Willy-Peter Schaub's Cave of Chamomile Simplicity

TFS Light Weight Scrum Process Template v0.2 Available

We have released v0.2-Alpha of our TFS Light Weight Scrum Process Template on http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSScrum.

The community project is still under construction and we are down to the sharepoint template, reports and some expected revisions to the work item types.

However, we feel it is ready for evaluation and are looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

An adventure by Mike, Steven, Jean-Pierre and Willy-Peter ... q;-)

Scrum - a day at the zoo

http://www.jacoozi.com/blog/?p=12. A colleague of mine pointed us to the article and a thread of email started growing, debating whether or not the content could be related to our implementation of the Agile Scrum methodology in some of our projects.

Instead of joining the debate, I decided to introduce some wild monkey potion into one of our projects, which is nearing the end of the construction phase and is thus filled with hard working and at times stressed out developers and testers. When the team gathered for the scrum, their scrum master was not present (still swimming in a family relay at the school gala) ...which I guess was a relief in itself ... but they were instructed to jump in their cars and to meet up at our local zoo for a 2-3 hour scrum session, strolling through the zoo, de-stressing and venting the developer and tester tensions.

I eventually joined them ... my two older sons and I made third place at the gala ... and we enjoyed every minute of the break in routine and visiting the monkeys and elephants mentioned in the above mentioned article.

What I realised after the event is that a simple change in the "program", a pinch of extra agility, has injected a boost of additional enthusiasm and team spirit in the team.

When your team looks tired and/or frustrated, when the bug convergence is not in sight or technical challenges seem insurmountable, then consider a trip to your local zoo, or for those at the coast a trip to the local aquarium ... you may be as surprised of the outcome as I was.

Book 3 - Software Engineers on their way to Pluto (DRAFT-3 ready)

Are you interested in software development lifecycles, interested in why solutions are often failing, not scared by science fiction and have you got a few spare hours to review our latest DRAFT? If yes, let us know and we will give you access to the DRAFT PDF.

This book continues the discussion and sharing of best practices we introduced with the books “.NET Enterprise Solutions … Best Practices for the connoisseur, ISBN: 0-620-33013-9” and NET Enterprise Solutions … Interoperability for the Connoisseur, ISBN: 0-620-234680-9. Unlike its predecessors this book is not focused on technology, but instead takes a critical look at how we are typically building information technology solutions, the way we define the modus-operandi of the team and the product life cycle.

· Why are so many solutions failing before they reach a “happy” client?

· Why are so many solution teams stressed before they ship their solution?

We do not have the answer and will probably never find the necessary oracle … but we will nevertheless take a look at four typical software solution teams, building their own spaceship and flying to Pluto therein.

www.drp.co.za ... click-once enrollment

Thanks to JPF, the technology readiness program has reacted to a lot of feedback we have been receiving in terms of our www.drp.co.za site and the complex registration process. Although we are still finalising and fine tuning the site, we are happy to announce the following improvements:

·         http://www.drp.co.za/Media/Papers/tabid/76/Default.aspx is a new depository of papers, which currently contains three papers which are relevant to everybody involved with Microsoft development environments, focusing on TFS Guidance, and ASMX Web Service and WCF Impersonation.

·         The site registration process, a once-off process, is unchanged; however, you will be automatically approved, removing the confusing delay between the once-off registration and enrolment to events. Why must you register? To accommodate remote teams and those not on the BB&D network, the www.drp.co.za site is hosted in the US and available to the public domain, potentially allowing the rest of the world to enrol for the events. We are using the registration information for sanity checking and to be able to see who is downloading our value-add materials, such as papers, posters and snippets.

·         http://www.drp.co.za/Events/tabid/75/Default.aspx features our new events page, which allows you to enrol and unenrol with a single-click. For this with Outlook, the calendar hyperlink will ensure that an entry is added to your calendar.

Please visit us and notice the great events scheduled for March, including SharePoint 2007, SQL Analysis Services and DirectX.

We hope that the simple (click-once) event registration will ensure that we will be meeting more of you at the technology readiness events and be able to interactively exchange ideas, information and guidance.

Team Foundation Power Tool v1.2 are available

Team Foundation Server (TFS) Guidance Whitepaper

WCF Security Impersonation Proof-of-Concept (hyperlink hiccup)

I appologise for dropping the .aspx of the hyperlink to http://www.drp.co.za/Media/Papers/tabid/76/Default.aspx in the http://dotnet.org.za/willy/archive/2007/02/16/wcf-security-impersonation-proof-of-concept.aspx post. Fixed ... you can now investigate the papers.

