Willy-Peter Schaub's Cave of Chamomile Simplicity

TFS VSTS New Quick Reference Poster - DRAFT (8 site evaluation steps)

 We have created a “checklist” to assist teams when considering the adoption of TFS, or consultants assisting clients in the planning thereof. The "DRAFT" 0202 Microsoft Team System Planning poster is available from http://www.drp.co.za/Media/Posters/PostersBETA/tabid/77/Default.aspx and consolidates what we believe are the 8 main steps/areas to consider when conducting a planning workshop.

Your comments and feedback will be appreciated.

Johannesburg goes Swiss ...

Johannesburg, Melville, at 01:13AM ...

07:00 AM ... the snow is still there. Time for a snow fight ...

Wonderful ... even if some of us got the short end of the stick ... or should that be the cold side of the snow?

BB&D goes "Vista Logo" certified

Thanks to the tenacity and commitment by my colleague Paul Coetser, BB&D has completed the Vista Logo certification for one of strategic solutions. Paul, thanks for your efforts and congratulations on a "pass" we can all be very proud of.

Why are we pursuing the logo certification? Primarily to ensure that our solutions are compliant with the industry best practices and to motivate all our solution builders to ensure their solutions are logo compliant ... eventually going logo certified where there is a commercial benefit to complete the final step.

Next, the Server 2008 logo program ...

Professional Team Foundation Server Book - A "Gem"

If you are involved with or considering Microsoft Team Foundation Server then do yourself a favour and invest in the book titled "Professional Team Foundation Server", authored by Jean-Luc David, Mickey Gousset and Erik Gunvaldson, ISBN: 0-471-91930-6. We are including the book, by default, with our VSTS training boot camp handouts and the feedback has been more than positive.

Mickey ... when is the Orcas version of the book shipping?

Mamelodi Sundowns vs. FC Barcelona ... South-Africa can be proud about its soccer teams!

June 20 ... after much persuasion by two of my sons ... both of whom are soccer fanatics and playing for Marksparks Rangers themselves ... we traveled to the Loftus stadium in Pretoria, to watch the friendly match between FC Barcelona and Mamelodi Sundowns. BillEss, who took me to the Baseball match while I was in Redmond was obviously also a major reason, because he made me realise that being in the "actual stadium" opens a new world, which one can never experience on TV or in a movie.

Being fanatical about Ronaldinho, both my sons were convinced that FC Barcelona would return home with a 25:0 victory ... were they in for a huge surprise!

The game, the skill, the tactics and the sheer determination shown by our Memelodi Sundowns team when they were defending their 1:0 lead is highly commendable. Although they lost 2:1 when the final whistle was blown, they proved that South-African is far better than many of us believe and that South-Africa is able to complete with the rest of the world. 2010 ... we are waiting q;-)

The crowd was the second surprise, because the atmosphere was "amazing". Although fanatical spectators packed into the Loftus stadium we noticed no unruly behaviour ... the spectators from sectors of South-Africa, supporters of other soccer teams and nations created an electric atmosphere, backed by the ear shattering Vuvuzela chanting proved that not only do we have the soccer teams to win, but the audience and supporters to carry our heroes to victory.

Here are a few soccer related pictures ...

(1) Thorsten playing for Markspark Rangers  (2) Ronaldinho on South-African soil. (3) My two soccer fanatics at the match.

 FCB ... the winners! 2:1 end score.

Wondering what a Vuvuzela can do ... listen to the following two recordings made at the actual event packed into the "Sundown Mamelodi vs Barcelona - Sound 1" zip file at http://www.drp.co.za/Media/General/tabid/78/Default.aspx.

New Horizon Book 3 - Software Engineers on their way to Pluto

Europa rising ... see jhuapl for details of this fascinating picture!

With New Horizon space probe being in excellent health and positioned 5.52AUs from Earth, we are closing the book 3 feedback phase. Please can you submit your feedback, comments, suggestions, etc. by adding a comment to the Book 3 - Software Engineers on their way to Pluto: We need your comment(s)! blog or email it to me direct.

Thanks for everyone who has taken the time to digest the book DRAFT and submit invaluable feedback to us!

eScrum - Some early evaluation links

As advertised on a number of blogs, eScrum is a Web-based, end-to-end project management tool for Scrum built on the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server platform.

