Was honored to receive “the email” from the Microsoft MVP Award Program letting me know that I have been awarded MVP for another year in Visual Studio ALM. Have to say that I am very honored to be a part of this program!
The upcoming year will be a very good one for ALM folks, and I think those of us with a data focus will especially be happy with new and improved tools.
Thanks Microsoft!
This week Microsoft is hosting the Visual Studio Live conference in Redmond. This conference is one of those that is fun to get to if you can, but I have unfortunately not been able to attend this time around. Microsoft has chosen this conference as a platform to make some pretty interesting announcements.
The first major announcement came yesterday when “Visual Studio Lightswitch” was announced. In short, Lightswitch is a Rapid Application Development platform. The marketing states, “Visual Studio Lightswitch enables you to quickly create professional-quality line of business applications regardless of your development skills” and from what I can tell, it definitely does that. While this tool isn’t targeted at developers who like to build code from the ground up, it certainly does make the lives of those who want to quickly build and deploy applications easier.. I could see this as a great prototyping platform, or even as a mechanism to quickly solve specific problems. I’ll play around with the bits and maybe post a few more articles on it here as I get the time.
If you’ve spent any time at all looking at the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) features of Visual Studio 2010, you have heard about “Test and Lab Management” and are likely excited about it. When Visual Studio 2010 released, the Lab management capabilities were unfortunately not quite ready, and were released in “Release Candidate” form. There are a number of stories and rumors behind this, but the reality is that the team just couldn’t be comfortable with where they were based on the amount of customer feedback that they had received. There was also a lot of confusion around how much this was going to cost organizations to deploy, and how things were going to be licensed. (The idea was you needed the client, the server, and agents for each of the machines deployed, which meant that larger organizations potentially were going to have to make a sizable and serious investment)
The announcement today is that the “RTM” bits for Test and Lab Management will be available by the end of August! The other announcement is that the licensing has been very simplified. The client portion will be available by purchasing either Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate or Visual Studio 2010 Test Professional. The server portion is automatically included with Team Foundation Server, and the agents will NOT require a CAL (basically they are included with your TFS license).
For those of us who’ve deployed Test and Lab Management already, there will be an update package that will upgrade the Release Candidate bits to RTM, but will also include fixes for each of the components (Client, Server, Agent) and the “things” they are packaged with (Team Foundation Server, etc).
Today was one of those VERY strange days..
For starters, today was the first day of the SSWUG Ultimate Virtual Conference (by the way, there’s still 2 days left and you can still register. Use code VCTAF457840-140 when you do!) during which I presented 3 sessions on Visual Studio Team System Database Edition. They had been filmed a couple of weeks ago, but this was the day they went live.
Next up, today was also the Microsoft Team System Big Event in Denver (see my previous post about that). This event had a lot of great speakers, including Steve Lange, Jerry Nixon, Joe Shirey, Rob Bagby and Peter Provost. For some reason they also let me present a session.
So you may wonder, what’s so surreal about that? Well, it turns out Rob was presenting the session on “Data Dude” (or Database Edition as he called it) at the Big Event. My 3 sessions at the SSWUG conference were also on Data Dude. The timing worked out such that Rob presented his session about the same time as my first one was being repeated at the SSWUG event. We used slides built from the same master deck, so I was literally watching my video (muted) while in the room with Rob and noticing that he was talking about many of the same topics at the same time…. Quite surreal!
Anyway, days 2 and 3 of the SSWUG conference are up now, and I’ve still got 3 Business Intelligence sessions to “deliver”.
The good people over at the SQL Server Worldwide Users Group (SSWUG) are hosting a FREE online event to showcase some of the best sessions from past Virtual Conferences. The event will be held online Friday April 17th, starting at 9am Pacific time. Info about the event:
About the SSWUG Community Virtual Event
We're working to bring you real-world information about SQL Server 2008, Share Point, Silver Light, with tips about new features, functionality and much more.
