The Liquidator : ALM

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Catalyst Live Workshops

Mark.Carroll — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:48:00 GMT

If your into Visual Studio Team system or thinking about it then check out this link to the free ALM Catalyst Live Workshops series.

These workshops consist of four two-hour interactive workshops that are repeated over a period of sixteen weeks (starting last week and running through the end of the FY), which gives customers the flexibility to fit it within their schedules.

Topics cover different roles (eg: Project Management, Testers) and facets (eg: quality, deployment).

Some are scheduled at times convenient for a NZ audience (PDT is one day behind and 4 hours ahead before NZ Daylight savings finish and then PDT is one day behind and 3 hours ahead ) - simpler than saying 21 and 20 hours behind I reckon.

Big Deal #1 – Cloud computing - Announcements from PDC in Los Angeles – Oct 2008

Mark.Carroll — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:29:00 GMT

Speaking personally – ‘Big Deals for Me’ of 2008

I am starting the New Year with reflections on the year just gone in the form of three ‘big deals for me’ that came out of 2008. I’ll discuss each of these ‘Big Deals for Me’ , how they are inter-related and where I expect them to lead in 2009 over the next couple of weeks via this blog.

Big Deal #1 – Cloud computing - Announcements from PDC in Los Angeles – Oct 2008

Cloud computing platforms will not sweep all else before them.

We all know that cloud computing is going to factor a lot more in the future of IT and subsequently the future of all of us as IT professionals. I don’t believe cloud computing is the ‘next big thing that will sweep all else before it” - but I can see why some folk would want to believe this. What I believe is more likely is that there will be an incorporation of ‘the cloud’ onto existing platform models including Client and Server. This has always been the case in the past with major changes – for example mainframes and batch computing which by in large pre-dated ‘client’ and ‘server’ platform models still abound out there it is just that now a majority have switched to front to PC clients instead of using card readers and drum printers.

How platforms have become established in the past.

Market forces and ‘existing investments’ always dictate that new types of platforms first ‘attach’ themselves to existing models, then extend those existing models and finally subsume them if they are really that great. This more likely evolutionary rise to any prominence for the cloud is entirely consistent with the Software plus Services (S+S) strategic pattern that I have been talking about for the last couple of years. The announcement of Windows Azure (internet-scale cloud services platform which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together) combines with past experience to create a clear strategy for cloud computing platforms for architects. That clear strategy is to attach (the cloud) from existing assets on existing platforms (client, server) rather than consider a ‘rip and replace’ strategy. Given current economic conditions and the emphasis they will inevitably place on the protection of ‘existing investments’ that architectural strategy is also consistent with the experience of new platform technologies that I just outlined earlier. The first step is for new platform models to ‘attach’ to existing models. The cloud platform will be no different. S+S provides patterns for that ‘attach’ strategy when attaching the cloud to existing Client and existing Server applications.

Gartner’s platform triangle.

If you think of the existing mainstream platform models as being ‘Client’ and ‘Server’ then I agree with Gartner’s summation of the PDC announcements about Azure when they say that cloud based Windows Azure is the ‘completion of the Microsoft platform triangle’. That summary though does not entirely acknowledge the very important facts that the Azure architecture is designed to be compatible with both the .NET platform (which already underpins client and server platform models) and the existing development platform - Visual Studio. That means developers do not need to learn a whole new set of paradigms, libraries and development tools and can leverage both their existing knowledge and some of their existing building block ‘assets’.

Where to in 2009?

My own views are that , as it evolves, the addition of Cloud computing to the Microsoft platform triangle will drive two key thought processes in the coming year;

- A renewed interest in architecture and software development best practices;

- A whole new set of standards debates and standards initiatives.

Both of these ‘Driven thought processes’ feature in my in my other ‘big deals for 2008’ and I’ll explain the linkages when I outline those in the next couple of weeks in this blog.

October Power Tools now available - Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2008

Mark.Carroll — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:36:00 GMT

Following up on my Team system user group talk on Power Tools earlier this year I am stoked to see that the new edition of power tools previewed earlier in Brian Harry's blog here have now been released and are available for download here.

These Power tools just keep getting more and more useful – to me the main things in this release of interest are focused on Team member identification / collaboration, use of Power Shell and making installation easier. There is lots of other stuff.

IMHO the October power tools are well worth a quick download and checking out on a VPC TFS (either TFS eval or TFS workgroup edition are just fine for this ) before installing on your production TFS server.

