MSDN has an awesome article on process templated in TFS. It covers how you can basically control all the work done within a team project.

A team project is simply a bucket that stores and partitions all of the artifacts you track and use during a development project.

The New Team Project wizard in Team Foundation Client (TFC) with lots of templates out there and ready for use can really streamline your projects.

Quite informative, do check it out.

Here’s a small preview:

MSF Agile Bug States and Transitions

MSF CMMI Bug States and Transitions

Conference on Adopting an Application Lifecycle Management strategy with Visual Studio Team System

Ahh, wish I could attend. =(

Well, for those of you who will be in the area on 18th November 2008 (Microsoft’s office Tower II, KLCC), you may sign up over here.

Quite a few companies are thinking of implementing a single development lifecycle management system that would facilitate planning, development, and project management all together. Looks like MSIT is already on their way of getting there. Recent TechNet Radio episode describes the company’s three-year vision to adopt Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation across the organization.

Quite a few companies are thinking of implementing a signle development lifecycle management system that would facilitate planning, development and project managememnt all together. Looks like MSIT is already on their way of getting there. Recent TechNet Radio episode descibes the company’s three-year vision to adopt Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation across the organization.

Sorry for linking to a post in which the author links to someone else, but this one is definitely worth it. It left me smiling, and I just couldn’t let it go unnoticed.

iDisposable blog post titled ALM Summarized links to Septermber SD Times article on Application Lifecycle Management suites, which, true, has a good thorough discussion of the essence of ALM.

One thing before I go further though is that ALM in my understanding is not exactly “any set of software packages that purports to encompass the entire Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC),” rather a concept much bigger than that. I mentioned this in one of my earlier posts, “The difference between SDLC and ALM?”

With the difference between the two being so significant, there’s no wonder SD Times found that “Not one of the software companies we’ve talked to claims to offer a totally complete ALM solution and they say that no one currently does.” The concept of ALM is too broad to be embraced by just one solution.

But there’s a catch, here’s a list of what ALM includes, according to the print version of the SDTimes article (that is missing in the electronic version):

* Requirements planning
* Visualization management
* Modeling
* Design
* Feature management
* Build management
* Configuration management
* Change management
* Project management
* Release management
* Testing/QA
* Deployment
* Monitoring and reporting
* Workflow
* Collaboration
* Team communication

Well, that’s quite extensive as it is. And I couldn’t keep from smiling at this: “Now that helps right? A little dose of clarity. Clarity: maybe one day we can get it in a pill and the world will be a better place.” Absolutely, clarity helps! =)

November is coming up with two workshops by Microsoft focusing on ALM adoption via Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server. The workshops will be held on November 11 in Irvine and November 12 in LA with agenda, among other, including overview of Microsoft ALM strategy, overview of TSF and VSTS including how these tools can be utilized to help work through the development lifecycle, a session on tracking what the developers work on, controling what gets included in a release and automating the build and deployment process etc.

More details and registration links on MSDN blogs.

Looks like Microsoft will soon be releasing a fresh new BizTalk Server.

BizTalk Server 2009 will become generally available in the first half of 2009, said Burley Kawasaki, director of product management in the Connected Systems Division at Microsoft, and a Community Technology Preview will be release before the end of this year.

The new server will, among other, support app platforms like .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and Windows Server 2008.

What’s more exciting, it’ll offer integration with VSTS, which means more ALM functionality (automated builds, bug tracking, source controls and multi-party development).

The underlying BizTalk project system for Visual Studio will also be improved, the company says.

More on BizTalk Server over here.

Ever wondered what it’s like to set up development environments for large scale projects in TFS? Experienced the pain? Well, if you’re even in a situation where you have to do something of the sort, this post might help.

Following scenario is example done using Visual Studio and TFS, but the principles and practices can be easily adapted also for other continuous integration solutions, like the CruiseControl.NET (CCNet).

Check out a collection of resources on SCRUM constantly updated bu the author. It includes links to Scrum-related resources in press, podcasts, videos, books and other useful information. Follow the link to brush up your Scrum skills.

Christian Thilmany posted a collection of content for download on topics varying from Team System Overviews to Profiling to Web Testing, to Code Analysis to Customizing Team Foundation Server.

Here’s an abstract from one I thought was particularly interesting:

ALM Executive Value (90 Minutes)

Despite years of effort to improve, building software solutions to address business challenges continues to be exceptionally difficult and, more often than not, less than entirely successful.

This session will introduce Microsoft’s approach to helping teams overcome common development challenges, more effectively manage the application lifecycle, improve project success rates and focus on the delivery of high quality solutions that correctly address business needs.