Before you decide to take the plunge and commit to a Team roject, based on eScrum, digest some of the following reports:

The positive ...

• Steve Loethen on Microsoft eScrum Version 1.0.
• Adamga on Microsoft eScrum Version 1.0.

The concerned ...

• Jeff Julian on eScrum Has Potential.
• Bil Simser on An attempt at working with eScrum.

The helpful ...

• Rob Caron ... eScrum Update: ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Version Conflicts

TFS BPA - Icons ... what do they indicate?

We have had some queries on what the various icons (some shown in the screen dump below) actually mean and thanks to James from the TFS BPA team here is a list of all the icons and their name. The names are self explanatory ... shout if you need more information:

Figure 1 - List of TFS BPA icons displayed as part of the Tree Reports.

Figure 2 - Example Tree Report showing some of the icons.

TFS BPA - View 2: Seeing the tool from a PowerTool end-user perspective

Team Foundation Server (TFS) Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) tool.

View 2, the interactive view, is far more exciting forTeam Foundation Server (TFS) Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) tool. the end-user and TFS administrator. Let's take a quick look at what happens when we install the TFS BPA tool on a machine and run it against the same TFS server as illustrated in my previous post.

Step 1 - Find the Best Practices Analyzer under "Microsoft Team Foundation Server Admin Power Tools" and execute.

Step 2 - Define the TFS server url and the type of test to perform. In this case I selected HealthCheck on all tiers.

Step 3 - Enjoy some calming chamomile tea, while the analyzer has a chat to your system and wait for the "completion" screen.

Step 4 - View the report for the scan ... and explore the wealth of information!

This interactive view is obviously more spectacular, especially when you realize that each link refers back to the Microsoft knowledgeable with more guidance and information. WOW!

The PSS engineer view, as presented in the previous post demonstrates that the engineer has the same information in a slightly less spectacular display for analysis.

My conclusion on the BPA analysis is that the tool is immensely valuable, will assist us in stabilizing the TFS implementations and as in a few of our cases highlight performance and operational problems we were not even aware of.

Microsoft TFS BPA team ... well done!

TFS BPA - View 1: Seeing the tool from a PSS support incident end-user perspective

Team Foundation Server (TFS) Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) tool.

To demystify the process of receiving the TFS tool via a PSS support incident, we will step through the various steps and conclude showing the view the PSS engineer will have of the collected data. In the next post, TFS BPA - View 2, we will compare it with the more "visual" and interactive BPA tool view.

Step 1 - You receive an email with an invitation to execute the support data collection tool, TFSCmd.exe in our case.

Step 2 - You are requested to select the relevant region.

Step 3 - You are prompted to select whether the computer to be analyzed if the current one or another computer.

Step 4 - An agreement for the Microsoft support diagnostic framework must be accepted.

Step 5 - You may need to grant permission for the data collection ActiveX control to be installed.

Step 6 - You can then give control to the diagnostic process and allow all date to be collected or manually control which data should be gathered. We recommend you use automatic when possible.

Step 7 - You need to select between the "prior", "during" and "after" installation modes, whereby the latter is the typical option to run when investigating an existing TFS server environment.

Step 8 - After the collection process has completed ... a process that ranged from minutes to close to 40min in our tests to date ... you are prompted for the last time. In this case the system wants permission to send the gathered files to Microsoft for analysis.

Step 9 - Once uploaded, a confirmation is issued by Microsoft. This is the end of the BPA visit and control is turned to the PSS engineer.

Step 10 - The PSS engineer views your data using the support diagnostic console as shown below. 

In the next post, we will compare the SDC view as above, with the output generated and viewed after running the tool in an interactive manner. See you then ...

SDLC - We can learn from other industries ...

"Dad, what are these people doing?" my son asked me while we walked past a construction site on the way to school. Being in a rush as always and dragging three really motivated sons to school on a Monday morning made me answer "don't know", without really having a look.

On my way back, however, I wondered what he meant and watched the site for quite a while. The building team was in a hot-tub formation ... that's a circle for non-scuba divers ... discussing plans and what the day held in store for the team.