Acceptance Test Engineering Guide (BETA1) – From Codeplex

Mark.Carroll — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:07:00 GMT

This guide in BETA1 form is a document that will help with both the understanding and execution of acceptance testing. It provides useful role definitions, process models and decision making guidance in a form that is relatively easy to digest compared to other works I’ve seen on the same subject. At 4MB it is a straightforward PDF download (after you agree to some license terms) that encourages feedback on the work as a community project.

The community site including download is here.

I get a lot of feedback on acceptance testing during our Team System User group sessions. Essentially this role in Visual Studio Team system is the realm of both the Test edition and Team explorer – I’ve shown this a number of times using the v-model diagram *1 which I often trot out when presenting on Team system.

The key thing about acceptance testing is that it really is the final step in determining if requirements have been met and so is critical for detecting faults in both the requirements and system development processes – in other words;

Acceptance testing = Verification of results + Continuous Improvement into both requirements and software build processes;

The guide helps identify who would be interested in this project;

You are involved in deciding whether to accept the software as it is being built. This is the

acceptance decision.

· You are involved in collecting data that the person making the acceptance decision requires to

make that decision. This is acceptance testing.

· You are involved in deciding whether the product is ready to be seen by the people involved in

the acceptance decision or acceptance testing. This is the readiness decision.

· You are involved in collecting data that the person making the readiness decision requires to

make that decision. This is readiness assessment.

· You are involved in defining the expectations against which the readiness assessment or

acceptance testing activities will be conducted. This is a combination of requirements gathering

and test design.

· You are involved in managing any of the preceding activities.

Well worth a download and a read – comparable publications I’ve seen are up around the $50 NZ Mark and lets face it being electronic its friendlier on the environment J

*1 the V-Model with Team system roles identified

Using Team Foundation Server to Develop Custom SharePoint Products and Technologies Applications

Mark.Carroll — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:13:00 GMT

I get asked reasonably often - "How can I use Team Foundation server (TFS) to support Sharepoint application development?”

Guidance is now available on MSDN which promises to help you provide an integrated development environment and single source code repository for process activities, integrated progress reporting, and team roles.

The goals of this guidance really makes sense to me - anyone who has completed a successful Sharepoint development will readily tell you that some of the challenges they faced were essentially basic 'ALM issues' - the sort that team system is very good at solving. Problem is no one I've spoken really knew where to start using TFS - lots of different ideas (perhaps too many) and I guess also a genuine fear of over complicating a Sharepoint based development beyond a sensible 'payback' point.

I'd love to get feedback on your experiences using this feedback for anyone who is in a position to try it out locally.

The heading article can be found here - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc948982.aspx

Preview of the next TFS Power Tools release

Mark.Carroll — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:18:00 GMT

One month after after our NZ Team system users group talk on Visual Studio Team system power Tools, over on Brian Harry's blog there is a new post previewing the next TFS Power tools release.

Here are seven good reasons to talk with your Team system's admin about looking out for this power tool release;

1. The Team Members node in Team Explorer allows you to identify the people who are participants in a project and organize them into sub teams if necessary.
2. Things you can do with People - When you right click on a user, you start to see the kinds of things you can now do with this new Team Members Power Tool.
Collaboration Providers
3. Because there are numerous Instant Messaging systems out there and we can't possibly build integration with all of them, we have built an extensible system that allows you to build integration into whatever IM system you use.
4. Windows Shell Extension - We've built a Windows Shell Extension that allows you to do version control operations directly from the Windows shell. No need to run VS/Team Explorer to do basic stuff any more.
5. PowerShell Support - We've started down the path of creating a PowerShell interface for TFS.
6. tfpt unshelve /undo - People often use shelvesets to do code reviews. Sometimes they want to unshelve them to be able to review them carefully.The problem they run into is how to remove all traces of them from their workspace when they are done.
7. TFS Best Practices Analyzer improvements - With every release we improve the level of diagnostics the BPA tool can perform. In this release we've added support for diagnosing SSL configuration issues and for diagnosing more problems that lead to Team Project Creation Wizard failures.

Visual Studio Team System 10 on Channel 9

Mark.Carroll — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:05:00 GMT

I will be covering some of this material in a fortcoming New Zealand Team system Users group session later this year. In the meantime this session is well worth watching as an early 'heads-up' for what is coming in Visual Studio Team System 10 (aka Rosario).

