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Agile Estimation using Risk Management Techniques
10 October 08 01:48 PM | cjlotz | with no comments

James Shore has published an excellent 2 part series of articles covering agile planning through using risk management practices to make solid commitments.   The articles show how to use Risk Multipliers to account for common risks such as turnover, changing requirements, work disruption and illustrates the techniques advocated through using 2 pseudo projects.  Start with Part 1 that lays the foundation and paints the "all-goes-well" scenario and then continue onto Part 2...

Filed under: Agile

SDLC Progress
01 September 08 08:07 PM | cjlotz | 2 comment(s)

I've been spending the last month or two getting the SDLC procedures and infrastructure in place for the Silverlight release of our company's Enterprise Physical Asset Management system.  We were already using Team Foundation Source Control but wanted to adopt SCRUM as our development methodology and improve on some of our development practices such as using Continuous Integration , Test Driven Development, better Work Item Management and enhanced quality through Code Reviews, Check...

Filed under: DeveloperTools, Agile, Teamwork, StaticCodeAnalysis, TeamSystem

Code Reviews using TFS Tools
25 August 08 07:47 PM | cjlotz | 2 comment(s)

I've previously blogged about using code reviews as an effective way to minimize defects, improve code quality and keep code more maintainable.  In my new job I had to define a code review process that suited our development team as well as the Team Foundation Server toolset and the Conchango SCRUM for Team System process template we are using.  This post details what process and tooling we came up with. Review Style To improve on the cost-benefit factor of the reviews we opted for...

Filed under: Agile, Teamwork, Coding, TeamSystem

Some Random Thoughts on Adopting an Agile SDLC
13 February 08 11:50 AM | cjlotz | 2 comment(s)

I'm currently part of a team that needs to re-define our company's SDLC methodology. I'm all for using a more agile SDLC ( Scrum , Open UP etc.) as the current SDLC methodology is based on a Waterfall model of software development. In the past 2 years, a few projects have attempted to use a more Agile SDLC , but they either failed miserably in their attempt or only succeeded in implementing some of the technical aspects of agile development like Continuous Integration (CI) and Test Driven...

Filed under: SDLC, Agile

Continuous Integration: From Theory to Practice 2nd Edition
15 January 08 05:10 AM | cjlotz | 16 comment(s)

During last year I created a guide on implementing Continuous Integration (CI) for a .NET 2.0 development environment. The guide illustrates how to create a complete CI setup using VS 2005 and MSBuild (no NAnt) together with tools like FxCop, NCover, TypeMock, NUnit, Subversion, InstallShield, QTP, NDepend, Sandcastle and CruiseControl.NET. The good news is that I spend some time during the last 2 weeks greatly improving the setup for use on a new VS 2008 project and I have decided to release a 2nd...

Filed under: ContinuousIntegration, Agile, VisualStudio

Izindaba #20
30 November 07 05:48 AM | cjlotz | with no comments

Time for another weekly round-up of developer news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development content. (Izindaba = Zulu for News). .NET .NET Web Product Roadmap (ASP.NET, Silverlight, IIS 7) - Scott Guthrie announces the upcoming initiatives and releases for .NET web development for the months ahead. Silverlight 2.0 Beta with Go-live license Q1 2008! So glad they decided to rename to 2.0 and not stick with 1.1. Advanced C# - Free chapter from the C# 3.0 in a Nutshell book published by O'Reilly...

Filed under: TDD, DeveloperTools, Agile, Learning, Linq, C#, VisualStudio, SOA, Coding, SQL

Izindaba #18
16 November 07 05:06 AM | cjlotz | with no comments

Time for another weekly round-up of developer news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development content. (Izindaba = Zulu for News). .NET ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 1) - Scott Guthrie builds an e-commerce store application to illustrate how to use the cool new ASP.NET MVC Framework So Many Tools - So Little Time! - Jesse Liberty tries to summarize when to use what tools for doing Silverlight 1.0 and 1.1 development. Code Metrics as Check-in Policy - The Code Analysis Team shows how to prevent...

Filed under: SDLC, TDD, DeveloperTools, Agile, Object-Orientation, Silverlight, Orm, ASPNet, CLR, Architecture, SQL, DynamicCodeAnalysis, Misc

Izindaba #16 Reloaded
01 November 07 09:42 PM | cjlotz | with no comments

Time for another weekly round-up of developer news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development content. As Windows Live Writer has kindly overwritten Izindaba #15 with the new Izindaba #16, I am re-posting the Izindaba #16 content. .NET Optimizing the Silverlight Install Experience - Scott Guthrie shows how to include the Silverlight install directly from your own site. Use the ASP.NET MVC Framework to Write Web Apps without Viewstate or Postbacks - Article by Jeffrey Palermo (code samples...

