ALM

For those who are administration Team Foundation Server 2012 OR are planning to set up TFS2012 in your development environment, you may be interested in this. Microsoft Virtual Academy recently did an online training that covers 6 hours’ worth of detail coverage on TFS2012 administration. This is a super duper useful video, so be sure to check it out if you are currently managing TFS2012 or are planning to use TFS2012 for your development team! http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Administering-Visual-Studio-Team-Foundation-Server-2012 ...

If you have read the Agile Manifesto clearly, they state that “we value Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”. Does that mean that tools is not required for a Agile team? Think about it, given the complexity of the modern world, do you think it is possible to ignore things like Audit/compliance, distributed team? Hence, there is still need for tools to compliment a agile dev team to make them even more agile. My stand? Continue to focus on interaction, but use tools (like TFS) to assist and faciliate the interaction. My analogy: A productive team is like a champion RPG game character. agile is the reflection of your “skills” and VS-TFS is the “legendary weapon”. You can be fantastic in your skill only and hold a regular weapon, but you can never win someone who is fantastic in their skill and holding a legendary weapon that compliments their skills. Check out the following article that addresses this topic :) http://toolsforagile.com/blog/archives/795/do-you-really-need-an-agile-tool

Hey fellow dev-teams! Planning to build apps on the Azure Cloud? Expanding your dev-team and need more copies of Visual Studio & MSDN subscription? Here’s an awesome deal for you! You can buy 2 Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2012 with MSDN, the right choice for building multi-tier applications for the web, cloud, devices and receive a FREE 1 day Windows Azure “Developing and Deploying your Application to The Cloud” Hands-On-Lab Training from Microsoft CPLS. Wondering what will be lining up for the training? Training schedule (subject to change) ...

Background: Primarily as a developer, I always wanted an online service which is free for me to put my projects under source control. I could find few paid TFS hosted services but I was not ready to put sample projects or source code which has no real dollar value associated under a paid service. Secondly, I used to give sessions on TFS & source control and main problem for my students was to perform hands on practice when they are not at the lab. I used few alternatives like CodePlex by using community projects, VPC and Handson Lab environment at MSDN etc. but all those were/are still workarounds. Lastly, deploying & implementing TFS is a relatively big effort for companies who want to ’test the water’ first before diving deep. It sometimes becomes a real challenge to coordinate TFS implementation and promote usage among teams without a ’test’ or ‘dogfood’ environment. Team Foundation Service: TFS as a service by Microsoft at http://www.tfspreview.com This is a positive step towards developer empowerment. Specially - this will be helpful for all small, medium and large enterprises where developers and IT teams struggle to set the working environment for learning TFS and source control practices. Also not only this, it will be a boost for all freelance developers who struggle to maintain source control for their code & delivery while keeping the cost to the client low. While the service is in preview mode, the feature-set is still very rich and most importantly users can get started for free. The website has a mention that when the service is out of preview mode, the free services will still continue(* - may have reduced functionality or may be not) and there will be paid services as well. I sincerely hope Microsoft will continue to offer free services at least for Source Control and Continuous Bulds. Learn: The website also has a menu named “learn” and the content are amazing. It is mostly step-by-step and easy to understand and practice. Here is a direct link for ‘Learn": http://tfspreview.com/en-us/learn/start/connect-to-vs/

Free Installation of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate 90 days Trial Innovative applications can catapult your business forward providing you with a competitive advantage. Microsoft’s Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution allows you to realize the strategic value of your custom software investments. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is an interoperable family of products that help make it easier to create, test and deliver custom software solutions. A rich set of integrated tools and server infrastructure coupled with flexible and agile process’s that represent a breakthrough for development tools, help you manage and optimize your entire software development process. This event gives you a valuable opportunity to learn more about how Microsoft’s Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution can help you reduce cost, reduce development time, increase quality, and improve project visibility and manageability. To register for this event email Sandy at MSmarketing@swap.com.sg or call for more information at +65 6227 7445. ...