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Technology Readiness Session - A peek into one of our events

The following picture is a peek into one of our technology readiness (TR) sessions and associated interactive technology discussions, which is probably also one of the first sessions transmitted live via LiveMeeting. For those familiar with our developer readiness program, the TR's are a derivation from the information dump sessions, typically lasting 45-60min and presenting and/or discussing a technology topic.

We are hoping to soon share all technology readiness sessions as LiveMeeting and/or Camtasia recordings ... watch the space for news.

Today's topic is What is blogging and why blog ... hopefully the attendees will share their thoughts on this topic on their blogs after the session.

Think Bike Memorial Run

Media Release (Issued by Réhann Coetzee, committee member for media)

Monday 25 February 2008

Think Bike, the motorcycle safety awareness campaign, announces that on Sunday 2 March we will be hosting a mass ride in remembrance of our chairperson, Brian Cannoo, who passed away last week due to injuries sustained in an accident with a bus.

We are inviting all motorcyclists, biking chapters and families to join us in a ride to remember Brian, known as Buccaneer, a true fighter for the cause of motorcycle safety awareness. Let us unite for this ride and make a statement for safety.

Route

The memorial ride will start at 8:00 at the BJ’s Restaurant in Midrand on the N1 northbound and end at the Zwartkops Raceway. From BJ’s we will ride north on the N1 towards Centurion. At the Danie Joubert interchange, we’ll turn west (left) onto the N14 towards Krugersdorp. At the R55 (Sandton / Pretoria West), we’ll turn north (right) towards the Zwartkops Raceway. We will limit our riding speed to 80km/h and we’re asking that everyone respect this.

There will be refreshments available at Zwartkops Raceway. Please note that, in terms of our agreement with the owners of Zwartkops, the track will not be accessible on the day and your respect for public and private property will be appreciated (please, no donuts, wheelies etc).

Thank you JMPD

We want to convey our sincerest thanks to the Joburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) for their kind approval of and assistance in the arrangements to make it a safe ride for everyone.

On Brian Cannoo

Brian Cannoo has devoted most of his time to the education of bikers and motorists and raising awareness of biking safety in South Africa. The Think Bike campaign was started by Tony Day in the 1980s, but lost steam along the way. Brian Cannoo was one of the founder members of the revived Think Bike campaign in 2006 and he has served as the chairperson since then.

He was instrumental in settling the term ATGATT (all the gear, all the time) in our minds. His belief that you could never have enough rider-training is shared by the campaign and its members.

The irony is that his death came after spending a whole day in advanced rider training, wearing the best protective gear, and then being hit by a road user who will probably use an excuse that we have heard too many times: “I did not see you.”

Under Cannoo’s leadership, Think Bike has become the preferred marshalling service to cycle races in Gauteng, we have launched our Taking it to the schools campaign, launched the Think Bike Rescue initiative, and is slowly but surely becoming a household name in safety awareness.

Brian Cannoo, known by Think Bike members and the motorcycling community at large as Buccaneer, is survived by his wife Fran, daughter Nicole (17) and son Michael (10).

The members of Think Bike, and the biking community, have lost a brother, a leader and a precious friend.

Neptune ad-hoc complaint: U-- South-Africa ... think twice before you use this courier

Last year I received a package from the US, which once arrived in South-Africa tool took 12 days to deliver from US to my home.

February 9th, I ordered a book from Amazon needed for academic studies, selecting priority delivery and paying a huge delivery fee, as I urgently need the book. Amazon literally packed and shipped the book the same day and it arrived in South-Africa a day later on February 11, 2008. I am including the year, just in case, because today is the 27th and I am still waiting for the package.

So why the delays?

