marcus's Team System motivation and experience : News

MSDN News

marcalt — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:55:01 GMT

2 interessting updates for MSDN Subscribers were announced recently:

#1 Windows Home Server Releasing to MSDN Subscribers

Windows Home Server is available for MSDN Subscribers of all levels. Subscribers can directly download it today.

#2 Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Embedded

We will release an new subscription called Microsoft® Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition with MSDN® Embedded.

The new subscription build on traditional MSDN benefits by providing developers of embedded devices with a single subscription for access to a variety of Microsoft operating systems, technical support and other resources. The subscription includes the Visual Studio suite of software development tools and the following Windows Embedded platforms and technologies:

Windows Embedded CE, a 32-bit native, componentized, hard real-time operating system designed for small-footprint devices
Windows Embedded Standard, the next generation of Windows XP Embedded for advanced enterprise devices
Windows Embedded NavReady 2009, which provides innovative technologies to help build devices optimized for portable navigation
Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, a flexible operating system designed to seamlessly connect point-of-service (POS) solutions with peripherals, servers and services

MSDN Premium subscribers will also have access to the resources in MSDN Embedded, enhancing their existing MSDN investments.

The worldwide launch date will be July 1, 2009.
This new subscription level will become available for purchase by Volume License customers when we release the Visual Studio 2010.

Team System Conference 2009 – 5.-7. May in Munich

marcalt — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:08:57 GMT

I am very excited that we will have the 2nd Team System Conference here in Munich only a good month from now. We want to drive last years conference success forward to a new dimension and this is really the event where you should be when you are interested in Visual Studio Team System, Software Engineering Practices or Software Development Process topics like SCRUM. Ken Schwaber the father of SCRUM will have the Keynote on Tuesday and as SCRUM gets more and more popular especially with Team System Tooling this is a great chance to really get ideas and thoughts from Ken. Besides Technical and engineering specific sessions we also have a broad variety of customers that will share their Team System experience with all of you. Including names like Autoscout 24, Ernst & Young, HVB Information Service, Siemens AG, T-Systems and many others. Wednesday will start with the Microsoft Keynote held by Cameron Skinner the VSTS Product Unit Manager for the Architecture Product Line, talking about “Continuing the ALM journey – An exciting look into VSTS 2010”.

Additionally we have a big variety of super interesting workshops on different topics.

We look forward to see you at TeamConf 2009 and want to encourage you to have a look into the Agenda or register directly to save your seat!

VSTS in 2009 – Prepare for the future!

marcalt — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:50:23 GMT

Happy new year - 2009 will be a great Team System year!!

VSTS 2010 will improve and get further and what I often hear from customers is the question “How can I get ready for VSTS2010”.

The true answer is: adopt VSTS2008 today and learn as much as you can regarding the current release.

Most things you do and learn will still be valid in the next release and VSTS2010 is a very huge release! If you don’t have a good understanding of VSTS2008 your lerning curve will be very steep. So how can you inprove your knowledge.

For the german audience I want to be sure to point you to a bunch of valuable Team System trainings that are offered today:

TeamSystem Camp

DevGroup Team System Trainings

TeamSystemPro-Seminare

- Seminar #1: Projektleitung, -steuerung und Auswertungen (2 Tage)

- Seminar #2: Configuration Management, Build & Release Management (2 Tage)

- Seminar #3: Qualitätssicherung / Qualitätssteuerung und Test-Management (2 Tage)

- Seminar #4: Softwareprozess-Anpassung, Custom Development (2 Tage)

- Seminar #5: Installation, Administration/Betrieb, Lizenzfragen (1 Tag)

Besides that it is a good idea to look out for the VSTS 2010 VPC, the VSTS2010 episode on Channel 9 and the beta that we will see later in the year.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=922B4655-93D0-4476-BDA4-94CF5F8D4814&displaylang=en

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4

XTOPIA und Technical Summit

marcalt — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:15:09 GMT

Wir möchten zu 2 Veranstaltungen in der gleichen Novemberwoche Woche in Berlin einladen. Die XTOPIA findet schon zum Zweiten mal statt und bringt das Thema User Experience/Design - Development und Business in einer Konferenz zusammen. 16.-18. November 2009!

