Got Team?

New Data Dude GDR is out

2008-10-01T15:49:00Z

Gert's got all the details on his blog.

To me, the biggest point to latch on to is this:

This is the last CTP, we started our final descend, we will publish a public RC (release candidate) when it is ready, followed by the RTM release. The upcoming RC (release candidate) will be a "go-live" release. The two remaining areas the team is currently working on is performance and bugs, we are done with all work items.

It'll be nice to have a final version that I can use with SQL Server 2000, 2005, and 2008. Patience grasshopper, patience.

More News: Data Dude and Team Dev are now One!

2008-09-29T20:50:00Z

If you go down the page here, you find some juicy goodness related to VSTS:

"Better Together – Visual Studio Team System Development Edition and Database Edition
In recognition of the increased need to integrate more of the lifecycle members together, we will provide a unified Development and Database product in Visual Studio Team System 2010. Beginning October 1, 2008 Development Edition and Database Edition MSDN subscribers will have access to both products."

Great news!

Visual Studio 2010 is its name

2008-09-29T20:45:00Z

And the .NET Framework 4.0 is coming too!

More details here and here.

T-30: PDC 2008 Pre-con

2008-09-27T05:18:00Z

Well, we're 30 days out from PDC 2008 pre-con day.

I'm doing a pre-con on VSTS.

A big part of the pre-con is best practices and worst practices, or anti-patterns.

As I get things all nice and packed up into a nice package with a bow on top, I'm curious.

If you're coming to my pre-con, what do you want to know? What are you looking for? What would make your day?

Feel free to leave a comment on this post or use the Contact link.

Listen to me on .NET Rocks and RunAs Radio

2008-09-02T16:40:00Z

One of my passions is virtualization (esp. in the MSFT world).

In July, I did a .NET Rocks show and talked about Hyper-V and more.

Later I also did a Run As Radio show also on virtualization.

Finally in August, Martin Woodward and I did a Team System chat.

Enjoy.

OT: Lego Metallica Video--Whiplash!

2008-08-27T20:12:00Z

Very OT and very funny: http://www.sarahlacy.com/sarahlacy/2008/08/stop-what-you-a.html

Watch it while you can!

Whiplash!

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1 available now

2008-08-11T18:05:00Z

On MSDN Subscriber downloads.

A quick look at the Microsoft.com downloads site and I don't see it yet for the .NET Framework 3.5 but I imagine soon.

Update:

.NET Framework SP1 is here.

VS is here .

Thanks to Paolo Barone for the links.

And now TFS is showing up too here.

Got Scrum?

2008-07-04T10:06:00Z

I lot of customers I work with want or are using Scrum with VSTS.

Many end up using the process template from Conchango.

I recently had a problem however getting it installed for a customer.

Their TFS installation is in the form on a single AT/DT server with SharePoint pointed at their MOSS installation. Their MOSS installation in turn was a FE+BE configuration with some custom DNS redirections and multiple site collections. When I did the Conchango install, everything said things were OK. However, when I ran the team project wizard, it would fail claiming that the templates were not installed in SharePoint. To make matters worse, the built-in templates worked fine for MSF-Agile and MSF-CMMI.

I pinged the kind folks at Conchango and we started trying different things. It turns the templates were installed, but not deployed.

To fix it, I logged into the SharePoint Cental Administration and clicked on the Operations Tab.

From there, I clicked on Solution Management under the Global Configuration options.

From there it was easy to see that the Conchango templates were installed but not deployed. Once I deployed them I was able to go to TFS and create a new team project using the Scrum template.

I have the power

2008-07-03T09:16:00Z

No, not time for He-Man, just time for a mobile hardware upgrade.

I spend a good portion of my time working with virtual machines. And in doing so, I'm always looking for more power when I'm on the road.

This week I was able to make three great updates to my Lenovo T61p.

First, I upgraded my RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB. I had no issues. Just removed the old RAM and installed the new, rebooted and there it was in all its glory. FYI, you won't find 8 GB listed as an option on Lenovo's site yet or on many of the 3rd party RAM sites. However, just about any laptop using an Intel chip that truly supports 4 GB of RAM and uses the Santa Rosa platform or newer should support 8 GB just fine (YMMV).

Second, I upgraded to a new hard drive, Hitachi's 320 GB, 7,200 RPM monster. I always go for the fastest drive, then size. Watch when you go to upgrade your own. Some of the larger drives out there now are 12.5 mm, not the more common 9mm size used in most laptops.

Third, I installed a fresh copy of Window Server 2008 x64 and the RTM version of Hyper-V. Hyper-V is Microsoft's next generation virtualization technology (I'll blog more about it soon and why you care).

Now I just need to upgrade my VSTS VPC to Hyper-V and I'm ready to go.

I got my RAM from Kingston (FYI, it's on sale right now).

I got my hard drive from OWC (Currently has a $30 rebate)

So, get out there and pump some coin into the economy and feel the power.