1. If you receive more than three packages a year or exceed the value of 20,000 ZAR, you automatically become an importer ... according to U-- ... and you have to sign a document confirming you have not received more than three shipments, or submit an importer certificate. We eventually received the document to sign a week later on our home and business fax, as the home fax was apparently not working ... hmmm, then why did the fax arrive on both lines?
2. The form was obviously completed, signed and faxed back immediately, as there is an urgent need for the book. We eventually had to fax the document a number of times and follow up with telephone calls, before receipt was eventually confirmed.
3. After a few days of silence we received an invoice without any note dropped as is in our postbox, for VAT and customs duties ... I do not even want to work out what the book is eventually costing us with courier fees, VAT and custom duties.
4. Again payment was done immediately via EFT. Supporting documentation was faxed to U-- a number of times ... last night I faxed the 5th facsimile, this morning the 6th, with all the associated documentation.
5. Calls to the help desk were made, but each time we are referred back to the person dealing with the specific shipment ... to no avail.

We are still waiting and today is the 27th ... the package has now been sitting with U-- for 17 days, whereby we last heard from U-- 4 days ago when "we" called the support desk ... again.

I am hoping that U-- is taking note of this post, because your service in South-Africa is absolutely shocking! Had I selected surface mail delivery, I would already be in procession of my book, with hardly any red-tape and a fraction of the cost and aggravation!

Looking at the previous post we can now re-work the delivery speed, which is a staggering 0.0613km/h if the book is received today. This means that the delivery speed of the courier service is just outpacing the speed of a common garden (0.0468km/hour) snail at this stage.

Update on progress and exceptional delivery service by U-- 

2008-02-29 ... Leap Day ... the package was delivered at 09:00, i.e. 18 days and 3 hours after it arrived in South-Africa. The priority request and associated high cost left U-- blank and their final delivery speed works out to approximately 0.05747km/h, which just beats the common garden snail, by 0.01067km/h ... that's an amazing 10.67m/h faster than the snail!. "Well done", however, I suggest you remove the following quote from your corporate web site: "Our international network offers time-definite delivery options to more than 200 countries and territories", or add exclusions. A 2-3 day priority delivery option promise, that results in a 18 day delivery reality makes one think.

TFS - So what goes into Version Control and what goes into Project portal lists?

What's the difference?

We can either store the documentation in the Team Project SharePoint site, created as part of the normal team project creation process. SharePoint offers extensive documentation lists and version support out of the box, with an easy browser user interface that most users are acquainted with, or via the Team Explorer.

Alternatively Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) allows us to pack documentation into the TFVC source control database, whereby access is via the TFS source control explorer in Team Explorer or products such as TeamPlain.

So where should documentation go ... choice = decision!

Documentation

Well, looking at a recommended Team project source control structure, we notice the Documentation node under the main, in many cases under the development and production trunks as well.

We typically advise teams to store high level documentation that is specific to the project, such as project plans, conceptual requirements and customer correspondence, in the team project SharePoint portal.

Release specific documentation, such as users manual, release notes, bug fix description reports and detailed design documentation we typically store in the TFVC repository.

This, however, is how we see it and is not a hard and set rule!

Allowing 'more stuff' than just the default to enter TFVC

If you need to expand the extensive list of file types supported by TFVC on the specific TSF server, select  the Team Foundation Server Settings, then Source Control File Types. The following is an example screen shot...

Select ADD and add your new file type. You will have to indicate whether multiple checkout and merging is supported for the file type ... typically you should avoid selecting the merging option for non-source files, i.e. large VM or installation file types q;-)

Summary

To summarise and 'emphasise' ... there is no standard to guide you to make the right decision. In fact, the guidance and best practice, is to investigate both repositories and to define a process that suits your organisation and your project team.

In essence, we are once again saying that you must make sure that TFS, TFVC and SharePoint is structured and used to guide and assist your team!

TeamSpec v1.0 - What a pleasure on TFS2008

I have been experimenting with the TeamSpec v1.0 product.

Looking at our own environment, not even getting distracted about the other environments we are aware of, I can see huge benefit in project managers, technical leads and analysts using this product to synchronise the world of Team Foundation Server (TFS) work items and documents such as business specifications, technical specifications, use cases, the list is endless.

