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Tech-Ed 2007 South Africa - Chalk and Talk Session Q&A (Update 2)

The tools we demonstrated and documentation we referred to is outlined in the recent blog post. Herewith the questions and answers, which we confirmed with the product team to ensure that we gave everyone the whole truth and nothing other than the truth q;-) Thanks Jeff, Harry and team ... you guys definitely "rock"!

1. Can the code metrics to be custom extended?
   • At this stage there are no evident plans for code metrics to be opened up for custom extensions. Microsoft is extending code analysis to give customers the opportunity to develop their own custom rules and interfaces to support plugging in static analysis engines (for support of new languages or databases). The availability of the code analysis extensions is likely to be in the release after Visual 2008.
     
2. Is there a detailed documentation of the TFS database schema that is available to the public?
   • The operational store documentation is not published and again we urge everyone not to delve into that database. The data warehouse documentation is available here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms244696(VS.80).aspx
     
3. What, if any, are the plans to bring the C++ support in VSTS in-line with the other development languages, such as C#? An example would be the code profiling in both the managed and native C++ environments.
• There is actually full parity between managed and native code except for the memory allocation profiling. We are all focusing far too much on managed code profiling, which is the likely cause for the perceived lag of the native environment. All of the normal sampling and instrumentation profiling support works targeting managed and native applications.
• While memory profiling supports only managed code, some of the profiler features are actually more beneficial to native C/C++ developers: instruction pointers & CPU counters. There is full parity between native and managed APIs for controlling profiler data collection.
  
4. Are there any guidance papers under construction, that document the migration practices from TFS 1.0 to TFS 2008?
   • None that we are aware of at the moment, however, we have raised it with Microsoft and are hoping that guidance whitepapers will appear on http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSGuidance in the future.
     
5. Are there any recommended guidance papers for the customization of team project process templates and the creation of custom types, i.e. a custom System.Title?
   • The three sources of information we would recommend are http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSGuidance, Patterns and Practices Guide and the excellent book "Team Foundation Server", ISBN: 0-471-91930-6. The P&P guide and the latter book belong into every TFS toolbox.
     
6. Are there any case studies and/or reference sites for customers who have implemented TFS in a C++ 6, 7, 2003 and 2005 environment?
   • We are not aware of any case studies which are specific to C++ and TFS, as Microsoft generally are not delving into the language being used when talking about TFS for the most part it is language agnostic.
     
7. Is there any guidance around branching?
• The three sources of information we would recommend are http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSGuidance, Patterns and Practices Guide and http://www.codeplex.com/BranchingGuidance.
  
8. Will there be any chalk&talk sessions to discuss branching?
   • I am working on a presentation and a whitepaper discussing the planning of TFS projects, which includes branching. If all goes well, the material should go public early November.
     
9. What interoperability is there with MQ-Series?
   • If you are considering Windows Communication Foundation and are living in an IBM MQ environment, have a look at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/mqwcf/
     
10. Third-Party Interoperability
    • Chart at http://www.thearchitect.co.uk/weblog/archives/2006/09/000419.html has some information about which vendors support with features.

      Some sites for web services of different vendors:

      • Sun (Java): http://java.sun.com/webservices/ or https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/
      • IBM (WebSphere, Java): http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices
      • BEA: http://dev2dev.bea.com/webservices/index.html

Watch this blog and www.saarchitect.net for news on the branching and planning session as per point 8 above.

Update on expiring VS2008 Beta2 VPCs

Jeff has posted an update on the prematurely expiring Visual Studio 2008 BETA-2 VPCs. Please have a look at the blog post and the latest findings if you are making use of BETA2 VPCs.

Please note that the problem is not applicable to VS2008 BETA-2 installed on real hardware iron or on your own operating system image.

SA Architect Events Planning - Quick Survey

We thank you for your feedback.

Team System Widgets - An OBLIGATORY site in favorites!

The http://accentient.com/widgets.aspx page is an obligatory site in the favorites of anyone using, interested in or even just getting distant fumes of a TFS server.

The site has just been upgraded and is maintained and constantly improved by Team System MVPs from Accentient, Inc.

The site consolidates a huge armory of add-ins, widgets and extensibility solutions for Team System.

Visit the site, subscribe and "save to favorites"! 

Community Leads: South-Africa

Wondering who is who in the South-African communities and whom you can contact/should to get some guidance, help, information ...?

Here is a list of three of the contact lists that I am aware of, which I will expand as other communities respond to this blog post:

• SA Developer Leads
• SA Architect Leads
• South-African MVPs

I wish to reemphasize what we said at Tech-Ed this year: "MVPs represent their area of specialization with unlimited passion and will always share the good, the bad and the ugly of technology. MVPs want the technology they represent to be implemented and used correctly and optimally, to ensure that your experience with the technology is great ... therefore, PLEASE contact us when you are considering technology we represent, so that we can add our passion to your environment".

To all the MVPs and all the community leads: "You are greatest! Keep up the good work!".