Norman Guadagno, the Director of Product Management for Visual Studio Team System shares the key enhancements coming in the next version of Visual Studio, officially named Visual Studio 2010. In this video, you'll hear Norman discuss new features in Team Architect including new visual designers and UML support, new software quality features including historical debugging, how the Database Edition is being rolled rolled into the Team Developer edition and lots more.

Link > http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Norman-Guadagno-Announcing-Visual-Studio-Team-System-2010/

Model Driven Development – Microsoft joins OMG

Mark.Carroll — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:33:00 GMT

Object Management Group (OMG) are a modelling standards group.

Last week at Tech-ed 2008 I gave a talk that included, amongst other things, a quick demo of the UML designers in the April CTP of Rosario (the next version of Visual Studio Team System). Lots of people have asked since what is our direction on modelling. Questions such as ‘What is the future for Domain Specific Langugaes (DSL) going to be ?”; “Are we going to go with a full ‘round trip’ code vision with this ?”

The answer is ‘watch this space’ and watch for developments in products, product previews *1, standards and standards group memberships / participation. One such move has just happened today – Bob Muglia Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Server and Tools business has just announced that Microsoft is joining OMG. Here is the announcement. Now this has happened my own personal opinion is that I think it is a pretty safe bet that UML has a strong future on the MS platform and inside Visual Studio Team system.

The next ‘marker post’ along this road will be the next CTP release for Rosario, likely to be later this month. The moment it shows up I will post the link to this blog.

*1: Rosario CTP’s are currently prime source of information for those working on the Microsoft Platform;

Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server Power Tools Released

Mark.Carroll — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:08:00 GMT

I love the power tools available for VS 2008 TFS - they add an incredible number of features and functions both for specilaist roles and for meeting specific needs in the areas of configuration integration and administration.

The latest release is available here (Yes I know it says March release - it was published on 22 April)

This latest release has the following power tools available;

Command line tool (TFPT.EXE)
Team Explorer IDE menu additions
Build Notification tool
TFS Best Practices Analyzer
Process Template Editor
Work Item Templates
Custom check-in policies
TFS Server Manager

Brian Harry, a Microsoft Technical Fellow working as the Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server, offers more details about the content of the package released. This is a short list of the features included:

Process Template Editor support for custom work item controls
TFSServerManager client
TFS BPA support for Windows Server 2008
Work Item Template improvements
Scriptable Team Project creation
Support for 64-bit Sharepoint farms
Improvements to tfpt review
Performance improvements in tfpt online

Coming up - Team system user groups in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland

Mark.Carroll — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:10:00 GMT

The next round of Visual Studio Team system user groups are getting underway – we have Richard Vowles of Developers Inc speaking this time around;

Title: How does your team manage its work?

In this talk we will be discussing how various team members can keep track of work allocations, progress and overall software project completion.

We will look at how the team’s operational roles (developers, testers, architects and DBA’s) can use Team system to receive their work stream items and report progress on them through to completion. We will also look at how Team leads, Technical project managers and Enterprise project managers can integrate with the team’s operational roles for both planning and progress reporting.

This talk will cover aspects of Team system’s work item tracking and its integration with management tools along with the other progress tracking and reporting tools available.

Attendance is by RSVP – to register click on the appropriate link and send the email created with the subject line intact (note confirmation reminders sent out day before event have full venue details including address)

Wellington Tue 22 April at 5:30, Microsoft WLG (Level 12 Vodofone on the Park, Lambton Quay)

Christchurch Mon 5 May at 5:30, Intergen CHC (Hereford St Christchurch)

Auckland Thu 8 May at 5:30, Microsoft AKL (Next door to Vodofone)

Do you want notifications of future New Zealand Visual Studio Team System User Group events ?

If you want to be included in notifications for for future events send an email to nzvstsug@microsoft.com with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject line.

VS2008 RTM week – some good VS Team System links

Mark.Carroll — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:44:00 GMT

A Busy week.

This one is for Visual Studio Team system users - I've extracted a number of blog posts and downloads that are most relevant for Team system users. Dont forget that if you wish to join the mailing list for the NZ Visual Studio Team systems users group you can do this by sending an email to nzvstsug@microsoft.com with a subject line of 'subscribe' and the name of the town you are from (eg: Auckland, Wellington etc).