To register for this FREE event, check out the URL here: https://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sql/s09event.asp
One of the great things about being a Team System MVP is you get to participate in many different types of events. I really have to hand it to Steve Lange and Microsoft on this one though, this looks to be a fantastic idea and should make for a fun and educational time.
The Visual Studio Team System Big Event is an invitation only event being held in several cities throughout the west. If you are involved with Team System at all, or if you’ve always wondered what VSTS was all about, this is an event you won’t want to pass up. Here is some more information on the Denver event, which is being held on April 22 at the Denver Office. This is an invite only event, but the good news is, well, here’s your invite! Click the “Register Online” button below, and when prompted for the secret code, use DD1A7F. Oh, I will be presenting the, “Bang for your Buck, Getting the Most out of Team Foundation Server” session. Hope to see you all there…
Register Online (Remember to use code DD1A7F when prompted)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:30 AM - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 5:00 PM Mountain Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 8:00 AM
Microsoft Corporation
7595 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver Colorado 80237
United States
Language(s):
English.
Product(s):
Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
Audience(s):
Developer, IT Professional and Professional Developer/Coder.
Event Overview
How do you take an idea from conception to completion? How can you truly do more with less?
Please join us for this unique, invitation-only event to discover how both product and processes help your organization succeed in today’s environment. We will explore how Team System assists teams across the board to be successful in today’s tough times. This “break through” event will not only provide you with best practices around development and testing, but will demonstrate key capabilities of both Visual Studio Team System 2008 and the upcoming 2010 release. It’s a day that promises to have something for everyone!
Test Driven Development: Improving .NET Application Performance & Scalability
This session will demonstrate how to leverage Test Driven Development in Team System. We’ll highlight both writing unit tests up front as well as creating test stubs for existing code.
"It Works on My Machine!" Closing the Loop Between Development & Testing
In this session, we will examine the traditional barriers between the developer and tester; and how Team System can help remove those walls.
Treating Databases as First-Class Citizens in Development
Team System Database Edition elevates database development to the same level as code development. See how Database Edition enables database change management, automation, comparison, and deployment.
Architecture without Big Design Up Front
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Architecture Edition, introduces new UML designers, use cases, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams that can visualize existing code, layering to enforce dependency rules, and physical designers to visualize, analyze, and refactor your software. See how VSTS extends UML logical views into physical views of your code. Learn how to create relationships from these views to work items and project metrics, how to extend these designers, and how to programmatically transform models into patterns for other domains and disciplines.
Development Best Practices & How Microsoft Helps
Sometimes development teams get too bogged down with the details. Take a deep breath, step back, and re-acquaint yourself with a review of current development best practice trends, including continuous integration, automation, and requirements analysis; and see how Microsoft tools map to those practices.
"Bang for Your Buck" Getting the Most out of Team Foundation Server
Today’s IT budgets are forcing teams to do as much as they can with as little as possible. Why not leverage Team Foundation Server to its full potential? In this session we’ll highlight some capabilities of TFS that you may or may not already know about to help you maximize productivity.
Registration Options
Event ID:
1032408398
Register by Phone
1-877-673-8368
There are other cities on the tour as well:
Mountain View, CA April 28, 2009
Click here to register with invitation code: 80D459
Irvine, CA April 30, 2009
Click here to register with invitation code: A86389
Portland, OR May 5, 2009
Click here to register with invitation code: 2DC0A9
Phoenix, AZ May 7, 2009
Click here to register with invitation code: 90BC47
Before I get into the purpose of this post, it’s probably important to define just exactly what a “VSTS Ranger” is. The following definition was taken from Willy-Peter Schaub’s blog:
“Rangers are responsible for the creation of reusable “out of band” solutions for missing functionality in the TFS and VSTS family of products, striving for active community readiness knowledge sharing and are influencing VSTS.vNext … the next generation of the tools.”
There are Core Rangers and Extended Rangers. Members of the “Extended Rangers” team do not have to be Microsoft Employees. There are a number of non-Microsoft Extended Rangers. One of the cool opportunities that exist for MVPs in Team System is the ability to become part of the Extended Rangers Team. One of the cool benefits of being an Extended Ranger is participating on high-visibility projects that ultimately help make life easier for VSTS customers.
