Chris Birmele's Blog

VSTS Essential training offered in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane

Enhance ALM, a Microsoft Partner in Australia, offers training courses this month to get you started with Visual Studio Team System.  If you live in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane see the schedule below.  The courses are short and well priced.  This is a very good opportunity to use your remaining training budget and get your development team trained up and ready for the next FY :-)

	Duration	Cost^	SYDNEY	MELBOURNE	BRISBANE
VSTS Essentials	2d	$ 1195	29-30 Jun	15-16 Jun	22-23 Jun
VSTS Essentials for Project Managers & Business Analysts	1d	$ 595	1 Jul	17 Jun	24 Jun
Essential Database Development using VSTS	1d	$ 595	3 Jul	18 Jun	25 Jun
TFS Admin Essentials	1d	$ 595	2 Jul	19 Jun	26 Jun

For more information about EnhanceALM check their website: www.enhancealm.com.au

Agile Development with TFS - Training in Brisbane

Readify, one of Microsoft's best partner is running a 2-day workshop in Brisbane, covering agile development with VSTS - an event not to be missed!  For details of how to sign up, click the link below:

 

Readify's Professional Series Training...          

                                

 

What’s coming up in Brisbane...

 

Readify’s Team Foundation Server/Agile Workshop

 

This 2-day Team Foundation Server (TFS)/Agile Workshop will provide you with a working knowledge of Agile project management (particularly Scrum),

and the recommended management and engineering practices that should be used by agile teams.

You will also learn how TFS and Visual Studio Team System can help your team implement those practices.

 

Course Details

Dates:                    Thursday 21 – Friday 22 May 2009

Duration:              2 days

Times:                    9am - 5pm daily

Presenter:            Richard Banks  | Readify, Principal Consultant & MVP

Location:               Cliftons | BRISBANE (click here for location information & map)

Investment:         $1,260 + GST

Bookings:              Register online or phone 1300 666 274

Visual Studio Team Test - Quick Reference Guide released!

If you are using Visual Studio Team Test (VSTT) I suggest you download the new VSTT Quick Reference Guide here.  The document explains product specifics in great details, it includes tips & tricks for unit, functional and load tests.  A wealth of information to get you started on validating the quality of your applications!

Activity, Deliverable or Outcome?

I have come to the conclusion people are either:

1. - activity focused
2. - delivery focused
3. - outcome focused

The first lot just does stuff.  Their calendar is always full, meetings are double or triple booked.  When asked what on earth they are doing you are most likely to get a meeting request for an explanation.  Hyperactivity is confounded with productivity.

The second lot doesn't talk as much as the first, but they create a lot of stuff.  Reports, documents, you name it they create it.  It's not necessarily useful, but perhaps they are getting paid by the page or weight of their deliverables.

Last but not least, some folks focus on outcomes.  This - either near-extinct or still evolving - species spends time defining some outcome before planning any activity, let alone deliverables.  How refreshing - I want more of them!

Want to know the magic formula of how to develop software successfully?

The magic formula is: Success == People + Process + Tools

Well this is hardly a revelation of historic proportions, but why is it people keep looking for that elusive tool that will solve all their problems?  Tools are very important, don't get me wrong, but they are not a substitute for inappropriate processes and they are certainly not a substitute for lack of skills - they are a necessary complement.

So which addend carries more weight?  Well it depends .... :-)

If we view software engineering as a series of transformations (shown below and explained in detail here) starting with a business need and ending with a software solution - tools become more useful the closer you get to the source code.

At higher levels of abstractions (i.e. during analysis or design) processes and people are very important and when gathering requirements people are by far the most important addend - why do you think poor requirements continue to be THE major challenge in software engineering?

 

NOTE:  I am not suggesting these activities occur sequentially or result in producing formal artifacts.

Want to migrate source code from Subversion, StarTeam or CVS to TFS?

TimelyMigration offers a migration tool to move your Subversion, StarTeam and CVS repositories to Microsoft Team Foundation Server - check it out here.  Our folks in Redmond have only good things to say about them - so try them out!

Reminder - there is a 30% promotion available until 30th June 2009 ..

In case you haven't heard (or haven't read my blog!)  there is a 30% promotion available to step up from Visual Studio Professional to one of the Team Editions or from a Team Edition to Team Suite.  This offer is valid until June 30th 2009, so you still have time to think about it :-)

For more information about the promotion check out the details here.

Keep in mind VSTS 2010 (formerly known as Rosario) is only a few months away and this offer (in conjunction with a valid MSDN subscription) is by far the cheapest way to get your hands on this fantastic release.  Check out here of what's coming in VSTS 2010.

The cost of having - or not having - quality in your software

In my role as a Visual Studio Team System technical specialist I spend a lot of time talking to customers about quality software - after all the product is designed with this in mind.  Naturally most customers are very keen to increase quality - but only if it can be done on the cheap.....   Unfortunately this is a rather simplistic view and does not consider the real cost of quality. 

Its true, there is a cost associated with building quality into your applications, but there is also a cost associated with not having quality!  If you sum up both cost functions you'll end up with the 'total cost of quality' as shown in the diagram below. As the graph clearly indicates, both ends of the spectrum - no quality or too much quality - are undesirable.

The goal must be to work towards a sweet spot where costs balance each other out.

 

Why should I care about 'Quality'?

