marcus's Team System motivation and experience : Visual Studio Team System

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"

Where should Team Documents be stored?

marcalt — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:41:12 GMT

I really hear this question quite often and the answer is not easy: If you use Team Portal you are able to profit from all SharePoint Collaboration possibilities, but you don't get Versioning/Labeling with the related Source Code. If you store Documents in Versioncontrol, all NON Developer Roles, not having Team Explorer installed, can't work on them. Both solutions don't really satisfy :-(

Sometimes good solutions are so near. With the TFS Migration Toolkit we deliver a reference implementations for syncing data between TFS and WSS. This makes it possible to use best of both worlds and lets you just synch Team Portal Docs into Versioncontrol. Just have a try!

Many thanks to Klaus Liebe from Zühlke for this tip.

You missed Launch 2008 in Frankfurt: Videos and Presentations are Online

marcalt — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:18:19 GMT

The ones who missed the launch or interesting sessions can download presentations and video recordings on the Launch Portal.

The following Team System related content can be downloaded:

Erfolgreiche Softwareprojekte mit Visual Studio Team System 2008
Marcus Alt

Team Foundation Server 2008 - Versionsverwaltung im Überblick
Christian Binder

Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals
Bernhard Frank

Bessere Applikationen entwickeln durch Integrierte Qualitätssicherung mit Visual Studio Team System 2008
Christian Binder

Additionally I want to point out, the following Session from Stefan Grasmann / Zühlke,
that made a very good review on Software Factories in real life projects:

Software Factories in der Praxis
Stefan Grasmann / Zühlke

Launch 2008 - Welche Sprachversion des Team Foundation Servers installieren?

marcalt — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:46:40 GMT

Die Teilnehmer der Launch-Veranstaltung in Frankfurt konnten bei der kostenlosen Software zwischen der englischen und der deutschen Sprachversionen wählen.

Da beim Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server (TFS) ein nachträgliches Wechseln der Sprache speziell von deutsch auf englisch technisch nicht möglich ist (siehe auch Plan Language Blog Eintrag), sollte vor der Installation die Sprach-Entscheidung getroffen werden. Neben der Oberfläche sind auch die Projektinhalte von der Sprache betroffen.

Wenn Sie auf der Launch-Veranstaltung eine deutsche Version des TFS gewählt haben, können Sie trotzdem die englische Version installieren.

Bitte gehen Sie dabei wie folgt vor:

(1) Laden Sie die englische TFS Trial Version herunter und installieren Sie diese komplett. Diese finden Sie hier: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/de-de/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

(2) Anschließend die Installation erneut aufrufen (über die Windows-Systemsteuerung), die Option „TRIAL aktivieren“ steht direkt im ersten Dialog zur Verfügung.

(3) Den Key der deutschen TFS-Version aus dem Launch Kit eingeben und damit die englische Version des TFS aktivieren.

Ein ausführlichere Beschreibung finden Sie auch auf Brian Harry´s Blog unter:
http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2008/01/15/how-to-i-upg...

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!

Plan language decision for TFS installation very carefully

marcalt — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:49:42 GMT

Hearing this from customers a bunch of times now I want to point out, that you should carefully decide if you really want to use a localized TFS Version.
There is NO supported WAY to change the chosen TFS language after you have created Team Projects. (Before you can for sure uninstall and reinstall). Microsoft does not support changing TFS languages in any way!

If you e.g. install a German TFS and want to use the SCRUM Project Template you are already in trouble. SCRUM as well as most others 3rd Party process templates do not support a German TFS.

If you are not sure, put yourself on the safe side and install an English TFS.

To be clear: This is different for Team Suite and all other Client products here you can change language by simply uninstalling the old and installing the new language version, if you have a valid licence :-)

Tremendous Team System interest at the Launch 2008

marcalt — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:49:48 GMT

Today is the third day of the German Launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 in Frankfurt. I am more then just a bit excited: We had 6.000+ attendees at the Launch and additional 1.500 at the parallel SharePoint Conference.

Heroes Happen Here:

All Team System sessions and we had 5 Team System only ones, where crowded. The rooms where full and we had rooms for 600+ people! We had great feedback and super interesting discussions on all kinds of Team System topics. The Ask the experts booth for Team System was really overrun during most breaks. For me this was one of these events where you really feel proud to belong to the Team System family and this motivates for every minute I invest in Team System.

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!