A New Year Starts

2008-07-02T06:14:00Z

Yes, it is July 1, 2008. and while it's not the traditional New Year, for me it is for two reasons. First, Microsoft has decided I didn't cause too much trouble over the last 12 months so I get to continue being a VSTS MVP. Thanks! Second, Microsoft starts their new fiscal year which means there's work to get busy on, now!

Speaking of new work this, I'll be doing a VSTS pre-con at the PDC this year in Los Angeles. Over the next few weeks, I'll expand on what I'm going to be talking about so if you're not busy on Sunday, October 26, come on down!

Also, I'll be flying down to South Africa for Tech Ed so if you're going to be in Durban, stop on by and say Hello.

Updated VSTS VPC Available

2008-04-01T14:18:00Z

It's no April's Fool day joke.

A new all-up image has been posted. It's been updated with Office SP1, the December 2007 TFS Power Tools, and all Windows Updates.

It has 38 hands-on labs and if you look at the IT Governance lab, you'll find sample data to run reports against and use Excel against. The labs are inside under C:\MSLabs.

You can also download just the labs and their support files in a self-contained MSI.

Finally, the good news for many: it won't expire until December 31, 2008.

The TFS only image will be out in the next 12 to 36 hours.

New VSTS 2008 VPCs are available now

2007-12-21T22:23:00Z

Just in time for the holiday weekend, we (that is Microsoft and I) got two new VPCs posted for your VSTS fun.

The first VPC is what we call the “all-up” image: Team Foundation Server 2008, Team Explorer 2008, Team Suite 2008, Team Build 2008, and bits of Office 2007 in a single workgroup security mode server image running on Windows Server 2003. Over 11 GB uncompressed.

The second VPC is a TFS only image with only Team Foundation Server and Team Explorer. It's just under 7 GB uncompressed. We built this image so that you'd run it under Virtual Server with a private network and do all your dev work and builds from your host computer. I'm working on a document that gives you all the details and will post it soon.

Both images expire on April 1, 2008. Updated images will be posted before then (in fact the updated images will have sample data, hands-on labs, and updates like Office 2007 SP1 and the TFS Power Tools that were announced today).

Note that both images were created off the same base OS so you can't run them on the same network at the same time.

If you have questions or comments about the images, please post on Connect (instructions are on the download pages), visit the MSDN forums, or worst case, drop me a note.

Enjoy!

Note: the images should be replicated accross the download servers but if you get an error, just try a bit later. They're up there.

Dilbert and Team Development

2007-11-27T10:10:00Z

I just got this link from a friend. For all of you considering training or one of the latest “methodologies”, I encourage you to read this Dilbert [0] cartoon!

Enjoy!

[0] http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-11-26/

Edit: Updated for link rot.

No Rest for the Wicked

2007-08-03T19:30:00Z

Well, last weekend they released Orcas Beta 2.

Today, Rosario. Rosario you ask? Yes, this is the post-Orcas version of Team Foundation Server and related bits. Rosario is “built” on Orcas so this isn't a new CLR, .NET Framework, etc.

So, skip the BBQ or getting the kids ready for school. Download this first CTP and let Microsoft know what you think. After all, they're releasing early so you can give them feedback.

Oh, here's the download URL. Also, here's a link to a paper about Rosario.

FYI, they're only posting a VPC for this first release. So what are you waiting for? Download away.

One more thing: Jeff Beehler, VSTS Chief of Staff, has info on his blog blog.

Edit: messed up the URLs. Too excited. :-p

Edit 2: added link to Jeff's blog.

Why Dates Matter

2007-07-08T04:49:00Z

In Team Foundation Server (TFS), you use iterations as one way to classify work. Specifically, iterations represent named time boxes in your team project. However, there’s no facility in version 1.0 of TFS to associate explicit dates with an iteration. This can be good and bad. The good is you can reuse an iteration in a cyclical fashion, rotating work items from one iteration to another. A downside is that certain reports can have their data skewed by incorrect iteration dates. The report that first comes to mind is the Unplanned Work report.

Here’s the description for this report from the process guidance documentation:

How much unplanned work is there? This graph distinguishes the total work from the remaining work and charts it into planned and unplanned. Very few projects identify all of the work to be done ahead of time, even within the iteration. This may be perfectly acceptable, if you schedule a sufficient buffer for handling the load of unplanned work (for example, bugs). On the other hand, it may be a real problem if you have not scheduled the capacity and are forced to cut back on the planned work.

When you go to run this report, there are three date fields you need to enter: Start Date, Plan Completion Date, and End Date. In addition, you can filter by Area and Iteration. The key to getting an accurate report is to make sure that the dates are well known and agreed upon. Let’s say as the project manager, you run the report with the following dates:

Start Date: 12/1/2006

End Date: 12/31/2006

Plan Completion Date: 12/15/2006

This is how the report comes out.

Then let’s say someone from upper management runs the report with the same Start and End dates but a different Plan Completion Date of 12/24/2006.

Look what happened.

The total number of unplanned work items goes way down. When managing your project it’s important that from day one, everyone is on the same page when it comes to dates.

Speaking of dates, today is 7/7/7 which seemed like as good a day as any to kick this blog off. Hopefully, I'll have a bit more to say about VSTS going foward.