I have started to write about the “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” in the Introduction post where I presented three sections in the tool: Testing Center, Lab Center and Organize.

You can read the post “Team System 2010 Beta 1 “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” - Introduction” of the introduction.

I intend to create a quick guide for the “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” out of these posts that will be published in the “Team System Guides”.

When working with the “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” for the first time you will need to start with the Organize section where you do 4 things:

1. Create Sheared Steps for Test Cases
2. Create Test Cases
3. Create Configurations
4. Create Test Plans

You can start by doing each of the tasks, the order in the list is the order I will use for my example.

I have already published how to manage Shared Steps “Microsoft Test And Lab Management – Create And Manage Shared Steps (Part 1)”, how to manage Test Cases Microsoft Test And Lab Management – Create And Manage Test Cases (Part 2) and how to manage Configurations Microsoft Test And Lab Management – Create And Manage Configurations (Part 3).

In this post I will show how to Create and Manage Test Plans.

Step 1: In order to open the “Organize” launch the tool and select the Organize option.

The “Organize” toolbar will be shown.

Step 2: Click on the “Test Plans” option to get to the Test Plans management.

Step 3: Clicking the “New” button will open a new Test Plan form.

I like to talk about the highlighted section of fields:

1. Manual test settings: This will define the way the manual test will run, data collection, environment etc.
2. Automated test settings: Same as Manual test settings but for running automation tests using this test plan.
3. Configurations: Defines the default configurations for tests running using this Test Plan.
4. Build candidates and Build in use: The tool can show the test impact between one build to another, these settings are for the build to be running using this Test Plan.

The second part of the screen defines the Test Plan Owner, State of the Test Plan and the Time Frame to run the tests in this Test Plan.

Step 4: After filling all the fields all you left to do is click on the “Save and Close” button or the “Save” button and you will have a Test Plan ready to be used.

You can always modify the Test Plans, just open the item, make all the required changes and save it again.

Have Fun!!!

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The easy way of managing lists of Work Items in TFS is by using the TFS Global List.

Many of my customers ask me “What is the easiest way to manage my Global List?”

The easiest way to manage the Global List is with the “Process Editor” that comes with the Team Explorer Power Tools.

Step 1: Open the Global List by choosing: Tools –> Process Editor –> Open Global List from Server option

Here you can see all the “Global List” lists.

Step 2: Right click the white space of the screen and choose “New Global List” option to create a new “Global List” list.

Step 3: Name the new “Global List” list.

Step 4: Right click the “Global List” list in order to add a list item and choose the “New Item” option.

Step 5: Name the new “Global List” list item.

That is all…

Have Fun!!!

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If you are working with the Team Build of Team System 2008 you are familiar with the buildproj.xml file that defines the build process.

In Team Build 2010 the process is defined by “Windows Workflow Foundation”.

Now instead of using the xml file, fight with the MSBuild syntax and its complex process logic, we now have a visual tool to create the process and we can easily control the logic flow of the build process using the process logic of the “Windows Workflow Foundation” that is much more intuitive.

Another thing that was added to the Team Build 2010 is working against a Controller that contains more than one build agent and not a single agent, what gives you the ability to run a build on more than one build machine.

Add that to the report we get when running a build, “Team Build 2010 Beta 1 Log File” and you get a very strong and easy to use tool.

Have Fun!!!

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This post is the second post out of Five that builds the Work Items Basic Guide. See the first post: “Team System Work items Basic User Guide – Introduction” 

On this post I will show different ways to create new work items from the Team Explorer.

In order to show the Team Explorer in Visual Studio click on its icon.

There are two main methods to create Work Items, from the Team Explorer --> Work Items menu or from the Team tab.

In order to create a new work item from the Team Explorer --> Work Items menu do the following:

Right click the Work Items menu item choose the "Add Work Item" and choose the Work Item type you like to create from the list of Work Item types.

In order to create a new work item from the Team tab do the following:

Click the Team tab choose the "Add Work Item" and choose the Work Item type you like to create from the list of Work Item types.

The result of both methods is the same, a new form of the chosen Work Item type.

Have Fun!!!

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Team System is very powerful when it comes to manage development and QA, in order to manage development and QA you will need to have Requirements, Tasks, Bugs etc.

In Team System there is a generic object that covers all that is needed, it is called Work Item.

What is a Work Item?

A work item is a generic object that has types, for example: Requirement, Task, Bug, etc.

The Work Item types that are available "out of the box" in Team system are not the only types available, you can create new types as needed in your QA and development process.

Using these Work Items you can control your development and QA processes, for example using bugs will help you manage the quality of your product.

All Work Item types are configurable, it is required in order to have the System, Support the methodologies and process you are using and not the other way.

How to create new types and how to make configurations to the Work Item types, are subjects that will be covered in different guide.

