Rob Caron

Team System Preconference Course at PDC 2008

If you're new to Team System, or if you're ready to use Team Foundation Server for more than version control, you should consider attending the Team System preconference course taught by Brian Randell at PDC 2008: Get More Out of Visual Studio Team System 2008. Brian has been in and around Team System since the early days, and he knows his way around Team Foundation Server.

Get More Out of Visual Studio Team System 2008

Presenter(s): Brian Randell

This preconference will focus both on implementing best practices and avoiding worst practices when working with Team Foundation Server and the suite of client tools. Throughout the day you will cover end-to-end life cycle management. Begin with guidance on defining your team project, source code control, and project classifications system, tips for customizing your process templates and using work items to drive your teams progress. From there you will learn effective techniques for getting your builds set up and running, using quality practices and tools including unit testing, web testing, test publication, profiling and load testing. We close by covering how to move forward once a major milestone is complete. This session assumes familiarity with Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Client Tools; each section of the session will provide practical guidance so that you are getting the most of VSTS and you leave prepared for changes coming in future releases of Team System.

About the presenter(s):

Brian A. Randell is a senior consultant with MCW Technologies, LLC. For over 20 years, Brian has been building software solutions and educating his fellow developers. Brian spends his time teaching Microsoft technologies to developers, working with new and emerging technologies like Visual Studio Team System 2008, and consulting worldwide for Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, state and local governments, and small businesses. Brian enjoys helping people get the most out of their software. He does this through training for Pluralsight, and speaking at events such as VSLive!, Tech•Ed, and the PDC. In addition, Brian shares through the written word. Brian currently writes the Team System column for MSDN Magazine. He is the author and lead instructor of Pluralsight’s Applied Team System and Applied Windows SharePoint Services courses. You can reach Brian via his blog at http://www.mcwtech.com/cs/blogs/brianr.

PDC2008 | Agenda | Pre-Conference

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Templex - The Team Foundation Server Process Template Library

Interested in sharing your process template? Would you rather use one someone else created? Check out the Templex project on CodePlex, which will serve as a library of process templates for use with Team Foundation Server.

Set your templates free! Share and discover Team Foundation Server process templates and other goodies here.

This CodePlex projects serves as a repository for open source Team Foundation Server (TFS) process templates, work item type definitions and report definitions. TFS uses process templates to configure new team projects. Each process template includes the following:

• TFS Security groups and permissions
• Initial set of Areas and Iterations
• Work item type definitions
• Initial set of work items
• Work item querys
• MS Project Mappings
• Version control permissions and settings for check-out and check-in
• Project portal document library settings, including an initial set of documents
• SQL Reporting Services report definitions

Once a team project is created, the following configuration items can be imported, exported and modified:

• Work item type definitions
• Work item queries
• Report definitions

Templex - The TFS Process Template Library

via Microsoft ALM process templates site set up.

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Getting Started with Software Development via Facebook

Just found some really cool content on the Microsoft profile on Facebook for those learning to create applications for the Web and Windows using the free Visual Studio 2008 Express products. Sam used to work with me on my previous team. It looks like he's really enjoying his new gig.

Free Software, Free Learning: Visual Studio 2008 Express

At Microsoft the word 'Express' equates to 'Free' and Express Editions can be downloaded and used by anyone. With Visual Studio Express, you don’t need to be a seasoned programmer to explore your creativity. Check out the Coding4Fun blog for ideas…
Watch and Discuss

Podcast
Sam Gazitt discusses his favorite features of Visual Studio 2008 Express. This is the overview of VS but contains features that are not in the Express editions…there should be a non-pro version of this on the podcast site. I also cover popfly and samples that we ship as part of Coding4Fun.
(WMA 2MB) | MP3 (6 MB)

Getting Started
Jacqueline Russell walks through step-by-step instructions for downloading, installing and first project.My First Windows Application Video (WMA) or My First Web Application Video (WMA)

Program Now: Video How Tos
Create a C# WPF Application Video (WMV) | Article
Create a C# Windows Form Application Video (WMV) | Article
Create a C# Console Applcation Video (WMV) | Article
Writing Queries in C# (LINQ) Video (WMV) | Article

Facebook | Microsoft

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Can Process Improvement and ALM Really Improve Your Business?

Andrew Cook just tipped me to this webcast coming later this month. It's always refreshing to see a webcast presented by someone outside of Microsoft. It feels less like an echo chamber, and I'm more likely to hear something I haven't already heard. I'm registered.