So, having said all of that (From an email I just received)….
In the last couple of days, Rangers shipped important guidance packages for MOSS TFS development. For maximum reach, we have simultaneously posted to the Team System Home and
Application Lifecycle Management Resource Center for SharePoint Server.
The two whitepapers are:
Read about the real-world design, construction, and deployment of a custom SharePoint Server 2007 application to a mid-market enterprise customer using Team Foundation Server as an ALM platform.
and
Learn how to use TFS to support your SharePoint application development, and provide an integrated development environment and single source code repository for process activities, integrated progress reporting, and team roles.
The first article was created during a real world customer engagement and answers dozens of frequently asked questions and how-tos in a real world context vs. theoretical discussions. The article addresses very common questions around setting up and using TFS features for a MOSS development project.
Combined with the following guidance from P&P posted here, we have a good and almost complete story for our customers and partners. The two teams worked together to align these stories.
patterns & practices: SharePoint Guidance
The SharePoint Guidance contains a sample implementation of an intranet application based on SharePoint Server 2007 that demonstrates solutions to many ALM challenges.
During my session on “Data Dude” at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta (good time by the way, just wish I’d had more time) I promised I’d post the slides to my blog.
Well, here we are 5 days after the event and I’m finally getting it done.
The slide deck can be downloaded from my public SkyDrive here: TechTrifectaDataDude.pptx
Thanks to everyone who came out to the event, and to those who endured my session!
Thanks to a tweet by Scott Hanselman today, I was reminded of how group dynamics can and do affect teams working in an Agile environment.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I am going to be spending some time this year speaking about software development processes in general and agile in particular this year (I am really hoping that my TechEd talk gets approved this year, but so far it’s still in a proposed state, which doesn’t bode well). Much of my talks will focus on the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) and the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). Before you can deep dive into any these topics however, there needs to be a higher-level understanding of how these processes fit into overall group dynamics and visa-versa.
When thinking about Agile software development, remember that one of the core values (first one listed on the manifesto as a matter of fact) is to value people and interaction over process and technology. This could well be one of the reasons that so many notable people talk about Agile not being viable for inexperienced developers. (I wrote a little about this in an earlier blog post as well – by the way I received notice from Visual Studio Magazine that they are going to publish my comments in the March Issue) In order for teams to work well together, they really do need to go through the various phases of team organization. If you subscribe to the theories of Bruce Tuckman (I am specifically referring to an article that was posted in the Spring of 2001) you know that these phases are:
When teams are in the forming stage, they are basically getting to know one another and are pretty much unproductive. In Agile methodologies (specifically thinking about MSF for Agile here) this usually coincides with the Envisioning phase of the project, so not only do you have team members getting to know one another and jockeying for their spot in the pecking order, you also have everyone trying to figure out just exactly what it is that they are building. The interesting thing (and if you read Tuckman’s article, I think he states it pretty well) here is that this phase isn’t really the chaotic phase. I know from personal experience that when a team is in this phase, it requires both strong leadership and an ability to not get bogged down in details for each of the team members. In my opinion, this is the hardest phase to get through, and I believe is one of the main reasons that Agile is seen as for “experienced” developers.
When teams enter the storming phase, they pretty much know what they are going to build but haven’t quite decided on how to build it yet. This is the phase where team members really start to challenge each other and where the team leader needs to start letting the team find their own way. Some teams never make it out of this phase (which is why many software development projects fail). In the MSF model, this phase usually occurs during the latter part of the planning stage in into the developing phase. In order to be successful here, team members need to understand how their individual strengths and weaknesses can work together to form a cohesive unit. In my experience this is where teams will experience the most chaos and will suffer the most.