On with the posts !

For Download (MSDN Subscribers) of VS2008 go here Visual Studio 2008 RTM

For the excellent Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Training Kit go here download.

For details on Power Tools for VSTS 2008 check out this blog entry on bHarrys weblog View article...

For VSTS new features check these out http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2007/08/08/final-tfs-2008-feature-list.aspx , Also, Jeff Beehler has produced a very nice indexed feature list that covers all of VSTS http://blogs.msdn.com/jeffbe/archive/2007/11/19/visual-studio-team-system-2008-ships.aspx

TFS Migration tools bharry’s recent blog post is here > View article...

Whats new in TFS – Buck Hodges weblog – here > View article...

Enjoy !

Test Driven Development on NZ ARCast

Mark.Carroll — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:25:00 GMT

Two guys who can talk on a subject they love equals one Podcast gem.

Recently, in a role reversal, Lukas Svobda host of NZ Arcast shoved a microphone under Ron Jacobs (hoster of worldwide Arcast) nose and they discussed mainly Test Driven development (TDD). Both of these guys are friends of mine and take it from me they can both talk up a storm but interestingly between them they have produced a podcast here that sums up years of experience on TDD and is an absolute gem. It lasts 33 minutes and contains some interesting and relevant material on not only the theory of TDD but also how it can be a powerful tool for architects as well as developers and testers.

What I like about this Podcast

- The link between TDD and Continuous integration;

- Why code quality is strongly linked with TDD – it is much easier and far less risky to refractor ‘manky’ code working in an environment where TDD is practised;

- Design large (architecture) versus Design small (coding) and how TDD can link them (interesting question posed by Ron – should architects write tests ? );

- Time invested in TDD pays a definite return , reduces time and cost over the code life whilst increasing quality;

Some observations of my own.

I have used TDD on a number of occasions back in the days when I used to cut a lot of code. A couple of things I learnt which Ron and Lukas would not have had time to cover are;

- Run the tests when you check something out – there is nothing worse than breaking the code and then discovering later (after a lot of mucking about) that it was broken long before it got to you. Of course if you are using Team system you can reduce the risk of this happening by using appropriate check in policies and incorporating base tests as part of your build;

- Test for exceptions (failures) – a lot of the time code will attempt to manage exceptions and things like escalation and error codes are essential pre-requisite disciplines to have in these situations. Force exception conditions and make sure they return the appropriate ‘error code’ at the right time and in the right place;

TDD is not just about unit testing and the ROI can be maximised by automation

Recently I’ve been talking a lot with Doug Taylor the Chief architect for Provoke – Doug is using VSTS 2008 Test edition to amongst other things load and performance test web sites they are developing using MOSS and ASP.NET. As a team they have deliberately leveraged their testing approaches and tools with the goal of gaining a reputation for producing functional and reliable web sites (both intranet and internet). In my experience teams that stick with these disciplines over time succeed in achieving such goals and generate a lot of additional business for their owners. There is definite return on investment (ROI) on testing and quality focus and one way to maximise that ROI is to automate testing as much as possible and not just at the ‘unit test’ level.

One clear message I have for anyone looking to implement such strategies themselves is that ensuring TDD is the norm and that automation is both acceptable and supported is just that - a strategy and as such requires buy in from managment, architects, developers and testers.

Code Analysis and Code Metrics - Orcas Team Developer & Suite

Mark.Carroll — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 06:44:00 GMT

Building quality in ! - The next release of Visual Studio Team developer has some very nice features for those 'true practitioners of software quality' in the form of Code Analysis and Code metrics.

I say 'true practitioners of software quality' because there is a whole community out there who believe in Deming’s first principals of quality and the one in particular that talks about the need to 'build in quality' rather than simply measure quality by 'testing after the event' and then, by implication, learn from your mistakes via a process of 'continuous improvement'. Its a fair enough argument too - anyone who has written a lot of code knows that it is far easier to test well written code as opposed to badly written - the key reasons being that well written code not only makes it easier to find 'bugs' after testing but also tends to have fewer bugs anyway.

Now it can be argued that competent developers write well written code and that those same competent developers also produce far fewer bugs because they are competent. I beg to differ at times - over thirty years in IT I have seen some appalling code come through bug free and some 'exquisite' examples of the art of coding coming out riddled with bugs. Fact is that code analysis is another tool in the 'software code quality' arsenal that can, if used correctly save a lot of grief later either in the current or later iterations of the Application Life cycle(s) that are leveraging a particular piece of code or an entire code base.