The term Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is attracting significant attention from tool vendors, research groups, and industry thought leaders. Although proactively managing your application throughout the life cycle seems to be a simple concept, in fact there are seemingly innumerable ways to accomplish the goals of ALM. Coordinated toolsets, the Capability Maturity Model, innovative modeling techniques, and commercially available processes all provide pieces of this frequently misunderstood and often complex puzzle. In this webcast, we discuss the basic tenets of Application Lifecycle Management, describe what kinds of projects benefit most from ALM, explain how the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System supports this initiative, and examine why a repeatable, pragmatic software development process cannot be overlooked when implementing ALM.

Presenter: William F. Nazzaro, Chief Technical Officer, IconATG, Inc.

William F. Nazzaro is the vice president and chief technical officer of IconATG and has over 18 years of success in delivering enterprise software solutions for Fortune 100 companies. He has provided unparalleled services in organizational and project assessments, use-case training, use-case modeling, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) adoption, Unified Process development, Agile Scrum development, service-oriented architecture, application architecture, project mentoring, and technical curriculum development and delivery. William has an accessible and down-to-earth speaking style, and he has provided in-depth talks on service-oriented architecture, Unified Process development, software development life cycle, agility, use-case modeling, and object technology.

Momentum Webcast: Can Process Improvement and Application Lifecycle Management Really Improve Your Business? (Level 100)

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Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

One of the books I added to my permanent collection earlier this year is Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds. This was around the time I attended VizThink, which filled my head with ideas of how presentations can be more compelling and engaging experiences. In March, Reynolds spoke at Google and the video of that presentation is available for online viewing (Found via a blog I was reading last night, but I can't remember which one).

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A Convenient Webinar by Nancy Duarte on Powerful Presentations

I just received this notice from VizThnk:

Mark your calendars to join us on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 for another VizThink webinar.  Join Nancy Duarte, presentation guru and designer of the presentation for Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, as we discuss keys to creating powerful presentations.  Here are just a few of the things we'll discuss:

• PowerPoint: A powerful tool poorly used or a poor tool overused?
• What are the top tips for creating powerful presentations?
• Are there different presentation designs for various audiences? topics?
• Should we even use words at all?
• How do I get started creating powerful presentations?
• And many more, including your questions...

The webinar will start at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern, 4pm British Summer Time, 5pm Central European Summer Time at last for 1 hour. If you cannot make it at this time, we will be recording the session and posting it to our blog.

Click here to register for FREE now: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/874814902

I attended Nancy Duarte's presentation at the VizThink conference in San Francisco earlier this year and really enjoyed it. If you want to learn more about creating compelling presentations, I highly recommend this webinar. Good stuff.

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APLN Seattle Leadership Summit - July 17 and 18

If you're going to be in the Seattle area next month, or need a reason to be, consider attending the APLN Seattle Leadership Summit at the Edgewater Hotel on July 17 & 18. The theme this year is, “Advancing the Agile Enterprise.”

The APLN Leadership Summit include the exploration of agile leadership of projects and enterprises. Under the guidance of the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN), the summit objectives are to connect, develop, and support great project and enterprise leaders.

There will be two leadership keynotes from:

• Lisa Haneberg, author of seven books including 10 Steps to Be a Successful Manager and Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.
• John Yuzdepski, a partner at Management Concepts LLC specializing in product transitions and commercialization of new technology and a veteran of the mobile communications industry.

Topics and experts include:

• Collaboration Games by Luke Hohmann and Allan Shalloway
• Kanban by David Anderson and Corey Ladas
• Scrum by Brent Barton and Lance Young
• Getting Started with Agile by Mitch Lacey and Julie Chickering
• Writing Agile Contracts by Bruce Eckfeldt and Jim Benson
• Agile Program Management by Mike Griffiths and Mike Cottmeyer
• Real Option Theory by Chris Matts and Olav Maassen
• Agile User Experience by Arlen Bankston and Jeff Patten

In addition, Dale Christian, CIO of Avanade, will head a panel of senior leaders discussing their experiences.

Register now and get the early bird special price of $300 until June 17th.

As you may recall, David Anderson was a member of the original Team System product team (now a principal at Modus Cooperandi) and made a number of valuable contributions, including MSF for CMMI Process Improvement. He is also an excellent author and blogger.

This should be an educational two days, and the best time to visit Seattle is July and August.

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Martin Woodward's Brian the Build Bunny

Brian the Build Bunny rocks. :) Great job, Martin!