In the following 6 posts that will be related to this user guide I will focus on the day to day tasks with Work Items using the Team Explorer.

The last two posts will be dedicated to the Team System 2010, we will see how Work items are implemented in Team Explorer 2010 and the way we build and use the Queries.

These are the blog posts subjects:

1. Create new Work Items in different ways 
2. Create and use queries
3. Create new Work Items out of existing work items
4. What are the core fields of a Work Item

This guide will help new users to start using the Team System and it will help existing users to use the Team System more efficiently.

The Guide will be published in my codeplex project: “Team System Guides” when finished.

Have Fun!!!

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Many customers ask me about deleting Work Items from the TFS.

Here is how to do it for TFS 2008:

Step 1: Download and Install the Team Explorer 2008 - October Power Tools.

Step 2: Log-in to the TFS using a TFS administrator user.

Step 3: Open a command line and go to: “X:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008 Power Tools”

Step 4: Use the “TFPT.EXE destroywit” command in the following way:

tfpt.exe destroywitd /server:[ServerName] /workitemid:[WI ID]

you can add as many Work Item IDs as you like using [,] for example 54,88,92 etc.

You can disable the prompt message by using /noprompt.

Have Fun!!!

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Yesterday I have created a Custom Control that one of its features is to open a work item for the user to modify.

Since it took me some time to understand how to do it I have decided to post a reference for how to do it in an easy way.

Here is an example of how to do it:

using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Controls;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking;

private void ShowWorkItem(WorkItem wiActivity) 
    { 
        DocumentService docSrv = (DocumentService)serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(DocumentService));

        IWorkItemDocument bugDocument = docSrv.CreateWorkItem(wiActivity, this) as IWorkItemDocument;

        docSrv.ShowWorkItem(bugDocument);

    }

private IServiceProvider serviceProvider; – is part of the IWorkItemControl interface that is required to create a Custom Control.

Have Fun!!!

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I have started to write about the “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” in the Introduction post where I presented three sections in the tool: Testing Center, Lab Center and Organize.

You can read the post “Team System 2010 Beta 1 “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” - Introduction” of the introduction.

I intend to create a quick guide for the “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” out of these posts that will be published in the “Team System Guides”.

When working with the “Microsoft Test And Lab Management” for the first time you will need to start with the Organize section where you do 4 things:

1. Create Sheared Steps for Test Cases
2. Create Test Cases
3. Create Configurations
4. Create Test Plans

You can start by doing each of the tasks, the order here is the order I will use for my example.

I have already published how to manage Shared Steps “Microsoft Test And Lab Management – Create And Manage Shared Steps (Part 1)” and how to manage Test Cases Microsoft Test And Lab Management – Create And Manage Test Cases (Part 2).

In this post I will show the Configurations Management.

What are the configurations?

Configurations are groups of variables that represents the main parts of the environment I like to test.

The environment that is under test has many variables that makes it impossible to control, for example If I like to test my application under a browser and a specific windows version the Environment will be:

1. Windows XP version x
2. Drivers:
   Video: xxx, Sound: xxx, motherboard: xxx ……
3. Memory: xxx
4. Motherboard Type: xxx
5. Etc.

And the Configuration will be:

1. Windows XP
2. Service Pack 3
3. Browser: IE 8.0

Configurations helps us control the environments that needs to take part in the testing process.

Step 1: In order to open the “Organize” launch the tool and select the Organize option.

The “Organize” toolbar will be shown.

Step 2: Click on the “Configurations” option to get to the Configurations management.

Step 3: Click the “Manage configuration variables” to get to the variables management.

Step 4: Here you can do two things:

1. You can add more values to an existing “Configuration Variable” by clicking on the variable name and continuing to step 6.
2. Click the “New configuration variable” button in order to add a new “Configuration Variable” and continue to step 5.

For this example I will choose option 2.

Step 5: Add the “Configuration Variable” Name on the left side.

Step 6: Add the “Configuration Variable” values on the right side. You can add as many values as you like.

Step 7: Click the “Save Configuration Variables” button when done.

Step 8: Clicking the “New” button will open a new Configuration form.

The first part of the form is for managing the item.

One important thing I like to show here is the “Assign to new test plans” checkbox, when checked the configuration will automatically be added to new test plans when created.

Step 9: After filling the Name and Description fields start adding new “Configuration Variables” to the Test Configuration by clicking the Add button, choosing the Variable from the dropdown list.

Step 10: Choose the Variable value from the dropdown list.

Step 11: After filling all the fields all you left to do is click on the “Save and Close” button or the “Save” button and you will have a Test Configuration ready to be used.

You can always modify the Test Configurations, just open the item, make all the required changes and save it again.

Have Fun!!!

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