Shai Raiten's Blog : Visual Studio 2010, Process Template

The Git Hole

shair — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:31:00 GMT

I consider myself a calm person with plenty of tolerance, I believe in productive discussion and love it – Part of my job as a consultant is to talk with Teams and explain them why you should choose a specific product over another, in 99.9% of those meetings there is one guy that don’t like the change (No One Like Changes) and you need in a calm way to explain and show him the benefits of the new tool – Forcing someone to do something is never a good thing.

But sometimes there is no wining side in a discussion, you might say discussion are not about winning is about Accepting and Understanding, but Imagine yourself this scenario - You are a religious man, how about a discussion with a non-religious about “Does God Exists”?

You can throw billion argumentation's but nothing will matter because in this discussion there is not Logic but Faith and Emotions, so you can spend hours but in the end the non-religious will not believe and the religious will.

Even when you talk about Technology there is emotions if you like it or not – If you not believe me you should read some theory's from Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan and Sub Judice , (Latin for "under judgment"), I hope in this discussion you’ll understand you are not the first and for sure not the last how think he can control his emotions when you make a choice.

So why I told you all about that? Lately I’ve being asked about why TFS and Not Git?

First I think Git is a wonderful version control system and I even use it for several projects, I use SVN and several other Open Source Version Control Systems.

The reason sometimes I’m using other systems than TFS, is for specific projects:

Project I do by myself and I don’t need work assignment or project management.
Projects that doesn’t have Testers, Product Manager or anyone else besides Developers.
Projects that doesn't care about team collaboration and think that Email is a great solution for tracking the team.
Project that doesn't have the money to buy TFS (Dream Spark)

The question itself implies that the person didn’t understand what is TFS, and just think about saving his praised code.

Team Foundation Server – This is a suite of development tools all within a single platform
The idea of one platform for the entire team is brilliant. Microsoft created tools for each individual position on the team; there are tools for Requirements Management, design tools for Architects, Developer tools and of course testing tools ranging from manual test to automation and load testing. All is this is now under one platform. When the entire team works on the same platform the collaboration and integration become easy and fluent, collecting data to generate reports no longer needs to take a lot of time. The team’s efforts are now integrated as part of the platform. Synchronizing between different tools is no longer necessary because all are working together in one place.

So after I explain what is TFS the person told me –> but TFS doesn’t have distributed version control.

SO WHAT? Git doesn’t have Bug Management, Load Testing, UML Designer, Build Machine and a lot more. It’s not all about Code!

So developers think that everything about the Product is up to them – and they are wrong! the product is something that everyone is part of, the Project Manager, the Business Analysis, the Developers, Tester and more.

Sometimes one less feature is best for the Team than one extra feature just for you!

Now, let’s go back to the discussion, even after I explain TFS the person still want Git (although his company bought TFS) and in that point I understand that this is the same discussion as “Does God Exists” because the person has HMS (Hate Microsoft Syndrome) and this is what he believes.

Is there a cure? I really don’t know. But I do know that Emotions overcome common sense and facts.

I Love Microsoft and I really Love TFS, but TFS is not the only tool at the market today that gives teams the ability to work together under a single platform, there is IBM Jazz or HP ALM Solution, but with not doubt TFS is mature and most popular ALM tool today and I will continue recommend TFS and I’ll not surrender the HMS!!!

God, give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Thanks

VSTS Beta 2 - Web Access Not Working With SERVERDEFAULT Tag

shair — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:22:33 GMT

VSTS Beta 2 - Web Access Not Working With SERVERDEFAULT Tag

Strange problem with TFS 2010 Beta 2, it seems like SERVERDEFAULT tag is not working from Web Access 2010.

In Visual Studio when I change the Status to - Active, Resolved, Closed etc.. there is an action inside the transition that takes the Clock and CurrentUser (Comes with default template). (see below)

When performing the same action from Web I get a message that the Field (By, Date) cannot be empty.

This works fine in 2008 Web Access.

Solution 1:

Edit work item definition and Change all SERVERDEFAULT tags to COPY

Solution 2:

Edit work item definition so that fields “By” and “Date” should not be marked as required.

Solution 3:

Download - EditWorkItem.js

Copy %Program Files%\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\Web Access\Web\Resources\Scripts\editworkitem.js to the %backup% directory
Copy %Patch%\EditWorkItem.js to %Program Files%\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\Web Access\Web\Resources\Scripts\editworkitem.js

Scrum for Team System 2010 Beta 2 – Getting Started

shair — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:39:00 GMT

Scrum for Team System 2010 Beta 2 – Getting Started

In my previous post I talked about the changes in Scrum 3.0 Scrum For Team System Version 3.0 - Beta 2 Released.

So how to get started with Scrum 3.0? as you know Team System comes with 2 default templates – Agile, CMMI.

To add the new Scrum template Download Scrum For Team System 3.0 Beta 2:

There are separate installers for 32bit and 64bit editions of Windows; you will need to choose the appropriate one for each server being deployed. For example, your TFS Application-Tier server may be running on 32bit Windows whilst your SharePoint server is 64bit, so you would use the 32bit installer for the TFS AT and 64bit installer for the SharePoint server.

Make sure you are running the installation with TFSSetup (Administrator).

The installation process is very fast, make sure the checkbox on launching the Deployment tool is checked.

There are two method to install Scrum template the Quick way or the Advanced ways,
using the Quick way will show all ProjectCollection available and Indicate if Scrum template already deployed, is not just click “Deploy” and you done.

After the installation is done you may notice a new Web Service called - ScrumforTeamSsytem

Now when creating a new team project the Scrum Template is there.

The process template page is not yet fully functional, the rest is!

Enjoy.

Customizing TFS 2010 Process Template – Test & Lab Manager

shair — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:23:00 GMT

Customizing TFS 2010 Process Template – Test & Lab Manager

With Visual Studio Team System and the integrated process templates, teams can deliver predictable results, continuously improve and adapt, and effectively collaborate and communicate with team members and stakeholders. One process does not fit all software projects or teams. Visual Studio Team System includes Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software Development and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement.
In addition, partner organizations offer processes including SCRUM, EUP and FDD for Visual Studio Team system.
These templates can be used as is, or customized to enact your development process.

TFS 2010 Process Template contains couple of changes that can save you a lot of time while working with more than one Team Project.

The new folder placed under the template root called - Test Management, inside you will see couple of new xml files and one test settings file.

The first file I want to talk about is the Test Variable.

One of many options in Microsoft Test & Lab Manager is to create a configuration matrix to reach a better test cover.
Instead of creating Test Variables in each Team Project you can modify the process template so those values will be default in each Team Project.

testvariable.xml

The second file is testresolutionstate.xml that define the test result Resolution.

Example:

The third is Test Configurations, for each test plan you can define the configurations you want to execute (based on Test Variables)

testconfiguration.xml

The last file is Test Settings file, you can define more than one default test settings. For example:

1. Test Settings with Action Log. - Light

2. Testing Settings with ASP.Net profiler,Video Recording and Diagnostic Trace Collector – Heavy

Open “localrun” file and edit in Visual Studio 2010, perform your changes and save with different name.

testsettings.xml

Enjoy.