Quality is one of those words that seem to be self explanatory - "of course we want quality, lots of it!", but when asked "and why is that?" my customers are often at a loss to elaborate.  The term is used very liberally in most industries but rarely goes beyond empty phrases.  Recently I stumbled across a profound response to this question and I felt compelled to share it:

Your customers are in a perfect position to tell you about ‘Quality’, because that is all they are really buying.  They are not buying a product, they are buying your assurances that their expectations for that product will be met. You haven’t got anything to sell but ‘Quality’

 

(Source: John Guaspari, "I know when I see it" 1985, p77)

 

 

So next time, I come along and ask this provocative question - I hope to hear "that's all we have to offer!" :-)

 

VSTS 2008 on Windows 7 - very nice!

I couldn't resist... Windows 7 and Visual Studio Team System 2008 - all on HyperV ....   very nice!

 

Updated VPC / HyperV images for VSTS

In case you don't know, our VSTS virtual demo images expire in a couple of days, but thanks to Santa Claus you'll find new ones (for VPC and HyperV) here.

VSTS promotions available NOW!

Christmas is just around the corner and yes I realise times are a bit tougher than usual, but here is an opportunity not to be missed.  We have a number of special promotions you can take advantage of:

30% Discount

 If you buy (or own) a Team Edition you can step up to the Team Suite and receive a 30% DISCOUNT

Get 2 for 1

 If you buy (or already own) Team Edition for Developer or Database Professional with a MSDN subscription - you'll get the other one for FREE

 

For more details about these (and other) promotions, click here.  If you are located in Australia and would like to know more, contact either Arabind Coomaraswamy (arabindc@microsoft.com) or Jihad Dannawi (
jihad.dannawi@microsoft.com)

The Road to Visual Studio 2010!

After Steve Ballmer last week, we have another illustrious person visiting us from Corp (no wonder, today's weather forecast for Seattle is 8-12 degrees and rainy....) - Matt Nunn.  Matt is a Group Product Manager for Visual Studio Team System and presents (and demos!) what is coming in Visual Studio Team System 2010.  You will learn how Microsoft’s development tool platform vision complements our application platform and helps secure your technology investments.  

If you are located in Sydney please join us at the Microsoft Offices in North Ryde, otherwise join the LiveMeeting:

When:  Friday 14 November
09:00 am "The Road to Visual Studio 2010"
10:30 am Q&A
11:00 am Close

Venue (if you are in Sydney):
Microsoft, 1 Epping Road, North Ryde, 2113, Theatre 1 (# of seats is limited to 60, 1st come 1st serve)
Registration required: https://www.microsoft.com.au/events/register/home.aspx?levent=654837&linvitation 

Live Meeting (unfortunate ones not in Sydney):
https://www112.livemeeting.com/cc/_XML/microsoft/join?id=C2W7QF&role=present&pw=s%3Fp%7B5_mMP
with alternative audio at +61 1800 202 713,  Participant Code: 8893367

Who is Matt  Nunn?  Matt Nunn is a Group Product Manager for Visual Studio Team System and has been with Microsoft for just over 6 years. He currently runs the team responsible for all outbound product management for Visual Studio Team System working with customers, partners and the field. Previously Matt ran product management for the VSTS Database Edition and has worked in both the SQL Server and Microsoft Office Teams within Microsoft. Matt has over 15 years experience in the IT industry working as a developer, DBA, technical project manager and consultant for numerous Microsoft partners as well as many positions within Microsoft. You can reach Matt at mattnunn@microsoft.com

TFS Powertool - October 2008 Release downloadable!

If you monitor Brian Harry's blog you already know we have released a new TFS Powertool.  I am not going to repeat Brian's elaborate post, but pick a couple of things I really like:

1) IM capabilities in TFS - no more excuses for not communicating with your peers - instantly and in many different ways!

2) Shell extensions allowing you to do basic version control functions using the file explorer

The installation is a breeze (but make sure you do a CUSTOM install, then reboot if you want the Windows shell extensions).  Once done you will see a new Team Members node in each TeamProject and you can see whether or not they are online, you can interact with them in various ways and you can see what they are working on!  Very nice!

  

 

The second feature is something I was waiting for a long time.  Previously a TFS workspace was a normal windows folder containing project files.  I couldn't see if the files in these folders were actually under source control, I had no visibility of their check-out status - unless I viewed the files using Team Explorer or Visual Studio.  Now I can simply open up Windows explorer and look at the project folder and do all basic source control functions right there:

 

You can download the new TFS Powertool - October 2008 Release here.

VSTS workshop training (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth)

Readify, one of our partners here in Australia is offering a one day workshop focusing on Team Foundation Server, Agile Development and technologies such as Silverlight, WCF, LINQ and others.  The training is not free but it will be delivered by excellent MVP's - so I have no doubt its a worthwhile investment.  Here are the dates/locations:

SYDNEY: Thursday 30 October 2008, 8:30am – 5:30pm | Cliftons, 190 George Street, Sydney

 

MELBOURNE: Friday 31 October 2008, 8:30am – 5:30pm | Cliftons, 440 Collins Street, Melbourne

 

BRISBANE: Friday 7 November 2008, 8:30am – 5:30pm | Cliftons, 288 Edward Street, Brisbane

 

PERTH: Tuesday 11 November 2008, 8:30am – 5:30pm | Cliftons, 191 St George’s Terrace, Perth