Technology Readiness - Session Change for February 23rd and March 2nd Notice

We are postponing our "Vista Analysis & Design … good practices" until we have completed the logo certification of one of our products, to ensure that any experienced gained is included in the technology readiness session.

Instead, we are running a Sharepoint session , entitled “Everything about Sharepoint 2007”.  Please see Events List on www.drp.co.za for further detauls.

saArchitect - Time for a re-vamp

Hilton and I are in the process of discussing ways of resuscitating, formalizing  and taking the saArchitect one huge leap further. What we need from you is guidance in terms of what you require from the community and what we should be doing with our saArchitect website.

We are running technology readiness programs as per www.drp.co.za, to which saArchitect members are invited, and are considering creating a new website that has less focus on discussion forums, but more on whitepapers and similar documentation.

Please give us feedback!

WCF Security Impersonation Proof-of-Concept

This paper examines the concept of passing credentials from client to WCF services and using impersonation.

The PoC is based on a similar set of services as covered in the ASMX PoC titled “Ever wondered if and how identities are carried from service to service?” and posted on http://dotnet.org.za/willy/archive/2006/05/07/52060.aspx.

The purpose of this PoC is to compare WCF to the ASMX services world and to verify that the same impersonation functionality is available to us with WCF.

Figure 1 – PoC Solution

The test solution consists of a simple IIS hosted and two custom hosted WCF services, with a test client communicating with the IIS hosted WCF service (Service A). The intention of this test solution is to experiment with the “flowing” of identities from the consumer application to the three services, as the two downstream services (WCF Service B and WCF Service C) by default are presented with the IUSR_ anonymous identity.

If you are interested in this topic, please download the complete proof-of-concept whitepaper on http://www.drp.co.za/Media/Papers/tabid/76/Default.aspx. Other related papers on the same site include "ASMX Security Impersonation Proof-of-Concept" and "WCF FaultException ... why use it".

Technology Readiness Session: Debugging ... what can we do?

 We had a "great" technology readiness session this morning looking at productivity, simple and integrated debugging, VSTS test and code analysis features in Visual Studio 2005.

The exciting part for me was the interactive session and the fact that we highlighted a few features in the power-pack toolbox of VS2005, which some were unaware of. We will be re-running the session next week Friday as per schedule on http://www.drp.co.za if you are interested at a peek into this session.

Microsoft Strategic Architects Forum 2007

Find details on the strategic architects forum 2007 at http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/architectforum/default.mspx.

What is it all about? Here is the description from the Microsoft events site:

"Software as a Service, or SaaS, is a hot topic with the potential to impact both the commercial and technical aspects of the software industry.

“How does SaaS differ from traditional software and what affect does this have on software design and development?”

This Forum will explain what SaaS is, the business models through which it is being delivered, the impact it has on design, development, operations and hosting. We’ll look at the Microsoft technologies which are being employed in SaaS solutions whilst introducing reference architecture.

This Forum addresses three Architectural disciplines:

• Enterprise Architects wanting to understand how SaaS can fit into their plans
• Solution Architects who need to build or consume SaaS
• Infrastructure Architect who may be asked to design and run an infrastructure to support a SaaS solution."

Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server: Preparation Guide for Exam 70-510

If you are planning to write the Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server BETA exam, make sure that you study the preparation guide on http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-510.mspx.

See you there and GOOD LUCK!

DRP Technology Readiness 2007 - March

We have posted the schedule on www.drp.co.za for the technology readiness events in March 2007.

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The mentor-led technology readiness program is an extension to the developer readiness program, providing analysts, developers and decision makers with the knowledge and skills to effectively use technologies to design, develop and test their software solutions. The program focuses o the features and capabilities of selected technologies, as well as best practices of solution development.

The technology readiness (TR) program is divided into three main categories, namely the TR-Overview, the TR Drilldown and the Bootcamp. The TR-Overview, which is a 1-3 hour session, creates awareness of technologies, by introducing the technologies and their core features. The TR-Drilldown , ranging from 1-2 days, positions the technology, encourages experimentation through hands-on labs and drill-down into the inner bowls of the technology where appropriate. The Bootcamp, ranging from 2-4 days, combines and consolidates the TR-Overview and TR-Drilldown, promoting the candidates to apply their knowledge and continue the experimentation by designing and developing a comprehensive solution.
 

Register for Beta Exam 71-510: TS: Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server

Feeling like venturing on a TFS journey and joining us for the TFS BETA exam battle?

Availability

Registration begins: February 1, 2007

Beta exam period runs: 2/20/2007– 3/5/2007

Testing is held at Prometric and Pearson VUE testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions).  All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

See you at the exam!