Instead of manually keeping TFS work items and documentation in synch, use TeamSpec to setup the collaboration and then modify either TFS work items and/or your documentation and enjoy the seamless integration and synchronisation.

See Juan's blog at  for more information on the release and availability of the product.

They have also released a range of great scenario videos, which you can use to learn the features of the product or to dust-off the aging brain cells once in a while.

I will report back after I have been able to do some more investigations and playing ... busy figuring our the creation of custom skins. In the interim, make sure you download the trial and evaluate this great collaboration tool.

PS: Mike, the product also works quite happily with our Light-Weight Scrum Process Template now q;-)

SA Architect - Re-launching the community. Why, how and where next?

A colleague asked me to create a one pager to describe the re-launch of SA Architect, our vision, our objectives and an explanation as to why technology vendors and architects should contribute.

Where does SA Architect come from?

SA Architect was launched a few years ago as part of a Microsoft Strategic Architects Forum initiative.

Why are we re-launching the community?

The problem with SA Architect was a heavy focus on and branding of Microsoft architectures and technologies, scaring off technology agnostic architects and therefore destroying our core objective to create simple, collaborating, integrated and technology agnostic solutions. We decided during 2007 to suspend the community while we re-thought the objectives and are now in the process of re-launching the community as a vendor agnostic community.

What is our vision etc.?

Vision

S.A. Architect's Vision is to be a thriving community of South African Information Technology Solution Architects that provides  tangible benefit  to its members and the local IT industry.

Mission

• To empower South African Architects by advancing their professions through networking, sharing of technical expertise and engaging key industry role players
• To share knowledge from or related to South African issues in order to improve software solutions in South Africa
• To promote the passion and 'real-world' experience of South African architects
• To promote South African architects in order to raise their profiles
• To promote the software industry  in South Africa
• To encourage Architects to network with each other in order to continually strengthen and grow the community, for example through the sharing of  experiences in architecture.
• To explore and define the role of the architect in the South African community
• To encourage mentoring and better software designs.
• To collaborate with and support architects pursuing specialised architecture certifications, such as the MCA program.
• To evaluate and effectively leverage various appropriate channels and forums that are in line with this Vision and Mission

Objectives

• To maintain a web site that provides both static and dynamic content and notifications. These could include:
  • Publication of articles
  • Discussion groups
  • Announcements
  • Publication of member profiles
  • Member Blogs or links to blogs
  • Event calendar
  • To facilitate regular community meetings

Values

• Excellent software designs
• Providing tangible benefit to members
• Personal excellence – we support and nurture individual architects in their careers.

Strategies

• We are not biased towards any particular software vendor – we consider any technology, where it is appropriate
• We are an open forum, encouraging membership to all who are interested in Architecture.
• We focus on Architecture, not development. 
• We focus on real-world architecture as opposed to academic research.

What are we 'wanting' to cover in 2008?

There is no shortage of "stuff" we have been wanting to cover in workshops and interactive discussions. The following list we created last year should should the breath of focus and our technology "variety" view:

