest Information on Visual Studio ALM Tools I would suggest that you have a look here:

Product Info: http://www.microsoft.com/germany/visualstudio/ or http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us

Brians blog: blogs.msdn.com/bharry

Chris Binders blog, a real sweat spot for great information in German: blogs.msdn.com/cbinder

and be sure to sign up for German VS News: http://www.microsoft.com/germany/visualstudio/news/default.aspx

Take care,
Marcus

Important Gartner and Forrester Analyst News

marcalt — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:53:32 GMT

Just in from Gartner: VSTS is a Leader

Gartner published its 2009 Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management for Distributed Platforms. In their evaluation, Gartner ranks Microsoft as a leader in the space, based on Visual Studio 2008/ Team Foundation Server, a significant win for our ALM efforts. This is Microsoft’s first time ranking as a leader in this Magic Quadrant, with leaders characterized by “broad solutions with significant support for ALM deployment.” Read the article here: Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management for Distributed Platforms.

And from Forrester: Case Study on Microsoft Team Architect

Forrester Research just published a case study spotlighting Microsoft’s “TeamArch”, responsible for the Visual Studio Team System 2010 architect edition. This case study is part of a broader series that analyst Dave West is delivering, on development processes and best practices used across multiple well-known software development vendors. The case study outlines the challenges that “TeamArch” faced in delivering this product, showcasing the methodologies and processes used that enabled them to “challenge the status quo, delivering faster and with higher quality.” You can read the case study. And to be sure to mention, the way TeamArch works is so sucessfull because they ue Team System as their ALM System :-)

MSDN News

marcalt — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:55:01 GMT

2 interessting updates for MSDN Subscribers were announced recently:

#1 Windows Home Server Releasing to MSDN Subscribers

Windows Home Server is available for MSDN Subscribers of all levels. Subscribers can directly download it today.

#2 Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Embedded

We will release an new subscription called Microsoft® Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition with MSDN® Embedded.

The new subscription build on traditional MSDN benefits by providing developers of embedded devices with a single subscription for access to a variety of Microsoft operating systems, technical support and other resources. The subscription includes the Visual Studio suite of software development tools and the following Windows Embedded platforms and technologies:

Windows Embedded CE, a 32-bit native, componentized, hard real-time operating system designed for small-footprint devices
Windows Embedded Standard, the next generation of Windows XP Embedded for advanced enterprise devices
Windows Embedded NavReady 2009, which provides innovative technologies to help build devices optimized for portable navigation
Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, a flexible operating system designed to seamlessly connect point-of-service (POS) solutions with peripherals, servers and services

MSDN Premium subscribers will also have access to the resources in MSDN Embedded, enhancing their existing MSDN investments.

The worldwide launch date will be July 1, 2009.
This new subscription level will become available for purchase by Volume License customers when we release the Visual Studio 2010.

Team System Conference 2009 – 5.-7. May in Munich

marcalt — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:08:57 GMT

I am very excited that we will have the 2nd Team System Conference here in Munich only a good month from now. We want to drive last years conference success forward to a new dimension and this is really the event where you should be when you are interested in Visual Studio Team System, Software Engineering Practices or Software Development Process topics like SCRUM. Ken Schwaber the father of SCRUM will have the Keynote on Tuesday and as SCRUM gets more and more popular especially with Team System Tooling this is a great chance to really get ideas and thoughts from Ken. Besides Technical and engineering specific sessions we also have a broad variety of customers that will share their Team System experience with all of you. Including names like Autoscout 24, Ernst & Young, HVB Information Service, Siemens AG, T-Systems and many others. Wednesday will start with the Microsoft Keynote held by Cameron Skinner the VSTS Product Unit Manager for the Architecture Product Line, talking about “Continuing the ALM journey – An exciting look into VSTS 2010”.

Additionally we have a big variety of super interesting workshops on different topics.

We look forward to see you at TeamConf 2009 and want to encourage you to have a look into the Agenda or register directly to save your seat!

VSTS in 2009 – Prepare for the future!

marcalt — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:50:23 GMT

Happy new year - 2009 will be a great Team System year!!

VSTS 2010 will improve and get further and what I often hear from customers is the question “How can I get ready for VSTS2010”.

The true answer is: adopt VSTS2008 today and learn as much as you can regarding the current release.

Most things you do and learn will still be valid in the next release and VSTS2010 is a very huge release! If you don’t have a good understanding of VSTS2008 your lerning curve will be very steep. So how can you inprove your knowledge.

For the german audience I want to be sure to point you to a bunch of valuable Team System trainings that are offered today:

TeamSystem Camp

DevGroup Team System Trainings

TeamSystemPro-Seminare

- Seminar #1: Projektleitung, -steuerung und Auswertungen (2 Tage)

- Seminar #2: Configuration Management, Build & Release Management (2 Tage)

- Seminar #3: Qualitätssicherung / Qualitätssteuerung und Test-Management (2 Tage)

- Seminar #4: Softwareprozess-Anpassung, Custom Development (2 Tage)

- Seminar #5: Installation, Administration/Betrieb, Lizenzfragen (1 Tag)

Besides that it is a good idea to look out for the VSTS 2010 VPC, the VSTS2010 episode on Channel 9 and the beta that we will see later in the year.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=922B4655-93D0-4476-BDA4-94CF5F8D4814&displaylang=en

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4

TeamConf 2009 too far away for you?

marcalt — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:03:07 GMT

If you can't wait till May next year for TeamConf 2009 in Munich we have the solution:

More information on this great conference can be found here: www.teamconf.ch

My personal recommendation as the conference is organized through the same guys that did the very successful TeamConf 2008 in Munich...

