How are you capturing the business needs when building a software application? Data diagram, requirements? Can your business contacts (the one requesting a new solution through a software application) understand and read these “pre-technical” documents? Can you capture properly their demands and visions?
We know the answer … the standard process is to capture the business requirements in some kind of Word document, to let them sign off and then handover to the developers … crossing the fingers that the result is align with the business needs and expectations
Is there another way to capture or “visualise” the business needs prior to any technical activity? … What about sketchflow?
Instead of building documents, can you draw some quick and dirty (sketch) screens and ask the business to validate them?
(Can be done with some sketch controls or by drawing on a tablet)
Then you could wire-frame these screens and build a first level of navigation
And send the “draft” for feedback as a running workflow to your stakeholders or users (Draft actually behaves like an application)
(Feedback gadget included – left hand toolbar)
And then only start to capture requirements starting with what the business signed off
Looking for more info about SketchFlow? you’ll have to wait for Expression Blend 3!
I recommend the session with Matt Morphett at Remix Australia
cheers,
J.
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don't foreget to update your link or rss feed if you are following my blog.
I'm moving to http://dannawi.wordpress.com/
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Best of breed open source solution will not help you in supporting the best practices when building application software. Even if you invest a lot of time (and money), you will only acheive a minimum level of integration (source control and project management or source control and code quality checks …).
For that reason, many teams are moving from CVS or SVN (Subversion) to TFS (Visual Studio Team Foundation Server). Not because CVS or SVN is not doing a good job for source control management but because they need to integrate all the components (and tools) used but the application development team.
To support this move from CVS and SVN to TFS, you could use Timely Migration
Timely Migration is a suite of tools designed to be the complete solution for moving detailed history from your existing source control system. Timely Migration aims to eliminate roadblocks for transitioning your organization to Team Foundation Server caused by the lack of viable migration tools.
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remember, I'm moving my blog to http://dannawi.wordpress.com/
Over the next couple of weeks, I'll blog on both MSDN and Wordpress but I'm planning to use exclusively the new one by the end of July.
please update the link if you are following my blog
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J.
Have you heard about TeamSpec ?
Team Spec provides rich team project artifact management directly inside Microsoft Office Word allowing specification, requirement, and other document content to maintain integrity with TFS (Visual Studio Team Foundation Server) content.
Most of the DEV teams are using Word as the primary tool for authoring requirements and then use TFS to manage them (thru work items). Team Spec offers a smooth integration between Word and TFS.
ex: TeamSpec enables you manage changes made to requirements in your document or on the Team Foundation Server, click to watch the video
For more information, please refer to the Team Solution web site.
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remember, I'm moving my blog to http://dannawi.wordpress.com/
Over the next couple of weeks, I'll blog on both MSDN and Wordpress but I'm planning to use exclusively the new one by the end of July.
please update the link if you are following my blog
---
J.
Despite all of the advances in automated testing tools and frameworks over the last decade, manual testing still constitutes the lion's share of testing effort within most software development organizations.
This episode of 10-4 will introduce the new capabilities in Visual Studio Team System 2010 for supporting manual testing. You will see how these capabilities will not only help manual testers do their jobs more effectively, but this approach also helps developers by providing detailed diagnostics information about tests when they fail.
remember, I'm moving my blog to http://dannawi.wordpress.com/
Over the next couple of weeks, I'll blog on both MSDN and Wordpress but I'm planning to use exclusively the new one by the end of July.
please update the link if you are following my blog
J.
Hi,
I'll move my blog to http://dannawi.wordpress.com/
Over the next couple of weeks, I'll blog on both MSDN and Wordpress but I'm planning to use exclusively the new one by the end of July.
please update the link if you are following my blog
cheers,
J.
The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos.
This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies including.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en
Following few demands, here are some useful links :
J.
New Standish Chaos report ... same results .
The report shows a backwards trend in software success:
- 32% Successful (On Time, On Budget, Fully Functional)
- 44% Challenged (Late, Over Budget, And/Or Less than Promised Functionality)
- 24% Failed (Canceled or never used)
So, at the end of the day, we (as an industry) are still failing to successfullly build and deliver application software.
Why ? What are the mains reasons ? I would guess
- Lack of Integrated Tools
- Separation of Business and Technology
- Poor Team Communication
- Tracking, Not Managing
- Either Inflexible or Immature Process
- No balance between Productivity and Predictability
humm, the platform and the technology will not help you being more successfull (If it does, the report should had changed over the last 6, if not 20, years)
Best practices and integrated toolset to support them could help ....