Here is a link to the Visual Studio Code Analysis Team blog that goes into these powerful new features comping to Team Developer.

Calling Visual Studio Team users in the Canterbury area - VSTS DB-Pro session 17 May

Mark.Carroll — Tue, 08 May 2007 04:29:00 GMT

As I've mentioned on a number of occaisions a number of folk out there are keen to get something akin to a VSTS/TFS users group up and running - if you are interested in such a group and you live in Canturbury then check this out (Note that AKL and WLG based folk will get a chance later)

Title: A look at Team System Database Pro Edition
Christchurch 17/05/2007

Gather at 12:00 pm, starting at 12:30 pm

Presented by Mike Zeff

Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals (previously known as Data Dude) enables database professionals and developers who work with databases with more control over their Microsoft SQL Server databases throughout the application lifecycle. This session will demonstrate the features of VSTE DB Professional and we will discuss how it can be used to improve quality via automated testing, implement change management and improve collaboration and communication throughout the design and development process.

Mike Zeff is a Development Advisor in the Platform and Strategy Group at Microsoft New Zealand, focussed on helping ISVs use Microsoft's latest development tools and technologies in their own products. Prior to working in the Platform and Strategy Group, Mike was a Development Consultant for Microsoft Consulting Services for 5 years.

Canterbury Innovation Incubator
200 Armagh Street, Christchurch.

Parking

Convenient parking may be found in the city council car parking building, which is located on the corner of Manchester St and Gloucester St (access from Manchester St). This park allows free parking for the first half hour and is open from 7.30 am to 6.15 pm throughout the week.

Patterns & Practices - Enterprise Library 3.0 released

Mark.Carroll — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 14:01:00 GMT

Hot off the press from the P&P team key points for me are;

Integration with WCF and Visual Studio not to mention Windows Forms and ASP.NET for the Validation Application block;
Relevance to Ivar Jacobson's (one of the fathers of the Unified Process) recent article in Dr Dobbs Journal - “Enough of Processes, let's do practices”
No new releases for Enterprise Library in 2007;

The Enterprise Library application blocks help address the common problems that developers face from one project to the next. They are designed to encapsulate the Microsoft recommended best practices for .NET applications. In addition, they can be added to .NET applications quickly and easily. For example, the Data Access Application Block provides access to the most frequently used features of ADO.NET 2.0 in simple-to-use classes, thus boosting developer productivity. It also addresses scenarios not directly supported by the underlying class libraries.

This release of Enterprise Library includes two new application blocks (the Validation Application Block and the Policy Injection Application Block), two guidance packages, and a configuration editor that is integrated with Visual Studio. There are also additions in functionality to the Data Access Application Block and to the Logging Application Block. The highlights of the new release include:

Validation Application Block. Allows you to centrally define validation rules using configuration or attributes, and easily validate data from anywhere in your application, including deep integration with Windows Forms, ASP.NET and WCF.
Policy Injection Application Block. Provides an approach for separating cross-cutting concerns from business logic using declarative policies that are attached at runtime to methods on your objects. The block includes handlers that can call other Enterprise Library application blocks from policies, implementing functionality such as validation, authorization, exception handling, logging and caching.
Application Block Software Factory. Dramatically simplifies the process of building application blocks and providers through the magic of guidance automation.
Visual Studio-integrated Configuration Editor. Edit Enterprise Library configuration files directly within Visual Studio.
Environmental Overrides. Use the configuration tool to specify configuration settings that are common or different across multiple deployment environments, and merge this information into configuration files to be deployed with your applications.
WCF Integration. Easily integrate the Logging, Exception Handling and Validation Application Blocks into service interfaces built using Windows Communication Foundation.
Pre-compiled, strong-named binaries. No need to compile and strong name the code unless you want to manage and evolve the code yourself.

Roadmap

No new releases of Enterprise Library are planned for 2007. The patterns & practices team will consider opportunities to update Enterprise Library in the future based on customer feedback and new platform and product releases. Architects and developers who would like to provide feedback to improve future releases of Enterprise Library should participate in Enterprise Library Community site on CodePlex.

Resources

MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/entlib
Community: http://codeplex.com/entlib
Webcast: New Capabilities in Enterprise Library 3.0