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October 2009 - Posts

VSTS Rangers – Champion Survey Results … Finally we can ring the Swiss Cow Bells :)

A while ago be asked all the active external VSTS Rangers and VSTS Ranger project leads to vote for their external VSTS Rangers champion of the current wave of VSTS Rangers projects, which included: TFS 2010 Requirements Management, TFS 2010 Branching Read More...
Posted Saturday, October 31, 2009 12:17 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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VSTS Rangers Process Improvements - We have listened to your feedback! Part 3 of 3

In VSTS Rangers Process Improvements - We have listened to your feedback! Part 1 of 3 we introduced the first innovation which introduced a consolidated collaboration team site and in VSTS Rangers Process Improvements - We have listened to your feedback! Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:56 PM by willys | 0 Comments
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Visual Studio 2010 Editions Quick Reference Poster … still BETA, but we have revision 2 available

Poster updated 2009-11-02. This is not the official or final version of the Visual Studio 2010 community quick reference poster, but an interim revision. Your continued feedback and comments will be most welcome, so that the SA Architect community leads Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:55 PM by willys | 1 Comments

VSTS Rangers Process Improvements - We have listened to your feedback! Part 2 of 3

In VSTS Rangers Process Improvements - We have listened to your feedback! Part 1 of 3 we introduced the first innovation which introduced a consolidated collaboration team site. Our second innovation for the external VSTS Rangers is focused on email communication. Read More...
Posted Wednesday, October 28, 2009 2:53 PM by willys | 0 Comments
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Are you having problems while Configuring TFS and would like to see more detail for troubleshooting?

I stumbled across a really interesting blog post … which I wish I had seen a lot earlier … from Robert Horvick about enabling verbose tracing while configuring Team Foundation Server (TFS) here . Read More...
Posted Wednesday, October 28, 2009 2:52 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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VSTS Rangers Process Improvements - We have listened to your feedback! Part 1 of 3

A while ago we ran a satisfaction survey with the active external (outside of Microsoft) VSTS Rangers to determine their satisfaction and definition of importance in terms of process suggested and previously introduced improvements. The results were both Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:22 PM by willys | 0 Comments
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Trying to figure out the difference between Visual Studio Team System 2008 and Visual Studio 2010

Looking at the major packages, we notice that Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 has the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate counterpart, with both being the powerhouse of the specific edition. Visual Studio Architect, Developer, Tester and Database Edition 2008 ‘kind Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:52 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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Would it not be great if I could install a Team Foundation Server environment with minimal intervention?

Some good questions … to get the wheels turning: Why are we wasting time on building installations and especially virtual images manually … not once, but multiple times by multiple people? Would it not make more sense investing the energy in adding value Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:30 AM by willys | 0 Comments

What do you get when you have 4 South-Africans in Vancouver with Halloween rapidly approaching?

  We are going to have fun :) Looking at the dropping temperatures we will be enjoying a Swiss Cheese Fondue and a Swiss Schnapps just to keep warm … Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:29 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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Software Engineering … fascinating world and why Team Foundation Server 2010 is an exciting puzzle piece

I probably need to explain why I was so excited in my post Now that my mobile development centre is ready ... I can go home and enjoy the weekend :) and pondering over a possible talk to high school students has sparked this post over the weekend. Firstly, Read More...
Posted Sunday, October 25, 2009 11:10 PM by willys | 0 Comments

Now that my mobile development centre is ready ... I can go home and enjoy the weekend :)

Not sure if the magnitude of my latest Windows 7 Virtual Machine (VM) will be apparent to everyone, but I now have a fully “ integrated ” application lifecycle management  (ALM) environment, with version control, work item tracking, automated build Read More...
Posted Friday, October 23, 2009 11:17 PM by willys | 0 Comments

TFS Integration Platform – VSTS Rangers Log 20091022 … A minor mission update

If you have perused TFS Integration Platform – VSTS Rangers Log 20091014 … the mission and the results to date … the mission and the results to date you have a good understanding of what has transpired. To visualise the previous post, I created the following Read More...
Posted Friday, October 23, 2009 8:34 PM by willys | 0 Comments

TFS Integration Platform – VSTS Rangers Log 20091014 … the mission and the results to date

The Mission When I started at Microsoft back in January, I was briefed on a number of strategic projects I would be responsible as the development lead. The TFS Integration Platform (TIP) was one of the projects, although it was still known as the TFS Read More...
Posted Friday, October 23, 2009 8:30 PM by willys | 0 Comments

Getting your priorities right … P0, P1, P2, …

Since I have started working at Microsoft I have had to absorb and remember a forest of acronyms and when it comes to assigning priorities to work items, issues or bugs, we encounter the P? acronym. Here is a short summary of the priorities we deal with: Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 22, 2009 6:08 PM by willys | 2 Comments
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team Foundation Server 2010 BETA-2 Installation … who do we hug?

It is only those that remember the frustrating and loooooooooooooong days of installing early CTPs of the Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2005, subsequent 2005 and 2008 releases and were involved in the granny-ticking exercise required when installing and Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 22, 2009 2:36 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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We have code smell and Smoke testing … who thinks of these terms?

Just when we thought we have the acronyms, TLA (three lettered acronyms) and FLA (four lettered acronyms) under control, we are faced with phrases such as “ code smell ” and “ smoke testing ”. While the former is a term for “a hint that something may Read More...
Posted Wednesday, October 21, 2009 6:12 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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TFS Integration Platform – What Conflict Types do we know of? Question & Answers 6

As part of the TFS Integration Platform environment we will encounter conflicts in both the Work Item Tracking (WIT) and Version Control (VC) migrations and/or synchronization scenarios. Here is a list of known conflicts that I have harvested from the Read More...
Posted Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:34 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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Visual Studio 2010 BETA-2 … the BETA is available and already backed by exceptional videos!