"What are they doing" ... (1) they are looking at blue prints, in other words design specifications and (2) they were discussing the activities for the day, i.e. collaborating.

Two basic techniques in the lifecycle of any solution. Next time I will take note when my son asks a question, because their unpolluted minds take note of things we take for granted or even worse ignore. Tonight I will have a lot of explaining to do ...

TFS BPA - Are you interested in validating your TFS environment?

Team Foundation Server (TFS) - Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) initiative is in its final assault vector and I am now in a position to create support incidents which will deliver the ("Beta") BPA tool to your door.

1. Are you interested to know if your TFS installation and environment is fully operational or whether the server you are considering as TFS server is ready for the TFS installation? The former would involve the "health check" test, whereas the latter involves the FiFi (Find It Fix It) test, as summarised on the "0202 Microsoft Team System FiFi TroubleShooting poster" on http://www.drp.co.za.
   • If NO ... why not?!? Recommended next step is 1.
   • If YES ... continue with step 2.
2. Are you willing to test the BPA tool and give us feedback, which can be considered to make the final release even better than the current version?
   • If NO ... why not?!? Recommended next step is 1, because we need your feedback.
   • If YES ... continue with step 3.
3. Are you in located in South-Africa?
   • If NO ... contact your regional TFS MVP (see TFS MVPs for details) and ask him to either request a BPA-related support call through the TFS BPA team or through me. We prefer to have a MVP in close vicinity, in case you have issues or queries.
   • If YES ... add a comment to this post, defining your contact details. I will not publish your comment and thus your details, but will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

So why am I working on this initiative, even though I actually have another full-time job ... as my colleagues keep reminding me on a regular basis. What are the top three points why am I enjoying this project so much, whereby it is important to note that I am a MVP and thus an alien within the Microsoft BPA team?

(1) The team, lead by BillEss is made up of a variety of members who are not only gurus in their area, but extremely passionate about the TFS and TFS BPA product. The passion and commitment I have experienced in Redmond is second to none!

(2) The team treats me like one of its members, not like an alien, and Microsoft Corp. is extending an immense level of trust, giving me access to the internal teams and resources from South-Africa, which is obviously more than "a stroll across the road" away.

(3) The team, as well as the surrounding teams are all using TFS comprehensively and effectively, which is fascinating to observe. It is truly amazing how effective the technology is, when used in the right environment by the right people q;-)

Until next time, happy TFS'ing!

Technology Readiness Sessions - Schedule Update

The technology readiness session schedule for the next few weeks is as follows:

Introduction to Silverlight
Overview (Info Share)
Andre Odendaal
2007/06/08 09:00

ATLAS ... what is it and why use it?
Overview (Info Share)
Peet
2007/06/08 13:00

C++ Best Practices, BBD Libraries
Overview (Info Share)
Nicolas
2007/06/15 09:00

Introduction to Silverlight
Overview (Info Share)
Andre Odenaal
2007/06/15 13:00

3rd Party Tools ... what is there and what should we use
Overview (Info Share)
Peet
2007/06/22 09:00

C++ Best Practices, BBD Libraries
Overview (Info Share)
Nicolas
2007/06/22 13:00

Enterprise Libraries.....Exception EL
Overview (Info Share)
Douglas Minaar
2007/06/29 09:00

3rd Party Tools ... what is there and what should we use
Overview (Info Share)
Peet
2007/06/29 13:00

Sessions are open to saArchitect members. Contact drpsupport@bbd.co.za for details.

MSDN Community - April Media Kit

As one of the leads of the architect community I have just received the following MSDN Community media:

• MSDN Community February 2007, focusing primarily on Vista and Robotics, ... plus more.
• MSDN Community April 2007, focusing primarily on how to develop applications for mobile devices and integrate Windows Live Services, ... plus more.
• Visual Studio Express Versions containing Visual Web Developer 2005 Express, Visual basic 2005 Express, Visual C# 2005 Express, Visual C++ 2005 Express, Visual J# 2005 Express, MSDN Library 2005 Express and SQL Server 2005 Express.

For those with access to softwarespace, the community media is stored under "Microsoft Software\MSDN Community".

If you are interested in a copy of the media please give me a shout, so that we can either arrange to transfer to your external drive or burn images of the media.