Der Technical Summit dagegen, richtet sich an all diejenigen, die keine Chance hatten auf die PDC zu fahren und trotzdem technisch Up-To-Date sein wollen! 19. - 21. November 2009

Auf dem Technical Summit wird es auch eine ganze Menge Team System Session's unter anderem von Christian Binder, Neno Loje (MVP) & Thomas Schissler (MVP) geben, welche alle wichtigen Aspekte rund um Team System ausführlich beleuchten.

Ich würde mich freuen viele bekannte und neue Gesichter dort zu sehen und kann nur anfügen: Termin reservieren und anmelden </Werbung>

TeamConf 2008: A Team System success story

marcalt — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:03:33 GMT

I wrote quite a lot about TeamConf 2008 beforehand but got lost in workload after the conference, not finding the time for writing a review.

The first "Team System Only" Conference world wide was a great success.
We had over 250 attendees and 97% of all attendees gave us the feedback, that they will will recommend TeamConf to others.

We had 3 fantastic days, starting off with practical half and full day workshops, one of the workshops even went till 8:30 pm (scheduled till 6 pm). In the workshops attendees had the chance to really hear practical experience around the Team System space....

The following 2 days where stuffed with great sessions and especially the customer sessions where highly rated. We had > 10 user-sessions from live VSTS customers sharing their experience and success stories. This was a tremendous benefit to the conference. Additionally Ivar and Sam had great keynotes that rounded of the conference program.

One point not to miss: Everyone really enjoyed the networking possibilities. We had a good platform for formal and informal talks in the "finger food" dinner area. This was one of the most important pieces of the conference, besides content and really made a difference according to othe revents I have been.

To sum up: We will have a TeamConf 2009. Be sure to save the date 5.-7. May 2009 in Munich.

And we look forward to see even more attendees, customer success stories and networking possibilities there.

If you are interested, you can have a look to the session content on the TeamConf website.

Stay tuned for an update: We recorded a bunch of sessions, that we will make available on Channel9 the next weeks. I will promote this on my blog.

Besides, according to my blog title: Events like this are pure "Team System Motivation"

Sonntag 2.0

marcalt — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:36:08 GMT

Sonntag 2.0 – ein Mini-Barcamp zum Thema: Web 2.0 und Sicherheits-Aspekte

Schon mal auf einem Barcamp gewesen? Am Sonntag den 25.05.2008 findet unser erstes Mini- Barcamp in München statt zum Thema: Web 2.0 und Sicherheits-Aspekte. Mehr Informationen und kostenfreie Anmeldung unter: http://sonntag.mixxt.de/

Kevin Kelly @ TeamConf

marcalt — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:01:56 GMT

Another Team System Conference News:

Kevin Kelly is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft responsible for all Team Foundation Server marketing. Before that Kevin was a leader in developing Team Foundation Server (TFS) serving as Principal Program Manager for work item tracking and version control subsystems

We have a limited possibility to setup personal meetings with Kevin. So if you plan to attend TeamConf and have topics that you want to discuss with our product marketing, please ping me and I will check wether we can arrange a meeting. A talk with Kevin or Sam at TeamConf will always be possible because they are around most of the time.

Looking forward to see you at the conference!

Microsoft 360° Security Days 2008

marcalt — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:58:05 GMT

Security 360° - das bedeutet Sicherheit aus der Rundum-Perspektive. Microsoft bietet auf dieser Veranstaltung einen umfassenden Überblick zum Thema „Sicherheit in der Softwareentwicklung“ - für Entwickler, Projektleiter, Architekten und Entwicklungsleiter. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf den Grundlagen der Entwicklung sicherer Software. Die Vorträge der Veranstaltung geben handverlesene Erfahrungen weiter, die direkten Praxisbezug haben.

Die Termine:

· München, 26. Mai 2008, Frankfurt/Hanau, 28. Mai 2008, Düsseldorf, 30. Mai 2008

Weitere Informationen, eine detaillierte Agenda sowie die Möglichkeit zur Anmeldung (Early-Bird-Preis: 125,- EUR bis 25.04.2008) finden Sie unter: http://www.securitytour.de/

Team System Session's auf dem Launch 2008

marcalt — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:46:47 GMT

Der Launch 1 Ort. 2 Veranstaltungen. 4 Produkte.
vom 19.-21. Februar 2008 wird das Ereignis zu Visual Studio 2008.