In this phase teams start building trust and start basically getting the job done that needs to get done. When teams enter this phase, they are “good to go” and more readily accept change. One other very interesting dynamic in this phase is that team members start to become interdependent (and if you aren’t careful, codependent in that team members can start to rely on the unhealthy habits exhibited by some) . In the MSF model, this occurs usually in the latter part of the Developing phase and somewhat into the stabilizing phase. (To be clear, some teams never make it to the Norming stage, but the project goes on – there is no direct relationship between the team phase structure and the process phases). Generally speaking, I’ve found that teams in this phase exhibit the, “We don’t have time for the bullcrap” mentality and tend to take on more challenges. This is probably the most productive phase of all, and is the hardest phase to maintain.
In this phase, the team is self-sufficient and requires little if no supervision. As long as they have defined goals and objectives, the team can continue to function well in this phase. An interesting dynamic here is that new releases of previous products that have been built by the team can be entirely accomplished while the team is in this phase, meaning that the MSF Envisioning and Planning phases become almost invisible. The problem that starts to occur here though is the “normal” dissident and tension that is felt while the team is in the Norming phase (the challenging of ideas) tends to drop off, which means that products built by teams in this phase may not be as complete or revolutionary.
If you subscribe to my theory that all teams must go through the above phases, and if you can separate out the actual software development problem from the group dynamic problem, you can see that a team doesn’t necessarily have to be in one of the latter phases in order to be successful with Agile. A true software development leader should be able to focus on the people first and guide them through their “discovery” while making the process of software development almost invisible. I truly believe that even junior developers can be successful with Agile methodologies if the above is taken into account.
Just in time for Christmas! Brian Randell, better known as the guy who hosts cool PDC parties and builds a lot of Virtual Machines for Microsoft has announced the availability of 4 new Visual Studio Team System 2008 Virtual Machines!
Basically there are 4 new VSTS Images:
The full text of his blog announcement, including information on what all is contained can be found here: http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/brian/archive/2008/12/24/happy-holidays-and-look-what-santa-s-brought.aspx
Thanks Brian!
Note: When I originally posted this blog entry I incorrectly stated the images were VSTS 2010 when in reality they are just the new and improved Visual Studio 2008 Team System. Sorry about that for those who got too excited!
Congrats to Gert Drapers and his team for getting the new version of DataDude released! This is a fantastic new version of the product, with numerous architectural and functional changes. (I’ve written about many of these over the past few months)
You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en
You can read about all the new changes and such on Gerts blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/gertd/archive/2008/11/25/visual-studio-team-system-2008-database-edition-gdr-rtm.aspx
Good job guys!!
If you are here at PDC 2008, stop by room 406A on Wednesday, 29 October during the lunch sessions, which run from Noon until 12:45. I will be part of a panel that includes a few Visual Studio Team System “Champions” leading a discussion on the future of Unit Testing. I of course will be taking the “Test Driven Development" for Database Developers” angle, and will be talking about why I believe database developers now have the necessary tools to move into the mainstream agile world. We will discuss tooling around pure database development and deployment, as well as some Business Intelligence challenges in this arena as well.
If you are here, I hope you can make it by. This should be an interesting session.
The Visual Studio Team System team has created an account on Twitter that will be used to keep those of us who use Twitter up to date on the happenings in the VSTS World.
Check it out at: http://twitter.com/MicrosoftVSTS
One of the utilities that ships with the October GDR (Actually it shipped with the release before this one, but I haven’t had time to write about it until now) of Visual Studio Team System for Database Professionals is the VSDBCMD.exe commandline utility. This utility does many things, but one of the most useful things to me is it’s ability to generate .dbschema files that can be used for schema comparisons.
First, a little background; I often have a need to upgrade an application database to the latest schema version (this tends to happen frequently when you practice agile database development) without destroying the data contained within the database. This is a task made simple by VSTS DBPro and the schema compare utility. The only problem though is that I am not always in a position to connect DBPro to the source schema (think Customer environment or untrusted domain).
Now, with the inclusion of the VSDBCMD utility, I can copy the required executables to any server I have access to, and run the utility to generate a schema file, which I can then use to run a schema comparison (using the full-blown tools) and then generate a delta (upgrade) script. Then I can copy that script back to the server and use the utility to deploy the update. Pretty cool!