On Monday, May 18th, Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 (Professional, Suite and Team Foundation Server) will be available to MSDN Subscribers through MSDN Subscriber Downloads and to the general public on Wednesday, May 20th through Microsoft Downloads.
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
In this episode of 10-4 we look at a new type of test coming in Visual Studio Team System 2010 known as the coded UI test. Coded UI tests can be created to automatically navigate through your application's UI, which in turn can be used to verify that the paths your users might take through your application are working properly. You can also add validation logic along the way to verify the properties of objects within the UI. Much like unit tests can quickly surface regressions on a method or function level, coded UI tests can bring the same level of rapid automated testing capabilities to the UI layer. This demo is based on an early build of Visual Studio Team System 2010 Beta 1.
/ Disclaimer: remove the emotion while reading this post and be as cold in the analysis as an excel spreadsheet can be /
/ Disclaimer #2: TCO include more than just the cost of the solution. Keep in mind that 80 to 85% of a devteam cost is based on people (salary plus full cost for a position). So anything that can increase the productivity will positively impact your activity /
/ Disclaimer #3: Decision are sometimes based on risk and perception and not only on rational facts /
/ Disclaimer #4 : the following post is only investigating the cost dimension /
You know that I sort of like ROI and TCO.
Let’s give you a quick update on a case I have spent some time on
Company A is looking at Team Foundation Server (TFS) or a mix of Open source solutions (Subversion, Jira...) for structuring their development efforts
At this stage, I’m not even talking about software quality. So I’ll add this important topic at the end.
Company A got 2 teams and 10 developers in total.
We spent some time on the benefits of TFS and they agreed that TFS is offering the same level of functionality (if not more) than a mix a “best of breed” open source solutions
So, still without the quality tools, what is the effort to install and use TFS versus Open source
TFS solution (cost is in AU$) over 3 years
· Cost of Team Foundation Server + 10 CALs (client Access Licenses): $ 10 000 (including the maintenance/SA)
· Installation and personalisation: 5 to 10 days, let say 7.
o Average cost of a developer in NSW : $ 1000 per day
o So effort for setting up TFS is $ 7k
· TFS will be updated once during the 3 years: 4 days -> $ 4k
· Administration : 3 days per year -> $ 9k over 3 years
· Total cost
o Over 3 years : $ 30 000
o Annual cost : $ 10 000
Open Source solution over 3 years
· Acquisition cost: $ 0
· Source control/versioning installation and personalisation : 3 days -> $ 3k
· Project and issue management - installation and personalisation : 3 days -> $ 3k
· Continuous integration – installation and personalisation : 2 days -> $ 2k
· Source control and project management integration: 5 days -> $ 5k
· Continuous integration and Source control integration : 10 days -> $ 10k
· continuous integration and Project/issue management integration: 7 days -> $ 7k
· Build the reports on top of the integration: 9 days -> $ 9k
· update of Source control solution over the 3 years – installation and personalisation : 5 days -< $ 5k
· update of Project and issue management: 5 days -> $ 5k
· update of continuous integration solution over the 3 years – installation and personalisation: 3 days -> $ 3k
· update of the integration between Source control / project management / continuous integration after the update : 6 days -> $ 6k
· update of the reports: 5 days -> $ 5k
· administration over the 3 years : 20 days -> $ 20 k
· Total cost
o Over 3 years: $ 83 000
o Annual cost: $ 27 000
Now, what about testing integration?
I am maybe repeating myself when I say that testing itself is useless. You need to know what to test and when to ensure that you are measuring correctly the level of quality. Testing will not improve the quality but reveal your current level.
And if you are turning it the other way, source control + project management + continous integration is useless too! What’s the point to have a crystal clear visibility on the status of the project if you can’t trust what you are tracking? How could you be sure that you are on time and that the job was done properly if you don’t have the testing results?
