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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07 Jun 2011

Call for User Group Speaker/Topics

User Group
For those of you that regularly attend the Omaha Team System User Group meeting (in Omaha), you’ve no doubt noticed that we missed the last couple of meetings.  It turns out we had scheduling conflicts that prevented us from having the March meeting and the arrival of my latest son (see: Getting Back On-line) prevented us from having the meeting last month. Looking forward to the next meeting on July 26th, we are in need of a speaker.  If you have a topic that you would like to discuss and are willing to present on, please let me know.  If…
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07 Jun 2011

Getting Back On-line…

General News
It’s been a little quiet on this blog lately... A few months ago, my wife and I started looking for a new house in anticipation of our fourth child showing up on or around May 23rd.  After extensive searching, and even more extensive negotiations, we finally settled on a house and went through the process of buying it.  We closed on the house on April 28th and spent the next week cleaning and painting.  We officially moved in on Saturday, May 7th.  Although we had most of the contents of the “old” house at the “new” house, we still had…
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19 Apr 2011

Architecture Tooling Guide for VS 2010 Ultimate

Guidance, Visual Studio
The Architecture Tooling Guidance for Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate has been updated to version 2.1. What is It? If you’re not familiar with the Architecture Tooling Guidance, here’s a quick description (as taken from the guidance): This guidance discusses scenarios of using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, primarily focusing on the Modeling tools, to help you understand the tooling and ensure that your software system meets the expected requirements. There is also some guidance included on building extensions using the Visual Studio 2010 Feature Builder Power Tool as well as the inclusion of a set of pre-built Visual Studio ALM Rangers…
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08 Apr 2011

Nebraska Code Camp

Conferences
Are you looking to get your geek on this weekend?  Are you in the general neighborhood of Lincoln, NE?  If so, then you will want to attend the Nebraska Code Camp this Saturday, April 9th at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. As always, the Code Camp is free and there a lots of great sessions scheduled covering a wide variety of topics. Date: Saturday, April 9th Start Time: 08:45 (registration opens at 08:00) Location: University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Avery Hall Check out the links below for more information. Nebraska Code Camp Schedule Sessions Speakers
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19 Mar 2011

Visual Studio Setup Projects being Sunset

Visual Studio
If you currently make use of Visual Studio Setup Projects (.vdproj), you may want to start thinking about a transition plan for the future.  As Buck Hodges stated on his blog yesterday (link), Visual Studio Setup Projects will not ship in the next release of Visual Studio. He recommends (and I agree) looking into WiX – the same installer technology used to create the installation packages for Visual Studio and other miscellaneous Microsoft tools.  If you’re interested in looking at other options, check out the MSDN page Choosing a Windows Installer Deployment Tool. I, for one, am not sad to…
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19 Mar 2011

OTSUG – What is Visual Studio ALM?

ALM, TFS, User Group, Visual Studio
Please join us on Tuesday, March 22nd as Mike Douglas presents on “What is Visual Studio ALM?”  If you are not familiar with the various ALM features in Visual Studio 2010 and TFS 2010, this will be a great opportunity to see these features demonstrated.  You will also have the chance to ask any questions that you may have regarding the Visual Studio ALM tools. Visit the Omaha Team System User Group web site for complete meeting details. We hope to see you there!
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09 Mar 2011

TFS Project Server Integration Feature Pack

Feature Packs, TFS, Visual Studio
The TFS Project Server Integration Feature Pack has been in beta for a few months now.  As of today, it is being released into the wild and is now ready for download from the MSDN Subscribers site. As seen on Brian Harry’s blog post, the TFS Project Server Integration Feature Pack enables teams to work together more effectively by: Providing up to date insight into portfolio execution, alignment with strategic objectives, and resource utilization of software development projects by leveraging the quantitative data stored in different systems. Automating the exchange and sharing of project information across teams and improving coordination between…
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09 Mar 2011

Visual Studio Load Test Feature Pack

Testing, TFS, Visual Studio
Last August, Microsoft announced they would be including the lab agents (i.e. licenses) with TFS 2010 as well as Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN and Visual Studio 2010 Test Professional with MSDN (link).  As of today, Microsoft has made another great licensing announcement – the Visual Studio Load Test Virtual User Feature Pack 2010. With this feature pack, you can simulate as many virtual users as you like without the need for purchasing additional virtual user licenses.  This change only adds to the already great value provided with the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN subscription. More Information You…
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08 Mar 2011

Visual Studio/TFS 2010 SP1 Released

TFS, Visual Studio
Service Pack 1 has been officially released for Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010.  The download is immediately available on the MSDN Subscribers Site.  The service pack will be publicly available on the Microsoft Downloads site on March 10th, 2011. There are several new features included with this service pack, including (but not limited to): Visual Studio Updated local help viewer Silverlight 4 tools now included Unit tests now supported in Visual Studio 2010 projects targeting the .NET Framework 3.5 IntelliTrace for 64-bit and SharePoint Ability to profile Silverlight code Support for IIS Express Lots of bug fixes…
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