TechEd 2007 Sun-City - 20071024 Day 4

The last day of TechEd and two successful chalk and talk sessions back to back ... A quick tour through TFS/VSTS 2008 and WCF, during which we had some interesting discussions and questions. As mentioned during the sessions we will be posting a list of the questions raised during all chalk&talk sessions and the answers we and other colleagues are appropriate. Watch the space for the Q&A!

In the interim, herewith the details on the MQ binding for WCF and the various WCF books we have encountered. The book with and * next to the name is not yet released, but is promising to be a really exciting WCF reference book, covering the latest and greatest of WCF:

• For Windows Communication Foundation in an IBM MQ environment, have a look at http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/mqwcf/
• WCF Books
• Programming WCF Services (Programming)
• Microsoft Wndows Communication Foundation Step by Step
• Windows Communication Foundation: Hands-On
• Windows Communication Foundation: Unleashed
• Inside WCF
• Learning WCF
• Essential WCF*

To end this post I will include a few pictures from yesterday's closing party and some pictures made today:

The TechEd closing party ...

 Francois practicing "architecture" of beer mugs at the closing party ...

  The community and "Mo" our great MVP leader ensuring that we behaved in absence of Ruari.

TechEd 2007 Sun-City - 20071023 Day 3

We had a reasonably good turnout ... considering post-lunch time slot, people recovering from the 5km jog and the extreme heat forcing many to the valley of the waves ... for the CNT205 - Introducing TFS Power Tools and 3rd Party Tools session today. We covered a lot of ground and I would like to summarize the reference points to the bits and pieces we demonstrated and discussed in the session:

1. The tool that allows you to view history and other information, such as branches, is Team Foundation Sidekicks, which you can find at http://www.attrice.info/downloads/index.htm.
2. The tools we demonstrated today, can be found at:
1. List Pending Changes Browser (free software) ... we will also demo at TechEd.
2. Test Manager Add-In
3. TeamCompanion for Excel (free software)
4. TeamCompanion for Project (free software)
3. TeamLook
4. Power Tools … which includes the TFS BPA tool
5. BPA SDK … to develop your own BPA tool
6. Other Links
1. Widgets
7. Documentation worth considering:
1. Licensing Whitepaper
2. Patterns and Practices Guide
3. Operations Guide
4. VSTSGuidance
5. Our planning poster outlines the steps we believe are crucial when planning a TFS deployment. I attached the low quality PDF, you can download the high-quality JPG from www.drp.co.za or www.saarchitect.net.

... the "chat" audience.

We hope to see everyone from today + more at tomorrow's CNT204 - A quick tour through TFS/VSTS 2008 session, although the first session on day 4, after the closing party, normally has dismal turnout.

TechEd 2007 Sun-City - 20071022 Day 2

For me the first real day of sessions at Sun City started with an overview session of WCF delivered by Chris Auld (wearing a Springbok Jersey!!!), two excellent TFS sessions by Brian Harry (Technical Fellow) and a good session covering the DataDude by Brian Keller. The best session, however, was definitely the Chalk&Talk delivered by Pieter Germishuys (XNA MVP), who developed an amazing game in less than 45 minutes and keeping the audience entertained with his dry humour ... well done Pieter!

Our community stand, situated in the exhibition centre (left) and a view of the main exhibition area (right).

Pieter in his XNA world (left) and the gaming stations on the right. Ruari, spot "Mo" ... q;-)

 "Mo" our great MVP leader, keeping the banners flying high in the absence of Ruari.

TechEd 2007 Sun City - 20071021 "The Arrival"

We have all arrived at TechEd and after a very successful sports weekend ... the Springboks are Rugby World Champions again and Ferrari has secured both the constructors and drivers world championship ... we are gearing up to the next two and a half days of TechEd events. The technical information sharing, the collaboration, the community initiatives and the sessions are promising to be as spectacular as the opening fireworks this year. Watch this space for news ...

Below the first pieces of evidence of the event:

Tech-Ed 2007 South-Africa ... Countdown T-2

We are packing up and getting ready to "trek" to Sun City with an overloaded City Golf.

We are really looking forward to a great event, chalk&talk sessions hosted by MVPs and some very, VERY interesting sessions by Brian Harry (Microsoft Technical Fellow) and Brian Keller (Microsoft Technical Evangelist).

Make sure that you pencil in the sessions in your agenda that are delivered by these two gents!

See you at Tech-Ed in Sun City!

TechEd 2007 - CNT204 A Quick Tour Through TFS/VSTS 2008

We have finalised the CNT205 chalk & talk session content.

The session abstract on the TechEd agenda states: "The session explores enhancements that are included in the Visual Studio 2008 Orcas release, such as IDE improvements, code metrics, build, annotations and performance wizard. The interactive session discusses these features, especially the performance wizard, to highlight the productivity improvements and power features that will drive the developer environment of tomorrow".