I'm always keen try new and novel ways to keep in touch with the status of my software projects.  Fortunately, Team Foundation Server provides many ways to do this.  While the Build Wallboard is fun if you have a spare monitor and machine lying around, I wanted to experiment with some inexpensive dedicated devices, and so Brian the Build Bunny was born.

Martin Woodward: Brian the Build Bunny

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Visual Studio 2008 Hotfixes and SP1 Beta

If you installed any Visual Studio 2008 hotfixes and you're now trying to install the SP1 Beta, you should take heed of this note we just added:

Note If you previously installed a Visual Studio 2008 Hotfix, you must run the Hotfix Cleanup Utility before installing Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta. For more information, see Visual Studio 2008 Hotfix Cleanup Utility for Installing Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta.

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How to Read a Computer Book

As someone who has spent a small fortune on books over the years, this paragraph from Seth Godin's recent post on How to read a business book has me wanting to expand on this topic:

Computer books, of course, are nothing but bullet points. Programmers get amazing value because for $30 they are presented with everything they need to program a certain tool. Yet most programmers are not world class, precisely because the bullet points aren’t enough to get them to see things the way the author does, and not enough to get them motivated enough to actually program great code.

Seth's Blog: How to read a business book

In Seth's post, he writes, "If you’re reading for the recipe, and just the recipe, you can get through a business book in just a few minutes." The same can be said for most of the "computer books" on the market. I can only think of a few books related to software development that I've read cover-to-cover. The rest I treated as software development recipe books. I suspect that I'm not alone in doing that. However, I think one premise of Seth's bit about "computer books" is not always valid, which is that these books are written by world-class programmers. Some authors are just good at aggregating a bunch of useful content in one place - creating recipe books. There are some great authors who are world-class programmers. They add a lot of value above and beyond what you could discover for yourself in the product documentation. They write the books I'll buy based solely on the strength of the author's brand. Their books are worth of cover-to-cover reading; however, they are the exception.

Who are your favorite authors?

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4-Year Blog Anniversary

Successful blogs, like successful journalists, are usually associated with a particular beat. For example, Mary-Jo Foley has worked the Microsoft beat for a couple of decades. Four years ago, I started this blog to write a bit about Team System. When this blog had its highest throughput, I was working the Team System beat nearly full time while also doing my day job. Since then, my role at Microsoft has changed a couple of times and I find myself further from the Team System Fountain of Truth. I had hoped that my new roles would lead me to more opportunities to cover Visual Studio to the same level I covered Team System, but that's too broad for me and Soma hits all the highlights. Since I don't feel like I have a beat to cover, or at least cover well, I'm thinking it's time to stop posting to this blog. No guarantee I will, but if I do, thanks for reading!

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Attend the GeekFest Party at TechEd 2008 Developers

TechEd is an exhausting event - physically (try wearing a pedometer and see how many miles you walk per day) and mentally (the firehoses of information are charging up). Thankfully, Central Florida has a wide variety of restaurants, theme parks, activities, and more to recuperate. And then there are the TechEd parties. The parties run the gambit from lame to memorable (or unmemorable as the case may be).

This year, if you're going to TechEd Developers, I highly recommend attending GeekFest.

Why?

• Free beer
• Free pizza
• Dueling pianos
• Duck competition

How can you go wrong? Learn more here: Doug Seven's Blog: GeekFest Party at TechEd 2008 Developer Conference.

I wish I could say, "See you there!" But alas, I won't since I'll be here in Redmond. :(

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Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Guide, v1.08

A new version of the Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Guide is now available. Version 1.08 includes updates to a number or line items, but in particular it includes a lot of fixes in the debugging section and adds a section on 64-bit development features. If you find any discrepancies, feel free to drop me a note.

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Nine Years at Microsoft

Just a quick post to commemorate my ninth anniversary at Microsoft. I spent time on Friday getting rid of several boxes of accumulated clutter, including a bunch of printed specs for projects that never happened. I even found two drawings my daughter created almost 9 years ago. And now she's in college. Time flies.

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Some Recent Changes for Me

It occurred to me this evening that I haven't posted to this blog since early February. Following the launch of Visual Studio 2008 last month in LA, I moved into a new role (still within Developer Marketing at Microsoft) to work on marketing communications for our broader developer & user experience marketing campaigns. In addition, I'm still working on the Visual Studio marketing site and adding new content. As painful as it was to create, I still like how the product comparison guide turned out. Yesterday, we published a new white paper on Requirements Management with Visual Studio Team System. Anyway, back to the grind...

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