Microsoft has finally decided to acquire TeamPrise - a long overdue decision! TeamPrise provides an integration to Team Foundation Server for Java developers. It comes as an Eclipse plug-in, as a standalone client and as a command line version.
If you have a mixed Java / .NET development environment, you should check it out - its beautiful! You can find TeamPrise here.
The next wave of the latest Microsoft technologies is about to land on our shores, providing new and exciting ways to develop custom applications.
Visual Studio 2010 is the upcoming release of Microsoft’s market leading integrated Development Tool Platform - specifically designed to leverage these new capabilities.
Come to this presentation to learn how Visual Studio 2010 has been enhanced to enable you to deliver modern, high quality applications to your organisation. We will tell you what you need to know before the launch of Visual Studio 2010 (March 22nd, 2010). Don’t miss Readify’s product demonstrations of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, MTLM and enhanced capabilities of Team Foundation Server.
Agenda
Why Visual Studio 2010? (70 min)
For the new Microsoft platform
To minimise business risk and increase software quality
Why now? (30 min)
Understand the new Visual Studio product family
Learn about the new MSDN benefits!
The ‘Ultimate offer’ – ending March 22nd 2010
Q&A and Close (10 min)
Dates
- Hobart, Nov 17
- Melbourne, Nov 19
- Darwin, Nov 24
- Sydney, Nov 26
- Canberra, Dec 1
- Perth, Dec 3
- Sydney, Dec 4
- Adelaide, Dec 8
- Brisbane, Dec 10
Register here to secure your attendance:
SORRY FULLY BOOKED OUT !
Now that VS2010 Beta 2 is available, check out the Channel 9 Learning Center for updated VS2010 online training courses - six are available, more are coming in the near future.
Now that Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is available, why not install it? Check out Brian Keller's video of where to get the bits and how to install a Visual Studio & Team Foundation Server 2010 in no time!
If you are an existing Visual Studio customer with a current MSDN subscription, you will transition to the following new editions (on March 22nd):
a) Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Pro ==> Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN
b) Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Premium ==> Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN
c) Visual Studio Team Edition ==> Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN
d) Visual Studio Team Suite ==> Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN
Note:
1) Visual Studio Test Elements 2010 with MSDN and Visual Studio Team Lab Management 2010 are brand new products - there is no transition path per se.
2) Team Foundation Server is now part of MSDN (!!!) - its no longer a standalone product
Given this, there are a couple of scenarios you should think carefully about BEFORE March 22nd:
1) do I need more licenses for my team?
For example, every Team Edition (Arch, Dev, DBA, Test) you have today will automatically turn into Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate in March!
2) do I need to 'step up' some of my current licenses to a higher edition?
If you have Visual Studio Professional today and decide to step-up to a Team Edition - you will get Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate in March!
Both scenarios represent cost savings of about 50%. If you require more information about this please feel free to contact my colleagues (Arabind: arabindc@microsoft.com or Jihad: jihadda@microsoft.com)
Finally the cat is out of the bag - the next version of Visual Studio will be available Monday, 22nd of March 2010! You don't have to wait until then to play with this new exciting release, Visual Studio Beta 2 bits are available on MSDN now!
At a glance, what's new?
1) New product names. Gone is the name 'Team System' and all 'Team Editions'. Here are the new editions:
a) Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN (Entry level developer tool)
b) Visual Studio Test Elements 2010 with MSDN (Test Management and Manual Testing tools)
c) Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN (Professional edition + all quality tools for Developers and DBA's)
d) Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN (Premium edition + all Architect and all Testing tools)
2) MSDN offers even more value. Here is what's new:
a) one Team Foundation Server + one CAL for production use (i.e. all editions mentioned above include TFS!)
b) Microsoft Expression Studio 3 for production use
c) Windows Azure subscription allowance
d) Windows embedded O/S
e) Microsoft e-Learning allowance
f) Priority support in MSDN forums
3) New logo's:
a) Visual Studio
b) MSDN
If you have one of the current Visual Studio products there is a transition path - a very generous transition path I might add..... ! I outlined it in another blog post.
I am busy getting people excited about VSTS2010 (it's not very hard :-)) and often I get questions about customising workflows, work items, Team Build, etc. Terry Clancy has written a good blog post
listing all the extensibility points in Visual Studio Team System 2010. Check it out
here.
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 :-)
For more information about EnhanceALM check their website: www.enhancealm.com.au
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
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!
I have come
to the conclusion people are either:
- -
activity focused
- -
delivery focused
- -
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!
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.
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!
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.