Filed under: SDLC, DeveloperTools, Agile, Object-Orientation, Silverlight, ASPNet, CLR, SOA, Javascript, Coding, Mono

Izindaba #14
19 October 07 05:52 AM | cjlotz | with no comments

Time for another weekly roundup of news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development content: Should I commit to Silverlight 1.1 or Flex - Jesse Liberty is struggling with a case of some Silverlight addiction LINQ to DataSet: Data Binding - Erick Thompson explores the data binding options for LINQ to DataSet query results. Also see the follow up post about the LinqDataView . Understanding the Difference between Owners and Schemas in SQL Server - An article that explains the concept of schemas...

Filed under: Agile, Languages, Linq, Silverlight, VisualStudio, ASPNet, BDD, StaticCodeAnalysis, SQL, DynamicCodeAnalysis, Misc

Izindaba #13
12 October 07 05:54 AM | cjlotz | with no comments

It is time for another weekly roundup of news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development related content: Optimizing SQL Server CPU Performance - Nice TechNet article on the topic from Zach Nichter. What's new in SQL Server 2008 Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 - Short series of articles that highlights all the new SQL Server 2008 features from Don Schlichting. 8 October: ASP.NET, AJAX, Silverlight links - Another set of links on these different technologies from Scott Guthrie. FxCop 1.36...

Filed under: TDD, DeveloperTools, Agile, Ajax, Silverlight, VisualStudio, ASPNet, SOA, SQL, WCF

Izindaba #11
28 September 07 08:02 AM | cjlotz | with no comments

It is time for another weekly roundup of news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development related content: Armchair Agilist - Scott Bellware expresses his frustration with folks from within the .NET Community who keep on criticizing agile development without having done any actual agile development themselves. Why Fixed Price, Scope Bids Are Incompatible With Software Development - A thought provoking post by Mats Helander. Continuous Testing Explained - The future of TDD? Everything Is Fast...

Filed under: TDD, DeveloperTools, Agile, Ajax, VisualStudio, StaticCodeAnalysis, Coding, DynamicCodeAnalysis, Astoria

Izindaba #10
20 September 07 03:28 PM | cjlotz | with no comments

A bit earlier than normal, but it is time for another weekly roundup of news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development related content: NCover 2.0.1 released - NCover follows the route of other tools before it like TestDriven.NET , NDepend and CodeSmith and becomes a commercial product. Here's the what's new for the latest release. NCoverExplorer 1.4.0 - Grant Drake has released an update to his excellent NCoverExplorer tool containing some fixes and new features . This will be...

Filed under: DeveloperTools, Agile, Linq, Ajax, Ruby, CLR, Teamwork, DynamicCodeAnalysis

Part 7: Continuous Integration - The QtpBuild
17 September 07 09:33 PM | cjlotz | 8 comment(s)

This is the seventh post in a series where I document how to setup a Continuous Integration (CI) process using open source tools like CruiseControl.NET, NCover, NUnit, Subversion and Sandcastle together with MSBuild and VS 2005. Part 7 covers the QtpBuild and the targets and tasks used by the QtpBuild. The QtpBuild shows how to run the regression test pack using Mercury's QuickTest Professional and Mercury Quality Center . Post Updates 11/12/2007: Updated the CC.Net configuration to use build...

Filed under: ContinuousIntegration, DeveloperTools, Agile

Izindaba #9
14 September 07 08:25 AM | cjlotz | with no comments

Time for another weekly roundup of news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development related content: Visual Studio to Finally Address Performance Issues - InfoQ links to a Channel 9 Video on the performance improvements made to the VS 2008 IDE. LINQ to SQL: Part 9 - Using a Custom LINQ Expression with the control - Scott Guthrie continues with his LINQ to SQL series. Programming Silverlight 1.0 with C#: Part 1 - Nikhil Kothari shows how to use Script# instead of Javascript to build an application...

Filed under: TDD, DeveloperTools, Agile, Linq, Silverlight, VisualStudio, IoC, ASPNet, Ruby

Izindaba #8
07 September 07 07:47 AM | cjlotz | with no comments

Time for another weekly roundup of news that focuses on .NET and general development related content: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta White Paper Counting Wastes Time and How Are You Going To USE That Information - Some thoughts from Fred George on collecting metrics and using metrics in an Agile development environment. Scott Bellware expands on his thoughts with reference to BDD. 20 Tips to Improve ASP.NET Application Performance - Nice list of ASP.NET performance enhancement tips. MbUnit 2.4...

Filed under: TDD, Agile, C#, Silverlight, Orm, ASPNet, BDD, DDD, Frameworks, Teamwork, OS, Misc, Mono