Für alle Teilnehmer die vor allem an Visual Studio Team System Themen interessiert sind haben wir alle Session's zu diesem Thema zusammengefasst, so dass die persönliche Agendaplanung leicht von der Hand geht. Ich freue mich viele "Leser" meines Blogs in Frankfurt zu treffen und werde am Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Stand zu finden sein:

Team Foundation Server 2008 - Versionsverwaltung im Überblick
Christian Binder, DEV Track1, Dienstag 17:15 Uhr

Erfolgreiche Softwareprojekte mit Visual Studio Team System 2008
Marcus Alt, TDM Track, Mittwoch 09:15 Uhr

Visual Studio Team System 2008 im Überblick
Christian Binder, DEV Track1, Mittwoch 11:00 Uhr

Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals
Bernhard Frank, DEV Track2, Mittwoch 13:45 Uhr

Bessere Applikationen entwickeln durch Integrierte Qualitätssicherung mit Visual Studio Team System 2008
Christian Binder, DEV Track1, Mittwoch 15:30 Uhr

German Visual Studio 2008 and Web Access Versions released

marcalt — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:30:14 GMT

As Visual Studio 2008 was RTM already since end of November we were still waiting for the localized versions.

Last week we finally released the German localized versions. They are immediately available on MSDN for Download.

Let me take this occasion to give you an summary update on VS2008 new&cool stuff:

German Web Access Power Tool: The well-liked Web Access is now also available in German. This is the first German release and I know many customers were waiting for this for a long time now. I am looking forward to getting your feedback on this release.

Many AddOns and Cool Tools were already released through the December Power Tools Package. In there you find well known stuff like Process Template Editor, Power Tools Command Line ... as well as new tools like TFS Best Practice Analyzer, Work Item Templates, CheckIn-Policy-Pack and a brand new Build Notification Tray tool that is really worth installing!

The MSSCCI Provider has also be updated for TFS 2008.

TFS Admin Tool for TFS 2008 is also available for download from CodePlex.

And for the ones who just want to upgrade to TFS 2008 you will find additional information on Brian's blog.

Additionally you find information to compare the different Visual Studio Editions on our MSDN Product Comparison and the Download Site for VS2008 TRIAL Editions.

V-Modell® XT for Team Foundation Server released

marcalt — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:11:57 GMT

We just released our V-Modell® XT Implementation for Visual Studio Team System. We deliver a generator that enables the transformation of V-Modell® XT processes into valid Team Foundation Server Process templates. Additionally to delivering V-Modell® XT as a Team System Template we enrich the more "project management" focused V-Modell with detailed process model elements. E.g. High Level V-Modell XT Requirement specification can be implemented as scenario and Quality of Service Work Items using our process merging generator.

This enables a out-of-the-box, real-world usage of "V-Modell® XT for "Visual Studio Team Foundation Server"-based projects.

A major investment has been made into modeling V-Modell® XT work items that are the base artifacts in our implementation. Here the expertise of our implementation partners really a great release possible:

The entire code including a V-Modell - TFS Process Template example can be found on: http://www.codeplex.com/VModellXTTFS

Perfekt organisiert!

marcalt — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:46:18 GMT

Ich freue mich Ihnen eine Roadshow der Extraklasse ankündigen zu dürfen.

Basierend auf fundierter Praxiserfahrung von mehreren Jahren Team System Expertise hat Microsoft gemeinsam mit der AIT (Applied Informations Technologies AG) Ihnen eine Abendveranstaltung der besonderen Art zusammengestellt. Lernen Sie wie Projektmanagement und -steuerung in professionellen Händen aussieht und wie der Visual Studio Team Foundation Server in praktischen Projektszenarien wirklich funktioniert.

Lassen Sie sich davon überzeugen wie auch Ihre Softwareentwicklung in Zukunft "perfekt organisiert" werden kann und minimieren Sie Ihre Projektrisiken:

Themenauszug:

• Kaizen - Umsetzung der Theorien auf die Softwareentwicklung: Welche Leitlinien für prozessorientiertes Handeln entstehen daraus?

