07 Sep 2017

Installing the Cloud Load Test Agent On-Premises

Azure DevOps, Performance Testing
In the first post of this series on Cloud Load Testing with Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) I showed you how to quickly get a cloud load test up and running. In the post we created a test than ran within the cloud and not on-premises. If you have a desire or need to run your cloud load tests using an on-premises test agent, the agents are very easy to setup and configure.If you don’t want to read each of the required steps for installing the agent, there are only a few, I have created a video that will walk…
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09 Aug 2017

Creating Your First VSTS Load Test

Azure DevOps, Performance Testing
A few weeks ago I gave a talk on Performance Testing with VSTS. Since I received so many questions during the talk, I thought I’d put together a series of blog posts on the subject. I hope to address some of the questions that were asked and will hopefully even answer a few that weren’t asked!At this time, I’m thinking the series of posts will include something along these lines:Creating Your First VSTS Load Test (this post) Setup Your VSTS Load Tests Even Faster!Installing the Cloud Load Test Agent On-Premises (video)Running VSTS Load Tests On-PremisesCreating VSTS Load Tests from an…
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21 Jul 2017

Performance Testing with VSTS

ALM, Azure DevOps, Performance Testing
Earlier today I gave a talk at this year’s Tulsa TechFest (love this conference!) on Performance Testing with VSTS On- and Off-Premises. In this session, covered the various types of load tests that can be executed with VSTS, including:URL-based TestsHTTP Archive TestsVisual Studio TestsJMeter TestsIn the demos that accompanied each of these test types, I showed where they could each be run in the cloud using VSTS and well as on-premises, also using VSTS (with the exception of JMeter which isn’t yet supported in all scenarios). I plan to cover each of these in a series of blog posts starting…
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17 Aug 2013

TFS Agile Poker for Windows 8

ALM, TFS, Utilities, Windows 8
If you have been involved with agile software development in any form or fashion, chances are you’ve spent some time estimating effort or relative size of user stories.  This is often done by selecting a card from a special planning poker deck.  A typical planning poker deck is based on a Fibonacci sequence (e.g. 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8…) though the sequence is sometimes modified after 13 for even numbers (e.g. 20, 40, 100).  This process works fairly well when all participants are located relatively close to each other (i.e. in the same room).  What if the team members…
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07 May 2013

ALM Readiness Treasure Map Update–Tracking Progress

ALM, ALM Rangers, Pirates
If you don’t follow the various ALM Rangers Solutions, you should!  If you do, then you already realize there is a lot of content put out by the various ALM Rangers project teams. In fact, there is so much information provided by the ALM Rangers that they have provided a Windows 8 app to help navigate the ever-changing waters of available content – the ALM Readiness Treasure Map. [If you’re running Windows 8, click the above image to install the app now] Coming Enhancements Although version 1 of the app has seen a lot of use, there is much room…
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12 Apr 2012

Team Foundation Service Whitepaper in Beta

ALM Rangers, TFS, Visual Studio 2012
The Visual Studio ALM Rangers have shipped another deliverable as part of the ALM Rangers Visual Studio 11 Readiness “Gig” Project – the Team Foundation Service Preview whitepaper. If you have been following the various developments of Visual Studio 11 and Team Foundation Server 11 then you are already aware that Microsoft now offers a cloud-based solution for TFS – currently referred to as the Team Foundation Service Preview.  Many of the features that are currently available in the “on-premises” version of TFS are also available in the cloud-based version (conversely, there are also some features in the cloud-based version…
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02 Mar 2012

Visual Studio 11 ALM Beta ALM Rangers Guides

ALM Rangers, Guidance
As we are mostly all aware, Microsoft released Visual Studio 11 Beta and Team Foundation Server 11 Beta yesterday morning (see links here).  What you might not realize is that the ALM Rangers released their initial wave of Visual Studio 11 ALM Readiness Guides. The initial wave includes the release of 10 guides to Microsoft’s CodePlex site: Practical Kanban Guide Practical Ruck Guide Team Foundation Build Customization Guide Team Foundation Server Planning Guide Team Foundation Server Upgrade Guide Test Release Management Guide Visual Studio ALM Rangers Personas and Scenarios Visual Studio Architecture Tooling Guide Visual Studio Lab Management Guide VM Factory…
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21 Jun 2011

Visual Studio Lab Management Guidance

ALM Rangers, Guidance, Visual Studio
It’s been a busy week for the ALM Rangers!  Not only was the Visual Studio Build Customization Guidance (read post) released but the Visual Studio Lab Management Guidance was released as well. Here’s some quick information from the project home page: Project Description This Visual Studio ALM Ranger project has the primary goal of delivering scenario based and hands-on guidance for the planning, setup, configuration and usage of Visual Studio Lab Management, backed by  custom VM Template automation for reference environments. Downloads The content is packaged in 3 separate zip files to give you the choice of selective downloads. The…
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21 Jun 2011

Visual Studio Build Customization Guidance

ALM Rangers, Guidance, Visual Studio
A few days ago, the Visual Studio Build Customization Guidance was officially released! Here’s some quick information from the project home page: Project Description This Visual Studio ALM Ranger project has the primary goal of delivering scenario based and hands-on lab guidance for the customization and deployment of Team Foundation Build 2010 activities such as versioning, code signing, and branching. Downloads The solution is divided in separate packages to give you the choice of selective downloads. The default download is the first of the listed packages: Guidance contains scenario based practical guidance, frequently asked questions and quick reference posters Selected…
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07 Jun 2011

What is the TFS (Iteration) Automation Platform?

ALM Rangers, TFS Automation Platform
One of the privileges I’ve had over the past couple of years has been the opportunity to work on several Visual Studio ALM Rangers projects.  Rangers projects provide the opportunity to interact with some very talented people on a daily basis.  Some of those people might by on the Visual Studio product group, others might be Microsoft employees in other areas, and others might be external Rangers – e.g. Microsoft MVPs or other contributors.  Add in various time zones across the planet and your typical Rangers project can turn out to be a great, yet rewarding, challenge. Most recently, I…
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