• Methodologies
  • Microsoft® Solutions Framework (MSF) 4.0
  • Microsoft® Solutions Framework (MSF) Agile
  • Light Weight Scrum Process Template
  • Microsoft® Solutions Framework (MSF) CMMI
  • Agile Manifesto 
  • Scrum
  • IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP) 
  • Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and/or SEI
  • Capability Maturity Model Integration(CMMI) 
  • Motorola, Inc. Lean, Six Sigma, or Lean Six Sigma 
  • Total Quality Management (TQM) 
  • Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) 
  • Office of Government Commerce (OGC) IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 
  • PAG (Prescriptive Architecture Group) Application Blocks 
  • Microsoft Windows Server System™ Reference Architecture (WSSRA) 
• Frameworks
  • Design patterns (e.g., Gang of Four) 
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 
  • Sun Microsystems Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) (version 1.1, 1.2, or 5) 
  • Spring Framework 
  • Hibernate (Java) 
  • Microsoft Enterprise Library for .NET Framework (version 1.0, 1.1, 2.0)
  • Acropolis .NET
• Enterprise Frameworks
  • Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture and Information Systems Architecture
  • The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)
  • Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA)
• Reference Architectures
  • Microsoft Reference Architecture
  • IBM Reference Architecture
• Servers and Tools
  • BEA WebLogic 
  • IBM WebSphere 
  • JBoss Application Server 
  • Other Java EE Application Server 
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 
  • Microsoft SharePoint® Portal Server 
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2000 or later 
  • UNIX/Linux Server 
  • BEA WebLogic Integrator 
  • BEA WebLogic Portal Server 
  • Business Objects 
  • Cognos 
  • IBM WebSphere Information Integrator 
  • IBM WebSphere Portal 
  • Microsoft BizTalk® Server 
  • Microsoft Commerce Server 
  • Microsoft Host Integration Server 
  • Microsoft SQL Server™ 
  • Microsoft SQL Server™ Reporting Services 
  • Microsoft Team Foundation Server 
  • Sun Microsystems SeeBeyond 
• Technologies
  • Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) 
  • Project Management Institute Project Manager Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) 
  • Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tools
  • Hibernate
  • Infragistics
  • Oracle TOPLink
  • Web Model-View-Control (MVC) Frameworks
  • Struts
  • UI Application Block 
  • Interoperability and Integration Products
  • Web Service Extensions (WSE)
  • Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) 
  • Asynchronous Messaging Products
  • MQ series
  • MSMQ
  • JMS
  • Enterprise Service Bus Products
  • Sonic
  • Cape Clear
  • BizTalk
  • Web Service Management Products
  • Actional
  • Amberpoint
  • Application Development Build Tools
  • Ant
  • Nant
  • Unit Testing Frameworks
  • NUnit 
  • JUnit
  • Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 (VS2005) Unit Tests
  • Regression Test and Load Test Tools
  • Mercury
  • WinRunner
  • Microsoft Application Centre Test

If you are still with us in this blog, you have scrolled through the content we as SA Architect have been and want to cover. We want to raise the awareness of these areas with architects, analysts and technical leads. We have had many community leads, members and experienced architects volunteering to tackle a chunk of the list ... unfortunately the initial enthusiasm more often than not fizzled out and business milestones, pressures and the issue of intellectual property entered the movie and in the end we have not managed to make any mentionable progress.

What are the ideas and initiatives to draw the elusive architects to contribute?

Architects are extremely busy and therefore it has proven impossible to gather more than a handful to meet for interactive discussions, to host workshops or to contribute white papers in support of our objectives.

We are therefore introducing a RSS aggregator on www.saarchitect.net in due course (Zlatan has volunteered to create the control for us, proving that community leads are involved!), which will aggregate a number of key blogs from South-African architects, technology specialists and other specialists contributing invaluable information to the South-African and international community. All these contributors need to do is continue blogging, adding a special category to their posts. SA Architect will then aggregate posts with the category, thus raising the profile of the contributors ... but more importantly centralising the architecture related content and hopefully building a foundation to create a Wiki covering all and more of the previously mentioned content.

What are we looking for?

If you are an architect, a technology specialist, a business analyst, a system analyst, or simply a motivated and information sharing-type of person, interested to contribute, please contact. Visit www.saarchitect.net and visit "Contacts" for contact information.

If you are a technology vendor, we would like to get your contributions as well, as well as sponsorship allowing us to improve the community focus, the content delivery and to take knowledge and technology to all levels of the IT community in South-Africa.

We would also like to host a reference architecture workshop, inviting vendors to present their reference architectures and discussing the collaboration and interoperability with other vendor solutions. "We have a dream", that one day we can have an interactive and constructive workshop with vendors such as IBM and Microsoft, as well as the Open Source community, to discuss how we can create solutions including a mix or some to all vendor reference architectures and associated technologies.