• Szenarien aus dem Alltag der Softwareentwicklung - Risiken und Fehler: Wie können alle Teammitglieder aktiv unterstützt werden? Und werden Missverständnisse im Projektverlauf reduziert?

• Projektmanagement und –steuerung: Was sind typische Qualitätsprobleme und wie kann man diese lösen? Auf welche Art tragen Build Prozesse zur Verbesserung der Produktqualität bei? Welche Vorteileentstehen durch mehr Transparenz in der Zusammenarbeit?

• Nutzenvergleich: Die integrierte „Application Lifecycle Platform“ versus einer zusammengestellten Produktlandschaft: Welche Vorteile bieten sich bei der Versionsverwaltung, beim Bug- und Work-Tracking, beider Code Analyse und der Ermittlung von Metriken?

Direkt anmelden unter: www.aitag.com/tfsseminar

TFS Operation and Problem Management

marcalt — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:09:23 GMT

One of the more painful sides of TFS has been the experience around installation, operations and problem management. The product group is more then aware of this fact and we will be changing this experience with Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas). This is a high priority focus we have for the release.

Operations:

Besides changes in the product and installation, that will happen with VS 2008 we have always struggled around lack of information and wide distributed information on ZFS operation. This is now addresses through the just released Operations Guidance for TFS. In there you find a consolidated version of all operations topics:

- e.g where is configuration information stored

- Wide range of information on handling TFS and related (WSS+Reporting Services) rights

- Backup and maintenance strategy and details:

- Always combined with recommendations out of best practice experiences

Be sure to have this guide in place, when you are responsible for TFS operations! All together about 16 pages full of important information and further links.

Problem Management:

A second real tricky part comes up when you have problems with your current installation. Other products have established "Best Practice Analyzer Tools". I am really glad that we also offer this for TFS in our newest power tools release.

Be sure to have the power shell installed beforehand, the error message missing this is not too
clear :-)

The Best practice analyzer enables a full check on your TFS and is able to discover most of the known issues and problem fields. It also coverers the analysis of the pre-install requirements. Insufficient coverage of preinstall requirements is a common problem on TFS installation failures.

After running the analyzer the resulting report really shows these topics and gives clear help on how to solve the problem:

Go into details:

And here you see the related help:

Additionally you can export scan runs and reload scan reports that have been run before, print reports and search in the scan results.

Brian Harry on the tool:

"Oh my has this tool been a big help. It's no secret that TFS configuration can be complicated and diagnosing when it has gone wrong requires some expertise. Well, we've finally delivered that expertise in the form of the TFS Best Practices Analyzer. This tool runs against your system and analyzes everything we've thought to look for so far and tells you when your system is not configured correctly (and why). We've been using this tool on support cases for the last few months and it has dramatically reduced the time necessary to figure out what's wrong with TFS. Now we're delivering this tool as a Power Tool for all to use."

Where to buy your VSIP products

marcalt — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:30:19 GMT

This question may get complicated, especially for bigger companies that are not allowed to just buy based on a credit card. Outside the united states tax and other issues even make it harder. I am glad that we can announce the start of the Aservo VSIP portal: http://vsip.aservo.com/

Here is your one stop shop for all major Team System VSIP Products like stpStoryboarding, Teamlook, Osellus... Combined with news and newsletter distribution this is a great place to get all information around VSIP offernings and related Team System information for the german market. Be sure to have a look.

Announcing 1st Team System Conference April 2008

marcalt — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:18:52 GMT

As you may have noticed it has been a bit quite around my blog. Actually I was off for summer vacation and since then I am trying to catch up with all news and information that has come up during this time. It seems to be a mission impossible, so I will need to stay a few more days with a long backlog and blogging must be delayed a bit. But one thing I really want to let you know is the fact that we will have the 1st Team System Conference here in germany in April 2008. Be sure to save the date.

Call for paper is already open and I am super excited to see this event get a big Team System best practice exchange between customers, interesseted parties and the growing german speaking Team System community. The event will be german speaking and we hope to see many folks from swizzerland and austria as well. Look at http://www.TeamConf.de for details!