PREDICATBILITY = VISBILITY + QUALITY checks
So, if we are back to the TFS versus Open source debate, we need to add the testing tools and the integration
TFS + Team Suite
· TCO for TFS : $ 10 000 per year (see previous)
· Team Suite for the developers : $ 44 000 per year
o One Update during the 3 years : $0 as the price include the maintenance/SA
· Integration between Team Suite and TFS : $ 0
· Integration of the results in the reporting : 3 days per year -> $3k (mainly to build the reports)
· Total annual cost is $ 57 000
Open source
· Source control + project management + continuous integration + reports : $ 27 000 per year
· Integration of the quality tools in the process
o Code quality (unit test, code coverage) : 10 days -> $ 10k
o Profiling tools integration : 4 days -> $ 4k
o Code analysis integration : 9 days -> $ 9k
o Manual test : 1 days -> $ 1k
o Functional testing : no “good enough” open source solution
o Load testing: no “good enough” open source solution
o Architecture tools + database management : 9 days -> $ 9k
· Integration of the results in the reports: 20 days per year -> $ 60k
· We agreed (like for Team System) to have one update over the 3 years. We divided the integration efforts by half as the team is more familiar with the tooling
o Integration of the quality tools updates : 15 days -> $ 15k
o Update of the reports : 5 days -> $ 5k
· Total annual cost $ 64 000
And you know what?
· Issue 1 – You still have no functional and load testing
· Issue 2 – You will suffer integration pain and have less granularity and flexibility in the reports
· Issue 3 – The integration you will be build will lock down the way you are working and will rigidify your development efforts
· Issue 4 – You’ll have to keep up with Team System as Microsoft will continue to add value in the solution
o Just look at CAMANO in Team System 2010 for example, where is the open source solution for testing labs and tools to replay a defect scenario (using virtual machine, videos ...). And what about the integration again?
o And camano will be part of Team Suite with no additional cost J
Keep in mind that TCO is not equal to Acquisition cost.
Many techies don’t care about integration and reporting ... manager and CIO do.
To regain credibility we need to be more predictable by using a strong foundation built on process and integration and having automated quality check to ensure that we are delivering the right level of expectation.
Open source solutions are far from being free and only ideologist or “young” architect/project manager could think so. At the end of the day, we are all responsible of our choices and I strongly recommend Team Foundation Server and Team Suite as a good candidate to support the application development best practices.
Again, remember my initials disclaimers. Cost is only a dimension and the challenge of building software is not that simple. What is the risk (or the cost) of not moving? What is the risk of not increasing the software quality? If your website generate $ 100 000 per hour and the site is down because of a bug, are you still happy only about the dev cost? If your top customer is complaining about a defect or a low performance and is looking at the competition or you are losing credibility in his eyes, are you still happy only about controlling the project’s cost?
Look at my post as a light on a specific dimension but the challenge is far from being simple (and If it was, someone would have found a good way to resume it before me J).
Cheers,
Jiji
I'm pleased to share that the Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate) is on track for April 30th for download by MSDN subscribers. Broader, public availability will begin on May 5th.
Check the download website on 30th : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/subscriptions/manage/default.aspx
Key changes between Beta and RC : http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/02/26/some-changes-since-beta.aspx
Cheers,
Jiji
Brian Harry gives a deep dive into the next version of Team Foundation Server (TFS), and learn how TFS has factored its learnings about usability, industrial scale, geographic distribution, manageability, and development process into the next version of the product. See a demonstration of build automation, policy checks, parallel development, new project planning and tracking features, such as agile planning, end to end traceability, reporting, and dashboards, administration and ops --all designed to improve transparency and velocity for teams from size 5 through 50,000.
more useful sessions from the PDC:
- How Microsoft use TFS (In this session we share our internal best practices for version control, branching and merging, work item tracking, metrics, reporting, testing, and integrations with TFS)
- A lap around VSTS 2010
Cheers,
J.
NDepend is a tool that simplifies managing a complex .NET code base. Architects and developers can analyze code structure, specify design rules, plan massive refactoring, do effective code reviews and master evolution by comparing different versions of the code. The result is better communication, improved quality, easier maintenance and faster development.
NDepend is a static analyzer that produce configurable reports to inform the team of potential problem. NDepend comes also with a rich client that let's dig into the architecture and the quality of the code. All this integrate with Visual Studio, Reflector and MSBuild.
Interactive graph and dependency matrix are provided to understand how the code is structured. 82 different code metrics are supported to measure the exact code quality, including lines of code, test coverage and complexity. NDepend can also compare 2 snapshot of the code base to browse the modifications done. Finally, NDepend comes with a SQL-like language that let's search in the code by Name, Size, Complexity, Coupling, Popularity, Coverage, Visibility, Mutability, Purity, Change and Coverage of Changes. This language let's also write rules that developers must follow, such as, make sure that code refactored since the last release is 100% covered by tests.
more information : http://www.ndepend.com