In order to use the VSDBCMD utility in the manner I describe, you must first copy the required files to a folder on the server where you want to run it. The following files will be required:
(Located in Program Files (or Program Files (x86))\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VSTSDB\Deploy (Note that the documentation on this is somewhat unclear)
VSDBCMD.EXE
DatabaseSchemaProviders.Extensions.xml
Microsoft.Data.Schema.dll
Microsoft.Data.Schema.ScriptDom.dll
Microsoft.Data.Schema.ScriptDom.Sql.dll
Microsoft.Data.Schema.Sql.dll
Microsoft.SqlServer.BatchParser.dll
Located in Program Files (or Program Files (x86))\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5
Sqlceer35en.dll
Sqlceme35.dll
Sqlceqp35.dll
Sqlcese35.dll
Located in Program Files (or Program Files (x86))\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v3.5\Desktop
Once the files are copied, your folder should look like this:
The syntax of the command is relatively straightforward, once you get used to the fact that creating a dbschema file is known as “importing” a schema. The syntax is as follows:
VSDBCMD /a:Import /cs:<connection string> /dsp:Sql /p:ModelType:Database /model:<DatabaseName>.dbschema
For example, the database I want to import is named “CI_ANALYTICS_DW”, so the command would be:
VSDBCMD /a:Import /cs:”Data Source=xx;Initial Catalog=CI_ANALYTICS_DW;Integrated Security=SSPI;” /dsp:Sql /p:ModelType:Database /model:CI_ANALYTICS_DW.dbschema
Once the command is run, you will have a nice new and shiny .dbschema file that can be used for schema compares or many other things..
Brian Harry posted a new article on his blog tonight teasing us all on the upcoming October release of the Team Foundation Server Power tools. Normally I wouldn’t bother too much about posting stuff that isn’t available, but HOLY COW, there are a couple of features coming in these power tools that make me really excited (Yes, I’m a Geek, VSTS stuff is exciting to me!)
The specific bullet that caught me is here:
Windows Shell Extension - We've built a Windows shell extension that allows you to do the core version control operations directly inside the Windows Explorer without using the Team Explorer.
This is COOL. If you use TFS for your source control, you know that it can sometimes be a pain to interact with it outside of the IDE.
Anyway, just had to share.
Read about it all here on Brians blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2008/10/01/preview-of-the-next-tfs-power-tools-release.aspx
The official name of "Rosario" has finally been released:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc948977.aspx
From the article:
Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to address the latest needs of developers, Visual Studio and the .NET Framework deliver key innovations in the following pillars:
This is open to the public, so if you are interested in Agile development, this session is something you should check out:
Mike Azocar (one of the authors of the VSTS Lightweight Scrum template) will be presenting: Scrum-tastic Development with Visual Studio Team System and Light Weight Scrum
Thursday, September 25th, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=NR4H9T&role=attend&pw=4402ml-2S65
Session Abstract:
All the Interaction of the MSDN Chats but with the richer experience of Live Meeting and hosted by the recognized world technology leaders – the Visual Studio Team System Microsoft MVPs. In this second airing of MVP TV, please join recognized process expert Mike Azocar delivering his much lauded Tech Fest session. Mike will cover the fundamentals of the Scrum development framework. Why more and more companies and teams are moving to Scrum and see how joining the community-based Light Weight Scrum Process template and Visual Studio Team System can empower your teams and speed up your development.
About Mike Azocar: A VSTS MVP and Consultant for Notion Solutions. Mike evangelizes Visual Studio Team System and works closely with both the Microsoft Houston office and the VSTS Product Team in Redmond. Mike has been featured on .Net Rocks and regularly speaks at conferences all over the world. Mike's blogs blog can be found at www.michaelazocar.com/blog or www.geekswithblogs.net/michaelazocar.
