Thursday, July 02, 2009
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Microsoft Patterns & Practices group has just released some guidance around Acceptance Test Engineering.
This is fortunate timing for me as I’ve been digging into the new testing tools with Team System 2010 in an attempt to incorporate the full testing cycle into my ALM thinking.
Look forward to a few posts coming incorporating this work.
Monday, May 18, 2009
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GO OUT AND GET IT! Downloads include Team Suite 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010. There are a LOT of new features to check out. Brian Harry has been blogging the features in detail for a while now.
I’m very excited about the manageability of the new Team Foundation Server. It will be much better for large shops with centralized TFS instances. There are a lot of different possible configurations available to spread load across tiers and the new Team Project Collection model will make it much easier to recover, migrate or archive a set of projects without having to work with the entire database.
The new Architect SKU shows promise with support for UML 2.0 diagramming and the ability to define architectural layers and use them to constrain the solution.
If you are involved in Application Testing. You absolutely have to check out this new release.
So, why are you still reading this? GO OUT AND GET IT!!
Technorati Tags:
TFS,
VSTS 2010
Thursday, May 14, 2009
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If you are looking at ways to improve the success of your software projects I highly recommend checking out the Dev Practices sessions from TechEd 2009 on TechEd Online.
There are a combination of Tech Talks, Panel Discussions available to view even if you aren’t at TechEd.
I’ll try to filter some noise and point you to some that I’ve enjoyed:
Agile Software Development panel
Let’s talk Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
Agile: A Process or an Excuse? – featuring Joel Semeniuk from Imaginet Resources Corp. – panel of lifecycle consulting experts discussing what is really happening out there on projects.
And while you are looking… here’s another source of presentations:
The Enterprise Develper and Solutions Conference.
I recommend checking out The Daily Scrum.
Technorati Tags:
Agile,
ALM,
TechEd 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
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Azure session with Chappel was pretty good. I have a better perspective on where Azure fits in.
Then attended: OFC03-INT - Integrating Application Lifecycle Management and Project Portfolio Management. Very interesting demo of how an organization ‘could’ build an end-to-end portfolio management toolset using Sharepoint + Project Server + Project Portfolio Server + TFS.
Makes a great scenario, but lots of heavy lifting and integration to put the scenario together. Lots of pieces were custom, based on codeplex projects or simply require you to use a product the right way.
Boy, would be GREAT if this scenario was REALLY achievable without a huge amount of development/integration effort. Definitely going to dig in deeper as I see huge value to organizations to have this end-to-end view.
Now attending DPR04-INT - Tools and Agile Teams. Had to check out the boss’s session. (Joel is doing it).
Joel is showing some of our work we’ve been doing on the TV. We’ll see what people say about it. We’ll be talking about it a lot more over the next couple of weeks.
Drinks and food to come tonight. Hope tomorrow is as good as today!
Technorati Tags:
TechEd 2009
Breakfast was pretty unimpressive. Egg omelet things and some nasty sausage patties. I went for a bagel and yogurt.
The keynote was very IT centric talking about Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Some very cool new features around virtualization. And the big news is that both will be available for the holiday season (as expected).
There was also a sneak peek into Office 2010 and Exchange 2010 which promise to improve ability to manage mail. Search looks improved (especially able to search attachments with OWA).
While having breakfast this morning I was able to synch my mail and found out that I got on the list to get a free Palm Treo to use for the week from Palm and Sprint. Free voice and data. VERY BIG DEAL since the roaming charges on my Rogers plan from Canada are obscene for my iPhone. I have to give it back at the end of the week with a survey. Not a bad deal.
OK. I’m off to my first breakout where I’m gonna check out Dave Chappell’s Azure Services Platform talk.
More to come…
Technorati Tags:
TechEd 2009
Friday, May 01, 2009
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I ended up picking up the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE netbook. (thanks for the advice Mithinco, Robert and evan.) I am loving it. However, so are my wife and kids.
I managed to wrestle it away and put Windows 7 RC on this morning and it’s all good. Seems to be performing quite well.
Now on to my laptop for Windows 7 64-bit this weekend. Good times!
Monday, April 20, 2009
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Brian Harry is continuing his series on new VSTS 2010 features. His latest entry deals with some restructuring of the Team Foundation Server and specifically the way projects are stored.
Team Project Collections are a new concept in TFS 2010. They represent a set of projects that are managed together. Each TPC has it’s own set of databases. This enables TPC’s to be backed up, restored or migrated independently of other TPC’s on the same logical or physical TFS implementation.
This is particularly exciting for large TFS implementations like the one I implemented at EDS. The ability to segment the environment into units based on organization units, clients, product team, etc. is compelling. Also, individual TPC’s can be backed up and archived. In a consulting organization this is huge improvement.
