An Empathetic Listener : VSTS

Team System Big Event Coming to Phoenix

Dan Willis — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:51:04 GMT

Visual Studio Team System events are typically focused on existing customers to the exclusion of too many for too long. This event is for EVERYONE interested in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). We will have high-quality speakers from industry, the community and of course, Microsoft.

May 7, 2009 8:30 – 5:00PM AZ time
Microsoft Office – 2929 N. Central Ave., Suite 1400, Phoenix, AZ 85012

Registration Link

Event Overview

How do you take an idea from conception to completion? How can you truly do more with less?

Please join us for this unique, invitation-only event to discover how both product and processes help your organization succeed in today’s environment. We will explore how Team System assists teams across the board to be successful in today’s tough times. This “break through” event will not only provide you with best practices around development and testing, but will demonstrate key capabilities of both Visual Studio Team System 2008 and the upcoming 2010 release. It’s a day that promises to have something for everyone!

Agenda:

Test Driven Development: Improving .NET Application Performance & Scalability

This session will demonstrate how to leverage Test Driven Development in Team System. We’ll highlight both writing unit tests up front as well as creating test stubs for existing code.

"It Works on My Machine!" Closing the Loop Between Development & Testing

In this session, we will examine the traditional barriers between the developer and tester; and how Team System can help remove those walls.

Treating Databases as First-Class Citizens in Development

Team System Database Edition elevates database development to the same level as code development. See how Database Edition enables database change management, automation, comparison, and deployment.

Architecture without Big Design Up Front

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Architecture Edition, introduces new UML designers, use cases, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams that can visualize existing code, layering to enforce dependency rules, and physical designers to visualize, analyze, and refactor your software. See how VSTS extends UML logical views into physical views of your code. Learn how to create relationships from these views to work items and project metrics, how to extend these designers, and how to programmatically transform models into patterns for other domains and disciplines.

Development Best Practices & How Microsoft Helps

Sometimes development teams get too bogged down with the details. Take a deep breath, step back, and re-acquaint yourself with a review of current development best practice trends, including continuous integration, automation, and requirements analysis; and see how Microsoft tools map to those practices.

"Bang for Your Buck" Getting the Most out of Team Foundation Server

Today’s IT budgets are forcing teams to do as much as they can with as little as possible. Why not leverage Team Foundation Server to its full potential? In this session we’ll highlight some capabilities of TFS that you may or may not already know about to help you maximize productivity.

Good News on the Interoperability Front

Dan Willis — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:20:11 GMT

Like many folks within Microsoft, I come from a background that includes many different technology approaches/solutions to business problems. That being said, interoperability is a crucial element for enterprise applications. I’m happy to say that his area is getting renewed focus within Microsoft and I highly recommend this presentation from Vijay Rajagopalan of the Microsoft Interoperability Team at MIX09 on the state of our current thinking.

Come hear how Microsoft has delivered multiple technologies that focus on interoperability with non-Microsoft and Open Source technologies. Learn how to use the Eclipse tools today to build Silverlight applications that run on PCs and Macs, how to develop using combinations of Java, Ruby and PHP in addition to the standard Microsoft languages, and how Microsoft's commitment to openness with the Azure Services Platform and the use of claims-based identity supports heterogeneous identity systems.

Microsoft Virtual Tech Days – Audacious!

Dan Willis — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:04:27 GMT

April 1, 2009 will be an auspicious day for developers around the world. Microsoft is sponsoring the “Defy All Challenges.Together.” Developer Tools campaign. This free event will begin at 8am in APAC and conclude 24 hours later in the Americas. Just think, 24 hours of Dev delight!

This event is open to developers all over the world to speak on a topic you care deeply about, even if you have never presented at a Microsoft event in the past. Submit your event topic today at Microsoft Virtual TechDays 2009.

