Randy Miller's Blog : MSF for CMMI Process Improvement

New MSF Class Available For Partners

RandyMiller — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 22:17:00 GMT

Title:

Managing your teams and business process using Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) as a template

Abstract:

Microsoft® Solutions Framework (MSF) is a deliberate and disciplined approach to technology projects based work and organization based on a defined set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, guidelines, and proven practices from Microsoft, our clients and our partner community.

This class introduces MSF concepts, provides an overview of its foundational principles, core models, and essential disciplines and then focuses on how their application contributes to the successful running of a services business.

What is Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)?

Creating meaningful business solutions on time and within budget requires a proven approach. Microsoft Solutions Framework provides an adaptable framework for successfully delivering information technology solutions faster, requiring fewer people, and involving less risk, while enabling higher quality results.

MSF helps teams directly address the most common causes of technology project failure in order to improve success rates, solution quality, and business impact.

Created to deal with the dynamic nature of technology projects and environments, MSF fosters the ability to adapt to continual change within the course of a project. MSF is called a framework instead of a methodology for specific reasons. As opposed to a prescriptive methodology, MSF provides a flexible and scalable framework that can be adapted to meet the needs of any project (regardless of size or complexity) to plan, build, and deploy business-driven technology solutions.

During this 2-day session, we will discuss how to apply the MSF team and process models to your partner organizations to drive better quality, efficiency and profit

The core focus areas are:

1) Building a team

2) Definition and adoption of the MSF process (delivery) model

3) How to properly manage risks

4) Organizational Maturity overview

5) Tools and processes to help drive better profits and reuse

Agenda:

Day 1:

1) MSF Overview

2) MSF Process Model Overview and its application

3) MSF Team Model and its application

Day 2:

4) Risk Management

5) Organizational Maturity Model (Carnegie Melon SEI)

6) Tying it all together

Class Duration: 2 Days - (9am to 5pm) each day

Target Audience: Microsoft Partner Community

Prerequisites: NONE

Registration: http://www.msreadiness.com/IL_abstract.asp?eid=5014632

Dates:

Date/Time	City/State	Partner Price
Dec 11 - 12, 2006 9:00AM-5:00PM	Irving, Texas	$150.00
Jan 17 - 18, 2007 9:00AM-5:00PM	Orlando, Florida	$150.00
Mar 6 - 7, 2007 9:00AM-5:00PM	Irvine, California	$150.00
Mar 19 - 20, 2007 9:00AM-5:00PM	Atlanta (Alpharetta), Georgia	$150.00
Apr 16 - 17, 2007 9:00AM-5:00PM	Chicago, Illinois	$150.00
May 1 - 2, 2007 9:00AM-5:00PM	Denver, Colorado	$150.00
May 14 - 15, 2007 9:00AM-5:00PM	Waltham, Massachusetts	$150.00
Jun 4 - 5, 2007 9:00AM-5:00PM	Bloomington, Minnesota	$150.00

MSF for Agile Software Development and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement Version 4.1 Available

RandyMiller — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 19:02:00 GMT

Yesterday, we released brand new versions of MSF for Agile Software Development and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement. These new versions create the first commercial agile and CMMI-based software development processes with support for database unit tests and refactoring. The release of these processes coincided with the release of our tooling support for these practices, Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals. These new versions also contain several bug fixes and clarifications.

If you are using the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, here are the instructions to update the MSF versions.

Instructions

If you want to view the guidance

1. Download and extract the contents of the zip file to your local machine. (select Use folder names).

2. In the extracted files, review the Readme.

3. To view the content, open \Process Guidance\ProcessGuidance.html.

If you want to update the guidance in a process template

1. Download and extract the contents of the zip file to your local machine.

2. If required, customize process guidance using instructions available at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730855(VS.80).aspx.

3. Download the process template you want to update guidance on from your TFS server to your local machine.

4. Replace “Windows SharePoint Services” folder in the process template you downloaded from TFS with the one you obtained from the web download.

5. Upload the updated process template back to TFS.

6. When you create a new project using this updated process template, the portal will show the updated guidance.

If you want to replace the guidance already on the SharePoint server

1. Download and extract the contents of the zip file to your local machine.

2. Go to the home page of your project portal.

3. Click Documents and Lists, and then "Document Libraries" in the left menu.

4. Replace all files and folders in the following Document Libraries on SharePoint site from their corresponding folders under "Windows SharePoint Services" folder in the process guidance you downloaded.

1. Project Management

2. Requirements

3. Security

4. Test

5. For the "Process Guidance" Document Library, replace the following files and folders with the new content

1. Folder – Supporting Files along with all the subfolders and files

2. File – ProcessGuidance.html

3. File – version.txt

New Version of MSF Available

RandyMiller — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:58:00 GMT

There are newer versions (August 2006) of the MSF process guidance available for download. There has been a few issues with unzipping the CMMI process guidance. Take a look at Rob's post on this subject. Remember that if you want to replace the guidance on an existing project, you need to checkout the existing guidance from the project portal.

We will be moving the MSFWinBuild site from GotDotNet to CodePlex in the near future. When we move the site, we will also make the process guidance source available on it as we currently do on MSDN. We will update them with major releases simultaneously. However, we are considering smaller releases and community feedback through this forum.

MSFWinBuild and Patterns and Practices

RandyMiller — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:59:00 GMT

Many of you have been looking for an updated version of MSFWinBuild. Sanjeev and his team have taken what Rakesh previously built, refined it, and packaged it up nicely. Take a look at our GotDotNet site and download the latest executable (under the Releases link on the left hand side). We still have the source code for this xml to html compiler available so feel free to join this community and contribute to the site.

Many of you may not have heard of the news. MSF and Patterns and Practices are now part of the same team. To see many of the folks who I am now working with, check out the Patterns and Practices individual blogs. The way that I see it, MSF has just gotten a whole lot bigger. Some of these folks were instrumental in helping me out with MSF for Agile Software Development.

Speaking of MSF, I have changed roles slightly. I am now working with our customers to get feedback for the next couple of releases. If you see something that you would like, please give me a shout. I am always looking for feedback.