We are optimistic that with the help of community leads, community contributors and vendors we will take SA Architect to the next level this year.

Are we on the right track?

If you have recommendations, suggestions or other information that will help us with the re-launch and making SA Architect a successful community, then please add your comments to this post.

Community DVD 200801 (comdistDVD0108) available from SAArchitect Community

We have received the comdistDVD0108 community DVD, which contains the following artifacts:

• Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition
• MSDN Express Library
• Introduction to Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition
• Introduction to Visual Csharp 2008 Express Edition
• Introduction to Visual Cplusplus 2008 Express Edition
• Introduction to Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition

If you need a copy, please contact us at www.saarchitect.net website.

MVP Summit - SA Architect ensures that South-Africa is ready for summit!

The MVP Summit track suit jackets for the South-African MVP's have arrived and will shortly make their way to the MVP's.

Organised by the SA Architect community, the jackets are intended to make the South-African delegates more visible at the summit and promote many of the IT communities active in South-Africa, such as SA Architect, SA Developer, Information Worker, JCSE and Windows/Linux Interoperability.

They look really, really "cool" and should promote the communities, at the MVP Summit and other events where South-African MVP's are active, with pride.

TFS - WCF Load Test

If you are working with WCF and using TFS/VSTS then this tool is for you. The CodePlex site states:

"This tool takes a WCF trace file and a WCF client proxy, or a WCF interface contract, and generates a unit test that replays the same sequence of calls found in the trace file. The code generated is easily modifiable so that data variation can be introduced for the purpose of doing performance testing.
The tool generates code for both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. It also installs a wizard into both editions of Visual Studio for creating the trace and processing it from inside Visual Studio. If both editions are present the tool is installed into both editions. The source code is a Visual Studio 2005 project." ... end quote.

It is an exciting piece of technology and we recommend you visit the CodePlex project site at: http://www.codeplex.com/WCFLoadTest

TFS Team Companion 2008 - Ekobit announces the latest release

For those users running Team Explorer 2005, please note that Ekobit has released a version compatible with TFS 2008.

Visit http://www.ekobit.hr/ProductsDetailView.aspx?id=29 and download the trial!

Finally we can enjoy TFS and Outlook integration again, this time in a 2008 based world 24x7 ...

TFS - A few Common Questions

This post contains a few common questions and answers (hopefully) we have encountered in TFS installations.

Q. How should we structure our team projects, our solutions and our source repositories?

This is a topic we are very passionate, yet serious about. We have created a white paper and have posted the white paper and revisions as blog posts on Part 1 of 10, Part 2 of 10, Part 3 of 10, Part 4 of 10, Part 5 of 10, Part 6 of 10, Part 7 of 10, Part 8 of 10, Part 9 of 10 and Part 10 of 10.

Q. Can I work offline with TFS2008/VSTS2008?

• Developers can finally open a solution, that is bound to TFS Version Control, in offline mode, i.e. when not connected. Visual Studio will open the solution in offline mode and the “Go Online” item will appear as shown below.
  
• Once user is online to TFS again, the “Go Online” option can be selected and Team Explorer will resolve changes made in offline mode.
  
• This is a great feature in 2008, well worth mentioning to developers.

Q. How do I get a specific file and version from the version repository?

• To get a specific file, select the file in version control, right click and select Get Specific Version. Use the “type” drop down to select the version type, i.e. changeset or label, etc. Then “Get” the selected file.
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Q. How do I get specific files and version from the version repository?

• To get specific files, select two or more files in version control, right click and select Get Specific Version. Use the “type” drop down to select the version type, i.e. changeset or label, etc. Then “Get” the selected files.
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Q. What permissions are needed for users that have to create Team projects?