Through the TechDays online event portal, registered attendees will participate through Live Meeting or recorded on-demand sessions for more than 90 sessions. Topics will be on any technology within 5 tracks:

Interoperability.
Developer tools & practices.
Client development.
Mobile development.
Web development.

The thought of connecting to people is so compelling, even I might submit a session!

One Stop “Shopping” for All Microsoft SDK’s

Dan Willis — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:38:06 GMT

Microsoft SDKs

On this page you will find links to Microsoft Software Development Kits (SDKs), which provide documentation, code samples, tools, headers, libraries, and other files that developers can use to create software applications and libraries.

I’m happy to say even my beloved HealthVault is included!

A New Resource for Startups – BizSpark!

Dan Willis — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:53:39 GMT

LiveJournal Tags: Startups,BizSpark,MSDN

Today, Microsoft announced the BizSpark program to help software-focused startups in three key areas essential to growth:

Software - LOTS of software – MSDN Premium Subscription (+)
Support – In-depth help for thorny problems
Visibility – To partners, potential funding sources, customers

Did I mention all these services are FREE for up to 3 years! (There is a $100 fee upon exiting the program).

What kind of businesses qualify?

Is in the business of software development
Is privately held
Has been in business for less than 3 years, and
Has less than US $1 million in annual revenue

How do I signup?

Contact a Network Partner (startup focused organizations such as business incubators) who will provide the startup with a code to logon to the BizSpark Portal and signup. In the Phoenix area Stealthmode Partners is the first of many Network Partners.

Agile and Scrum Training - Phoenix - 8-28-08

Dan Willis — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:43:53 GMT

Technorati Tags: Agile,Scrum,Project Management,Development,Visual Studio,TFS

In a former life (Compaq) I was a Project Manager for a variety of interesting infrastructure and software development efforts. Although I was successful and adhered to PMI standards, I always felt that the traditional "Waterfall" approach was sub-optimal. I know that many of you excel at UML-based waterfall approaches and I don't want to completely dismiss that approach. However, I am a huge fan of Agile in general and Scrum in particular. In my role as a Strategy Advisor I'm able to get an insiders view of many development projects and the organizations that use Agile/Scrum are flat-out more successful than those using other methodologies.

There is a Phoenix organization that I hope to one day present as THE example of how to do Agile development. When I attend their sprint sessions I leave inspired by the effectiveness and passion of all of the participants. I hope all three of you (I'm optimistic) that read this post will come to the session on August 28. Neudesic, a Microsoft gold Certified partner will do the primary training with a "mystery C-Level guest speaker" to wrap-up the day.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Introduction to Agile (What, Why) | Agile methods are fast becoming commonplace in software development practices for many organizations. However, they represent a significant paradigm shift in the way in which stakeholders and team members are engaged, projects are planned, manner in which the team reacts to change, and which teams work together. The session will provide an overview of Agile Software Development, its principles, methods and values. Participants will learn the reason why Agile Methods are gaining share in software projects and driving up ROI.

Scrum Essentials | Several methodologies live within the space known as "Agile Software Development". One of the most widely used, and simplest to apply Agile methods is known as "Scrum". This session teaches the essentials of how to use "Scrum" on projects, focusing on the techniques and practices that development teams require while working on an Agile / Scrum project. The session will provide the required practices, roles and rules of Scrum, and answer specific questions about how to apply Agile Methods (via Scrum) to projects. Participants will review how a product backlog is used to plan a sprint, and learn how to read project status through a sprint backlog and burn down chart.

Agile Planning and Estimation | Session teaches how to plan the scope and schedule of a Scrum project, focusing on hands-on project planning techniques for Agile teams. Requires familiarity with Agile software development (or prior attendance to the above sessions).

Team Foundation Server | See how Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server can support your team’s Scrum process to fully benefit from Scrum’s practices and rules. In this session we’ll discuss how you can use TFS to leverage the Scrum essentials learned in the earlier session.

C-Level Speaker | In this final session, we will hear a “real-world” example of how Scrum is successfully being used today in a development organization.