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is finally here :) See Announcing Visual Studio 2010 and .NET FX 4 Beta 2 for details and take note of our new branding:   Brian Keller also strikes again by making Channel 4 videos available to guide us through the mysteries Read More...
Posted Monday, October 19, 2009 7:35 PM by willys | 0 Comments
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Q&A: Why is my VSTS Rangers Image factory based installations running slow as a snail going up-hill?

This is one of probably many question and answer (Q&A) posts focused on the VSTS Rangers Image factory, which I will be introducing on Monday next week. As part of the dog fooding and testing, we have encountered some interesting “self inflicted features” Read More...
Posted Saturday, October 17, 2009 8:23 PM by willys | 0 Comments

Certified Scrum Developer course … we can finally remove the duck tape :)

In September we had the privilege of attending an alpha version of the Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) course, which is jointly developed by Microsoft,  MVPs such as our esteemed Richard and Mike , and the Scrum Alliance . We have finally been advised Read More...
Posted Friday, October 16, 2009 7:47 PM by willys | 0 Comments

Getting Assembly version Information … a left-over from our scrum course

Not sure if this is of interest to anyone. The code snippet was created for one of the exercises we had to endure at a recent scrum focused course … not sure if and when we can start sharing details thereof … will ping the creators and advise. Anyway, Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 15, 2009 5:44 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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TFS Integration Platform – Why are my labels not moving? Question & Answers 5

Common question : “Does the TFS Integration Platform support labels?” Current answer : The current versions of the TFS Synchronization and Migration Toolkit and the latest TFS Integration Platform do not support the migration and/or synchronization of Read More...
Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009 5:47 AM by willys | 1 Comments

Sorry for the radio silence … enjoyed the Canadian “cold” and a huge Thanks Giving Turkey

This long weekend we enjoyed two new adventures since stepping onto Canadian soil some eight months ago. Friday night and Saturday we enjoyed a wonderful camping weekend with friends at a remote camping ground past Chilliwack in British Columbia. –2 degrees Read More...
Posted Monday, October 12, 2009 4:17 PM by willys | 0 Comments
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Team Foundation Server 2010 BETA-2 … Getting Ready (Alert 1)

If you are planning to prepare a virtual base image, with all the pre-requisites loaded, in preparation of the Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 BETA-2 installations that many of us will be confronted with in due course, then ensure that you install Service Read More...
Posted Friday, October 09, 2009 4:43 AM by willys | 0 Comments

TFS Integration Platform – Index Optimization a la Grant … Questions and Answers 4

Based on learning's from the Pioneer Dogfood environment it is important that we watch the fragmentation of the TFS Integration Platform Migration database indexes , as fragmentation can become excessive, leading to a degradation of performance. Grant Read More...
Posted Friday, October 09, 2009 4:43 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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TFS Integration Platform – System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Could not allocate space for object … Questions and Answers 3

The past few days have been spent with hectic testing in terms of a number of VSTS Rangers Projects that are on the verge of bubbling to the surface. One of them includes the TFS Integration Platform initiative, where our focus has been primarily on the Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 08, 2009 7:50 PM by willys | 0 Comments

TFS Integration Platform … YES, I can do a full TFS Server sync … but should I? Part 2

In TFS Migration Tools: Should we opt for migration or synchronization? Part 1 we explored the first thought patterns that we should be creating when considering the TFS Integration Platform (TIP). In recent discussions at a Scrum course we discussed Read More...
Posted Wednesday, October 07, 2009 4:56 PM by willys | 0 Comments
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TFS Integration Platform – Summary of Links

As with SDLC and with the VSTS Rangers projects, I am creating a treasure map (more like Willy’s cheat sheet to counteract lack of indexing memory) of links relating to the TFS Integration Platform and the associated VSTS Rangers initiatives. Note that Read More...
Posted Wednesday, October 07, 2009 5:10 PM by willys | 0 Comments

To scrum or to Run … that is the agile question?

Scrum … are we playing rugby? While the term “scrum” is typically used in the context of the sports game Rugby and Springbok victories are a welcome news flash, we will defer the sports discussion thread to another day. Instead we will be focused on the Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:20 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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Brian the video “Guru”

I had the pleasure of working with and watching Brian Keller record our VSTS Rangers TFS Integration Platform videos today. This dude is a wizard and in my humble opinion is ready for the Oscars for the quality, the special effects and simply the ease Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:18 AM by willys | 0 Comments

SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … what’s the point? (Posts Links)

This post is simply a collection of the various posts that made up the “ SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … what’s the point ” and related posts. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … what’s the point? (part 1 of many) SDLC – Software Development Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:41 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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The Team Foundation Server (TFS) edition we have been waiting for ...

If you are a Visual Source Safe or other equivalent product user, looking for an integrated source control, work item and build automation environment, then make your way to Brian's blog post http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/10/01/tfs-2010-for-sourcesafe-users.aspx Read More...
Posted Friday, October 02, 2009 3:55 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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After talking about ping pong testing, how about the bouncing ball chaos?

In VSTS 2010 in the world of ping-pong testing we introduced the ping-pong effect. In this post we will be introducing a slightly more energetic bouncing ball chaos … if you are using hyper-v or virtual machines in an environment where many machines are Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 01, 2009 6:38 AM by willys | 0 Comments
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VSTS 2010 in the world of ping-pong testing

The Ping-Pong Bugs are driving me nuts I have been troubleshooting some website registration issues at work, some solution bugs as part of the course I am enjoying this week and at home. The computers at home always seem to start and automatic countdown Read More...
Posted Thursday, October 01, 2009 5:13 AM by willys | 0 Comments
 
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