• Users must be a member of the TFS Team Foundation Server Administrators Group
• Users must be a member of the SharePoint Central Admins group.
• Users must have Content Manager Permissions in SQL Reporting Services.
• To set SharePoint permission:
  
• To set SQL Reporting Services permission:
  

Q. How can I test a new TFS Server installation?

1. The first test performed on a new TFS Server is to run the Team Foundation Server Best Practise Analyzer (Power Tools) tool, to obatin a detailed report on the environment.
2. The second test is basically to create a Team Project, which indirectly tests all the TFS servers. The basic steps are as follows:
   1. Create Team project
   2. Create simple solution, i.e. console application
   3. Check-in solution and project.
   4. Create incremental build that triggers on any check-in.
   5. Set the project alerts “Anything is checked in” and “A build completes”..
      
   6. Make a change to any of the project files.
   7. Check-in.
   8. Verify that (a) the build automatically starts and succeeds, and (b) that emails are sent to the relevant user. You should receive one for the check-in and one for the build.
   9. Verify that the project portal is accessible.
   10. Verify that the reports are working.
   11. Verify that work items can be updated and added.

Until next time, enjoy the power of TFS...

Why bother signing your .NET assemblies?

We are currently investing great effort to raise the awareness of security, such as code access security and testing within our community and the project teams we work with. While testing, including TDD, is a huge headache in my life, I will refrain from getting too excited about the the focus, or rather lack thereof, on software testing. In this post we will once again publish our summary on what a strong name is ... to answer the question "why bother signing assemblies", which we are hearing far too often.

Strong Name

A strong name is a reliable .NET assembly identifier, comprised of the assembly’s simple text name, version number, culture, public key and a digital signature. The latter two are generated with the strong name (sn) tool, while the remainder is part of the assemblies manifest … usually specified in the AssemblyInfo source file.

But why should we bother?

A strong name reduces the possibility of modifying or impersonating an assembly, which can be intentional (hacking) or unintentional (oops copied wrong assembly). If security and reliability is on your menu, you must seriously consider spicing your meal with strong naming.

How does it work?

When an assembly calls a strong named assembly the runtime compares the key stored in the referencing assembly’s manifest. If there is a mismatch due to tampering or the “oops” factor, the runtime will fail the load. If there is a match the caller has the guarantee that the referenced assembly has not been tampered with.

Any other uses?

A strong name can also be used to check the caller, i.e. a referenced assembly can verify that the caller is a unique caller using LinkDemand enforcement. Also, if you want to register you assembly with the global assembly cache (GAC), you will have to strong name your assembly. Once your assembly is at home in the GAC the assembly can be shared amongst consumers, multiple versions can be hosted and the life of the administrator can potentially be simplified.

Any gotchas?

An unsigned assembly can reference both an unsigned and a signed assembly. However, a signed assembly can only reference a signed assembly. This is actually a security advantage; however, for users of frameworks such as the Microsoft Application Blocks and the Enterprise Library the need to sign and manage the frameworks can be a challenge. Also note that by default only fully trusted assemblies can call strong-named assemblies.

If there is a need to call signed assemblies from partially trusted assemblies you need to dig into the AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers assembly attribute, which should be used with a pinch of care as it introduces an opportunity for abuse of the GAC by malicious applications.

Perhaps, next time we can talk about testing ... or code access security ... or role based security ... or some of the other useful features in .NET and Visual Studio that we could make use of.

RSS Aggregated Viewer ... can anyone help SA Architect?

We need a SharePoint WebPart for the SA Architect which aggregates a number of predefined RSS feeds, based on a category filter. In other words, we would like to aggregate feed A, B and C, showing only posts with a predefined category, i.e. SA Architect. Can anyone assist the SA Architect community in this regard or refer us to such a control?

Want to travel to Saturn as the space probe Cassini-Huygens did?

If you are a space freak, like most of us, have a look at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/CASSIE and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/cassie.html, which allows you to travel to Saturn and the Cassini space craft view of today.