REGISTER

To register, please visit the link below or call 1.877.MSEVENT (1.877.673.8366).

Date: Thursday, August 28, 2008

Time: 9:00 AM-5:00 PM

Location:

Microsoft Corporation

2929 N. Central Ave., Suite 1400
Phoenix, AZ 85012
Phone: (602) 280-8600
Registration Link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/InviteOnly.aspx?EventID=B8-06-74-1A-B3-D1-76-F9-35-95-06-D7-7B-15-AA-B6&Culture=en-US

Event ID: 1032382828

Flypaper - THE New Way to Tell a Story

Dan Willis — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:56:00 GMT

The fine folks at Flypaper Studio, Inc. (right here in Phoenix) have released beta 2 of their Flypaper application. This program is a storytellers dream in that the tools for developing a story are straightforward and the environment is designed to envelop you in a security blanket called the flybray. As awkward as it sounds it actually is a compelling Web 2.0 idea to publish content and make it reusable (think templates). Rich media in a way is only the start. The timeline concept is well implemented and the choices for content mixing are improving rapidly.

I also like the idea that us design-challenged folks can readily engage with "real" designers who specialize in exploiting flypaper for telling a compelling story. I will post more details on some of the very interesting ways flypaper exploits the Microsoft platform (after I get permission!) and spend more time with Kieran Richardson and the rest of the team.

For now, head over to flypaper.com and download the program. It's free in the basic version and the Pro version looks more than worth the wait...

Hey - Want to Win a Robot?

Dan Willis — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:13:46 GMT

What will they think of next? If you want to get a serious jolt of Geekiness, check out the new ROBOCHAMPS League! I knew the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 was a cool environment for a variety of academic, personal and professional applications but now they have a "league of their own" (couldn't resist). The winner of the competition gets a COROBOT worth anywhere from $2,800 - $4,300 (WI-FI, XP PRO, IR, camera, batteries, etc.). If you haven't been exposed to the Robotics Studio, I highly recommend taking a look even if you have no intention of developing the next RoboCop!

Technorati Tags: Robotics Visual Programming

In all seriousness, the studio includes tools for non-developers to produce working code using a Visual Programming Language (VPL). I plan on diving deeper into this tool set as it represents a serious future direction for managing input streams from potentially millions of autonomous devices/services. THAT is interesting to me...

BTW, Here's the (funny) disclaimer on the contest site...

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Must be at least 18 years old, a qualified resident from an eligible geography, and have technical programming education, experience and/or knowledge to program a simulated, autonomous robot using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008. Void where prohibited. See Rules for details.

Connect to your Inner ALM with VSTS 2008

Dan Willis — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:59:38 GMT

Technorati Tags: Agile,ALM,Team Development,VSTS

Agile, Agile, Agile.... Everyone talks about it, but how do you harness Agile methodologies in the context of the entire Application Life-cycle? Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 (VSTS) is an integrated Application Life-cycle Management (ALM) solution comprising tools, processes, and guidance to help everyone on the team improve their skills and work more effectively together. VSTS 2008 provides multi-disciplined team members with an integrated set of tools for architecture, design, development, database development, and testing of applications. Team members can continuously collaborate and utilize a complete set of tools and guidance at every step of the application lifecycle.

Neudesic, a gold Certified (and really, really good) partner will conduct the session and I or one of my cohorts from DPE will be there as well!

WHEN & WHERE

May 5, 2008 – LOS ANGELES

Registration Link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032374276&Culture=en-US (Event ID: 1032374276)

May 22, 2008 – DENVER

Registration Link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032374282&Culture=en-US (Event ID: 1032374282)

June 10, 2008 – IRVINE

Registration Link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032374277&Culture=en-US (Event ID: 1032374277)

June 12, 2008 – PHOENIX

Registration Link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032374283&Culture=en-US (Event ID: 1032374283)