I presented at the Black Marble Architecture Forum in the North event in December and one of the things I showed was how to create a toolbox item extension to add a UML design pattern into Visual Studio’s UML toolbox. Having done this I checked...

A word of warning - If, like me, you thought: “I haven’t got time to upgrade my Windows 8 version but I’ll quickly upgrade Visual Studio 11 Beta to Visual Studio 2012 RC” Then hold on, don’t uninstall VS 11 Beta just yet! If you take a look at the system...

TFS support for Agile practices Tailoring TFS to support your Agile process with process templates Iteration planning Information radiators But I’m not a .NET developer Agile support in TFS 11 I thought it would be interesting to get some guest writers...

Team Web Access in Team Foundation Server 2012 (and Team Foundation Service ) has been completely redesigned and contains some great new agile planning features. However, some of the features, Backlog Management, Sprint Planning and Feedback Requests...

I’ve just updated my Design Patterns UML Toolbox extension for Visual Studio 2012. I’d noticed that the version I’d put together for the Beta was not installing correctly in the RTM version so this fixes that. I’m not sure exactly what the problem was...

I see a lot of different organisations and meet many development teams and the impression I get is that Agile, and Scrum in particular, is the main software development process in use. However, it’s hard to get clear statistics, and a lot of the industry...

After the success of the online Tech Days run last year we have decided to ensure this year’s includes a developer day. We’re really keen to get your views of what you would like to see in the content to ensure that we cover areas that...

I’m at the world record attempting GameJam, Gameathon UK , supporting the teams using Team Foundation Service preview to produce their Windows 8 App games. A question that I got asked was how to use TFS source control with Expression Blend for Visual...

The new Agile Task Board is an excellent way of working in a Sprint, visually keeping track of tasks on either a per PBI basis, or on a user-by-user basis. If you’ve not seen the board in action before I recommend you check our own Giles Davies...

If you’re interested in gaining industry recognized accreditation and becoming a Certified ScrumMaster, and would like to see how to apply this knowledge to the use of Team Foundation Server 2012 then RippleRock have put together an interesting...

One of the new features coming in the next update wave for Team Foundation Server (TFS2012.2) and for Team Foundation Service (available now) is the ability to work with manual test cases from the web through a new web based Test Hub. Why? you may...

I’ve just been introduced to Anthony Borton, a TFS MVP, and he’s looking to run some TFS 2010 courses that he has developed and delivered in the United States, Australia and New Zealand in London this June and July. The details for the TFS 2010 courses...

  SQLBits is coming to London on 29th – 31st March this year and there are some great sessions for database developers.  You can register for the whole conference, sign up for the deep dive pre-conference sessions or attend the free community...

I thought it was worth pointing out the following Azure online conference, the details below are self-explanatory so here’s the information: “We are pleased to announce the next iteration of the Windows Azure Tech.Days Online Conference . Why attend?...

There’s a been a flurry of information last night about Visual Studio 11 Beta and I’ve been trying to work through it to provide a summary of what’s been announced: The “go-live” Beta will be available in 5 days time ...

We’re delivering a joint LiveMeeting with one of our Testing Gold Partners, Testhouse , on Wed 29th February, to provide an overview of the testing tools in Visual Studio 2010. So, if you’re interested in how Visual Studio can help you with test case...

A question that pops up reasonably regularly when showing the Excel integration into TFS is how it deals with conflicts, e.g. a work item is updated by someone else not using Excel, and then you try and update (publish) the same work item from Excel....

A very short post to point out that the VS 11 Beta downloads, including TFS and TFS Express, are now available. Key links: Visual Studio 11 Beta downloads Jason Zander’s blog post explaining what’s new Rich and I are going to be installing the Beta and...

Richard Fennell , MVP and ALM Ranger from Black Marble , is following up the guest post he wrote for this blog with a free webinar on how Eclipse developers are supported in using Team Foundation Server using Team Explorer Everywhere: Date: 19th March...

This is very cool: Today at the VS Live conference in Vegas, Microsoft announced a new cloud based build service for Team Foundation Service. Can't wait to try it out. More details here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2012/03...

If you follow this blog then you may have noticed that we’re not the best at scheduling updates.  When things get really busy (for March, see DevWeek ) blogging is probably the first thing to go on the backburner.  We’re trying to address the...

Rich and I are presenting at some additional events running in the next couple of months. They’re all free to attend, and hopefully we’ll see you at one of them: What Where When How to register Agile Development with Visual Studio 11 and Team Foundation...

I really love the PowerPoint Storyboarding and the Stakeholder Feedback Client that are part of Visual Studio 11 and using the tools together is a great way of getting feedback on your proposed design. However, just hitting F5 in PowerPoint to launch...

We’ve decided to run a Visual Studio event at Black Marble ’s offices on the 31st May. The event will cover an overview of the Application Lifecycle Management capabilities of Visual Studio 11 Beta and Team Foundation Server 11 Beta. This session will...

We recorded some sessions a little while ago around Visual Studio 11 Beta and these are now available to watch on Channel 9 in the UK Tech.Days area . I thought it was worth highlighting the Visual Studio 11 and Team Foundation Server 11 related topics...