Brian also talks about changes to the scalability and availability including NLB of the application tier and the fact that TPC’s can be scaled across a number of SQL Servers as each is now independent database.
These structural changes make TFS much more manageable and vaults TFS into the large enterprise space.
Can’t wait to get my mitts onto it. :)
Friday, April 17, 2009
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I’m looking for some advice in buying a netbook. My work laptop is a true desktop replacement device. As such, it’s not the most portable device around. So, for doing email, document editing and web browsing I’m looking at getting a netbook.
I’ve been looking at the Acer Aspire One 10” netbook. I’ve seen the smaller 8.9” Aspire One but thought the slightly larger screen might be nice.
However, all the netbooks are within $50 or so of each other. So, I thought I’d do some research. CNet reviews like the Eee PC and the MSI Wind over the Acer. But, what about the netbooks from Dell and HP?
I want something fairly inexpensive as I don't’ plan on doing development or anything on it, just ‘normal’ computing tasks.
Any advice?
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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Well, here I am on my shiny new computer over at Imaginet Resources Corp. I forgot how liberating it is to leave an employer and start with a new one. Nothing more satisfying than filling the shredding box with old files and handing in that laptop that was in desperate need of a re-image.
Still pretty early to say that everything here is good, but it sure feels that way from where I’m sitting. Moving from a large global company to a small (but still global) company is quite a change. I forgot how quickly things can be done when there aren’t 6 levels of management and ‘corporate processes’ in the way. I’m still gun shy to ‘just do what’s right’ based on years of ‘do what the process dictates’.
I’m hoping (actually more committing) to do more blogging now. I have a lot of thoughts around application lifecycle management and architecture that others may take an interest in.
I’ll also be able to talk more about what I’m doing with Team System as I go along. I know there are Lots of Team System bloggers out there, but every once in awhile something comes up that I haven’t found elsewhere. I’ll try to keep the ‘me too’ posts to a minimum.
Until next time…
Thursday, April 09, 2009
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Brian Harry has begun to blog about the features of VSTS 2010. There is quite a laundry list. I’m excited to see the Architecture features become quite valuable and the Test management and execution capabilities really take shape.
Keep an eye on Brian’s blog as he drills down into each of the feature areas.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
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For those that don’t know. The Red River Valley area of North Dakota and Manitoba has been preparing for near record flooding this year. One neighborhood within Winnipeg that is in a bend of the Red River needed to have their permanent dykes raised by adding a sandbag dyke on top. My good friend Greg lives in that area and it is actually just across the river from my own home. So I figured I’d go help out.
My wife and I walked across to help. Basically what ‘helping’ means is becoming part of a human conveyer belt. Nylon bags filled with sand get deposited on the driveways of houses that need by dump trucks. These 40-50 pound bags of sand need to get moved from the pile to the back of the house where the river is. This is where we came in. People line up and pass bags down the line.
Well, the first 30 minutes everyone is full of energy and the bags are flying. 3 hours later, I can barely lift my arms and it’s time to let someone else take over.
That was yesterday. Today, my wrists are killing me. My back is sore and I’m just generally tired. Obviously my sandbag technique needs work or I’m just getting too old.
I was very impressed with the number and energy of volunteers that showed up. It is quite amazing what can be accomplished by a bunch of people willing to help out their friends, neighbors and even complete strangers.
Here’s what the dykes look like when done. It may not look impressive, but it is quite eye opening how much effort goes into building these home savers.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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Well I did it! Today I handed in my resignation from EDS to accept an exiting new opportunity. It’s been a very interesting 5 years with EDS and I’ve gotten a whole lot of experiences that I’m thankful for.
I’ve worked with some of the smartest people I know over the last 5 years and have learned so much from all of them.
So, where am I headed? I’m going to join my good friend Joel Semeniuk at imaginet resources.
I’ll be leading the ALM consulting practice. This will not only leverage my Visual Studio Team System experience but my broader experience leading application delivery projects. I’ll also be working with Steve Porter, another ALM guy for whom I have a lot of respect.
The future feels like an exciting place!
Expect to be hearing more from me now that I’ll be able to share more of my work experiences online!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
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Merry Christmas to those Christians out there (or those that celebrate the commercial holiday anyway)
I for one am looking forward to a nice turkey dinner with my family and a day entirely focused on spending time with loved ones.
Happy Holidays to all!
While putting together some reference and learning materials for a new project team I ran across this.
Looks like a great resource for those trying to move up from a junior developer role to a senior role. Provides a lot of videos for different aspects of an application architecture as well as checklists, patterns, etc.
I’ll definitely be visiting this site.
The VSTS Rangers have released the TFS Branching Guide 2.0. This updated version includes more Scenarios as well as more Q&A. The set of Drawings also comes in handy for inclusion into your own project specific documentation.
Get it here.