eScrum released!

Microsoft has finally released their heretofore "internal only" Scrum management tool known as eScrum. Basically it's a series of templates and guidance for Team Foundation Server (TFS) that allows project teams to keep track of project tasks using the Scrum methodology.

It's good to see that Microsoft is embracing agile methodologies, and it will be especially nice when the tools (Project/VSTS/TFS/etc) catch up with the vision...

Read more about eScrum here.

See the blog announcement here.

Download the templates here.

CA Erwin and DataDude

Seems like there's a lot of news in the industry that I have been missing lately!!! I just noticed that CA has announced that Erwin Modeler 7.2 is now capable of connecting directly to DataDude (Visual Studio Team System for Database Developers) projects.. This is GREAT NEWS for those who have a significant investment in Erwin. (I won't name names, but I know a developer who is very hardheaded about his particular toolset, so it is great to see others embracing the DataDude technology)

Check it out here: http://ca.com/us/content/campaign.aspx?cid=144449

How did I miss this?

Seems like Microsoft has purchased the intellectual property behind SoftArtisans Officewriter product. If you've never used Officewriter, you may wonder what the big deal is, however if you've used it, you know that it really does make authoring SSRS reports easier. Now it would appear Microsoft is going to bring that technology in house and fold it into a future release of SSRS.

This will be really big news for the "self service" business intelligence community!!

Full details are found here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-09BINewDayPR.mspx

New Visual Studio Team System Connector!

The Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and Project Server (PS) teams have collaborated on a new connector between VSTS and PS that allows bidirectional sharing of data. This is very useful for those who are using Project to manage VSTS development.

Read about it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/project/archive/2007/06/11/new-connector-released.aspx

Integrating SSRS with SharePoint whitepaper

Microsoft has published a WhitePaper on the integration of SSRS and SharePoint in SQL Server 2005 SP2. (There are a few other things included in this whitepaper as well)

Check it out here.

TechEd 2007 is finished!

After 2 weeks of some pretty hard work, TechEd 2007 has finally come to an end for me and I'm heading home to Colorado. It was a great time, and more importantly, a ground-breaking experience in the Hands On Labs area. We launched more than 18,000 labs (HOLY COW!) and had some amazing customer satisfaction scores. (I don't think I'm allowed to post them here, but suffice it to say that they were amazing!)

It was an honor to be part of the show, and I truly hope that next year brings more of the same in terms of the HOL area, although I really don't see how this year can be topped.

Hands on Labs - SOA13 - Windows Workflow

One of the more popular labs here at TechEd 2007 in the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) track is SOA13, Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation Introductory Lab. This lab assumes that the attendee has no knowledge of Windows Workflow, but immediately leads them down the path to creating amazing and useful workflow extensions.

If you're here at TechEd, stop by the HOL North and give it a spin, you will not be disappointed!

WOW!!! - Hands on Labs at TechEd 2007

Here at TechEd 2007 in Orlando, I am totally amazed by some of the statistics here in the Hands On Labs area. It's Wednesday afternoon, and we've already had 13,000 labs launched!! Think about that for a minute, that's 13 THOUSAND Virtual Machines (actually it's more than that because some labs have more than 1 VM) started and interacted with in a 3 day period!!!!

Given that our overall customer satisfaction scores seem to be very high at the moment, I'd say that is an amazing accomplishment!

Hands on Lab - BIN02 - SSIS

Continuing the saga of interesting labs here at TechEd, check out BIN02 - Executing Common ETL tasks with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services.

This lab is a very good lab that walks the user through a common ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) scenario using SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS). This lab is very well done, and is also very popular.

If you're here at TechEd, stop by the north HOL and check out BIN02.

Hands on Lab DEV20 - LINQ

Here at TechEd, one of the more interesting labs in the DEV area (HOL North) is DEV20, Mapping objects to Database Tables with LINQ to SQL. This is an amazing lab that walks through some of the new features of LINQ that will be released with the .NET 3.5 Framework.

LINQ, which stands for Language INtegrated Query, is a new extension that essentially removes (that may be a bit too strong) the problems associated with the impedence mismatch between relational database storage/access and object-oriented programming.

More information can be found about LINQ here.

If you are here at TechEd, stop by the HOL North and take a look at DEV20, if you are a database geek you will not be disappointed!

Internet Access and the Rosen Plaza

In two words, IT SUCKS!

Fortunately for me, I have an integrated Verizon Wireless broadband modem in my laptop which does a great job staying connected... Since I have been doing so much work for the pre-show logistics here at TechEd, I haven't really needed my laptop, but I did just look at the statistics for the modem and noticed that I had been continuously connected for more than 110 hours. (Thank GOD for unlimited data plans!)