Double Benefit for customers of Development/Database Edition

marcalt — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:09:52 GMT

I am very excited about our current announcement: We decided that the functionality of the Team System Editions: Development Edition and Database Edition will be combined in one single Edition in the Rosario timeframe.

The big benefit we offer our customers today, is the fact, that all customers under Software Assurance (SA) that own one of the editions will get the other Edition for free, beginning Okt. 1st via MSDN Download.

This is a great step for our customers as we really double value of the Development/Database Edition and enable all customers to get a seamless experience in Development and Database Development using Team System functionality.

I am looking forward to customer feedback! And be sure to also read the news about our Visual Studio Team System 10 (Codename Rosario) disclosure.

More details can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc948977.aspx

German press announcement: http://www.microsoft.com/germany/presseservice/detail.mspx?id=532311

Ken Schwaber at TeamConf 2009

marcalt — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:11:09 GMT

I am very excited that Ken Schwaber one of the founders of SCRUM has confirmed as keynote speaker for TeamConf 2009. As we work with customers SCRUM seems to be the process that people really use or plan/want to use. It has gotten something like a synonym for agile project execution.

www.scrumforteamsystem.com was one of the first "NON Microsoft" processes that where available for Team Foundation Server and therefore our adoption especially in agile communities is very high.

We therefore look forward to see on of the heads behind SCRUM and have the chance to hear his thoughts and ideas and maybe discuss a topic ore two with a cool beer.

Be sure to save the TeamConf 2009 date in your calender: 5. - 9. May 2009 in Munich.

The official Team System Call for Papers will start early Oktober.

Ken Schwaber co-developed the Scrum process with Jeff Sutherland in the early 1990s to help organizations struggling with complex development projects. One of the signatories to the Agile Manifesto in 2001, he subsequently founded the AgileAlliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of Agile software. He then founded the ScrumAlliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding the understanding of Scrum.

A 30-year veteran of the software development industry (from bottle washer to boss), he has written three books about Scrum: Agile Software Development with Scrum, Agile Project Management with Scrum, and The Enterprise and Scrum. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with his family. His web site is www.controlchaos.com.

An update on Agile Software development thoughts

marcalt — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:06:44 GMT

I am pretty fascinated what has happened around the Team System ecosystem regarding to Agile Software Development in the last month. I want to highlight a few things that you should not miss, if you are interested in this space:

First we released a Whitepaper, that Kent Beck has written on Tools for agility. Kent Beck is for sure one of the most well known folks, when it comes to agile software development and his Whitepaper clearly states out the need of tools support when you want to effectively work agile.

When you have read the whitepaper you will be happy to see what has been build around ScrumForTeamSystem Process Template. Conchango itself has just released an first beta version of their so called Task Board. This is a WPF Application that allows you to easily shift and update items in your process, especially in daily scrum meetings.

Additionally a CodePlex project called Scrum Dashboard has been released. It targets the actual same thing supporting easiness in handling, shifting and updating tasks. The main difference is that this is an ASP.NET Application that totally runs on the server and does not require any client installation.

Conchangos WPF Solution:

CodePlex ASP.NET Solution:

"Recharging Motivation Battery"

marcalt — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:20:55 GMT

I want to be sure to get a blog post on this out as long as the impression is still fresh. Currently I am in Seattle at our so called Microsoft TechReady7. TechReady is a Microsoft internal conference that gives us the chance to hear directly from all product groups what innovation will be coming the next year(s).

TechReady beats everything I had seen before, and it is already my 2nd TechReady. This is a great effort Microsoft is doing for its employees. We have more then 5500 attendees being here at Seattle the whole week. Every day is filled up with sessions of different kinds. To give you an idea: We have around 850 sessions plus more then 350 labs. And content is delivered by more then 1200 speakers. As we are in Seattle just a bunch of miles away from Redmond we really get in the speakers who are responsible for product development and can directly get newest information, see latest builds (last night :-) ) and give field direct feedback.

This is a huge and super-super amazing conference that gives us the additional possibility to network with colleagues worldwide. Have you ever had breakfast with a couple of thousand colleagues ? I did and this is impressing.

Seattle normally known as rainy showed up from its best side and I had the chance to even get a bit of sightseeing on Saturday:

To sum up here you really gain motivation and new energy when seeing what is coming up in the Team System space. Besides meeting all the folks driving the product is a real opportunity to give feedback directly from our customers to product group.

You should be really curios to see the next CTP we plan in fall. I will let you know when this one will be available. Additionally I want to encourage you to follow PDC coverage as there we will be lifting off a bit more of what is to come.