Scheduled date and time: 24 Oct 2007, 09:00 - 10:00

Collateral at session:

• Handout including TFS posters and TFS Tools lists
• .Net Enterprise Solutions - Interoperability for the Connoisseur book
• Software Engineers on their way to Pluto book

Chalk demonstrations include:

• VSTS IDE
• VSTS Code Metrics
• VSTS Performance Profiler
• TFS Annotations
• TFS Build

Talk Ideas include:

• TFS Source Tree Patterns
• TFS Team Project Patterns

See you there ... we hope the closing party will not erode the attendance at this "at the crack of dawn" session.

TechEd 2007 - CNT205: Introducing TFS Power Tools and 3rd Party Tools

We have finalised the CNT205 chalk & talk session content.

The session abstract on the TechEd agenda states: "The session explores the Team Foundation Server power tools and other 3rd party products that complement the Visual Studio Team System environment. The interactive session focuses primarily on the Team Foundation Server (TFS) Best Practise Analyzer (BPA) power tool and the community 3rd party products that enhance TFS".

Scheduled date and time: 23 Oct 2007, 13:15 - 14:15

Collateral at session:

• Handout including TFS posters and TFS Tools lists
• .Net Enterprise Solutions - Interoperability for the Connoisseur book
• Software Engineers on their way to Pluto book
• TFS books

Chalk demonstrations include:

• List Pending Changes Browser
• TeamLook
• TeamCompanion
• TFS BPA
• TFS Admin Utility
• TFS Process Editor
• Lightweight Scrum Process Template

Talk Ideas include:

• TFS Power Tools in general
• TFS security patterns

See you there ...

Software Engineers on their way to Pluto ... launched.

Our third book, titled "Software Engineers on their way to Pluto", and described in one of my previous posts, has finally been launched.

We have just received boxes filled with the book and it looks great.

To all the contributers and reviewers ... THANK YOU very much for your support and efforts, which was really worth it.

Happy reading!

TeamCompanion from Ekobit has shipped!

According to Ekobit the TeamCompanion solution is: "TeamCompanion for Microsoft Outlook® 2007 – the best companion for your Microsoft Team System based team!". We have evaluated the product in parallel to TeamLook and at this stage we believe that both products are powerful add-ons to the arsenal of solutions that complement TFS and VSTS environments. Since installing these tools we have been monitoring and working on TFS WorkItems from within Outlook , which has proven a real productivity boost for those stakeholders that shy away from Visual Studio and who prefer the seamless integration with Outlook.

Do not take our word, instead check-out the released TeamCompanion trial and visit us at Tech-Ed 2007 South-Africa, Sun City, where we will be demonstrating and talking about these tools in the CNT205 - Introducing TFS Power Tools and 3rd Party Tools session.

Based on latest team feedback and personal analysis the product gets four out of five smiles from us as a team :) :) :) :) :)

Other solutions from Ekobit include:

• List Pending Changes Browser (free software) ... we will also demo at TechEd.
• Test Manager Add-In
• TeamCompanion for Excel (free software)
• TeamCompanion for Project (free software)

NewHorizon Space Probe ... a long way from home

With our third book "Software Engineers on their way to Pluto", which uses the New Horizon trajectory as a baseline, imminent for release, it is important to emphasize that the New Horizon space probe is in a healthy state and achieving yet another technical success story.

Refer to http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php which shows the exact position of the probe, which is currently  1,229.712 million kilometers from home ... truly amazing, considering that the development server in our computer room ... a few meters away ... is giving our project team such a tough time.

I have had numerous discussions with colleagues of mine whether it is actually viable to compare space agency projects, costing millions to billions,  with Terra-based IT solutions costing but a fraction thereof.

We all agree that the space agency probably has more budget, better business and technical specifications, more stringent scope definitions and an abundance of subject expert resources, resulting in solutions that are launched, are in a state of sleep while traveling in probably the most hostile environment known to mankind, deploys years later and is controlled by humanoids millions of kilometers away.

But why do we agree? I am actually not convinced anymore, because we do not require the budget that Nasa needs to send a probe to Pluto, we could insist on and create specifications that are just as good ... before developers commence with the development of the solutions ..., we could be like a stubborn Swiss mountain mule when it comes to scope and especially scope creep and with the correct motivation and education, we could re-develop sufficient expertise and passion in the IT industry as well.

We have the tools to assist us in the solution development lifecycle ... yet many developers and testers shy away from these in favour of continuing in their familiar world. It is a challenge that we are taking by the horns, because if we ever want to align ourselves with successful solutions such as the Cassini and the New Horizon space probes, we have to break out of our comfort zone, strive for the highest peaks and do what Swiss mountain mules do best ... get to the top, no matter what.

The decline of IT expertise, resource and passion is a difficult one for us, because apart from the overall decline of software engineers from academia, we also have a drain of experienced and passionate IT resources from our country ... a phenomena which is probably hitting many countries with the world melting into one accessible ecosystem.

Where is the passion for IT? Perhaps we can discuss this problem and the topic of cost effective, reliable and functional solutions when we meet at Tech-Ed. I would be interested in your views, because I am back to the puzzled state I was in when I decided to embark on the journey of book 3.