The eScrum guys have released a long-awaited version of the eScrum project guidance template for Visual Studio Team System!!! eScrum is a nice implementation of Scrum that is implemented in a series of templates, WorkItem types and guidance for VSTS and Team Foundation Server.
From the download page: “eScrum is a Web-based, end-to-end project management tool for Scrum built on the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server platform. It provides multiple ways to interact with your Scrum project: eScrum Web-based UI, Team Explorer, and Excel or Project, via Team Foundation Office Integration. In addition, it provides a single place for all Scrum artifacts such as product backlog, sprint backlog, task management, retrospective, and reports with built-in context sensitive help.”
If you haven’t yet checked it out, do so here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55A4BDE6-10A7-4C41-9938-F388C1ED15E9&displaylang=en
VSTS MVPs Paul Hacker and Dave McKinstry have recently created a new users group experience called, “Team System Users Group- Virtual Edition”.
Basically it uses Second Life (Guess I need to figure this out, I have never messed with SL before) and the “Microsoft Island” along with Microsoft LiveMeeting clients.
Here is what Dave had to say about it:
In addition to the few user groups focused on Visual Studio Team System in major cities, now all Visual Studio Team System enthusiasts and users can join together to share stories and learn. Like most user groups, we will meet on a monthly basis, socialize a little, and have presentations. We plan to have demo-rich presentations and support an interactive format allowing attendees to participate and ask questions.
Unlike the ‘classic’ user group, you will be able to participate regardless of your location! You no longer have to live in one of the handful of cities world-wide to join and participate in a Team Systems community! In addition, we can now pull from a broader pool of excellent presenters from around the globe!
Our initial meetings will all be in English and are targeting an Americas-friendly time zone. But other times and places are possible. If you are interested, visit our web site: http://www.tsug-ve.com/. Sign-up and we’ll contact you with additional meeting information. It is free to join and none of the underlying technologies require fees beyond what you already pay for your computer and network access! We will not use your contact info for anything other than user group communications (approximately once per month). Our first meeting is September 18th at 6PM (Pacific Time / SLT). We hope to see you there!!
As I mentioned in the previous entry, I have been having some difficulties in my environment with respect to DataDude (Visual Studio Team System for Database Professionals) and SQL Server 2008.
As it turns out (and by the way, this is not a criticism, it’s just the result of me not reading and following directions) the SP1 bits of Visual Studio Team System will not support Schema compares against the RTM release of SQL Server 2008. if you try, you get the following dialog message:
Fortunately, there is a very easy fix for this, but at the same time you need to be very careful. The fix involves installing a small bit of unreleased “CTP” (I guess we can’t call it Beta anymore) code for the DataDude extension. The current (as of this posting, however I’m hearing rumors that a new one is out soon!) CTP of DataDude is CTP15 and it can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en but be very careful and check to see if a newer version is out before you simply take my word for this one being the latest.
My experience with the Datadude CTP15 GDR (General Distribution Release) has been pretty positive (I’ve been using it for some time now, it’s only been since upgrading VS 2008 to SP1 that I’ve had “issues”) so I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about if you place it on your workstation, but please keep in mind that it is unreleased code and therefore you are flying at your own risk.
If you're like me and tend to push the envelope in terms of what you install on your development machine, you probably have installed the GDR update for Visual Studio Team System Database Professionals aka "DataDude".
One thing I learned about this (and it really should be obvious, but for some reason it wasn't) is that even though the installation of Visual Studio Service Pack 1 seems to go fine, realize that the DataDude GDR is actually not updated with this SP. So, in order to get things in true working order (Able to use the RTM features of SQL Server 2008) you'll need to uninstall (not repair) the DataDude GDR release, then install SP1, then reinstall the DataDude GDR.
In my case, I installed SP1, then tried to use the Schema Compare function within DataDude against an RTM SQL 2008 instance. This failed, and after a bit of whining to various people, I learned that the GDR needed to be reinstalled. After learning that the repair function didn't work to solve the problem, I uninstalled the GDR and reinstalled it. This seemed to work, but I don't *really* know what state my environment is in.
