Chicago Visual Studio ALM User Group 27th March

It has been a while since I was at the Visual Studio ALM User Group in Chicago  . This time I will be giving a demonstration of the new Work Item Tracking features of Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 which includes Kanban Columns & Work Item Tags as well as a peek at Teams without Areas.

With almost 2 years since my last customer visit in Chicago I just have not been out there that much and I was sorry that I missed the Chicago ALM Summit. Fortuitously my latest customer engagement is in Chicago at the same time as the user group meets. Funny how those things work out.

I know that as well as the awesome Angela Dugan  there will also be the infamous Edward Thomson  from the cross-platform team at Microsoft. Angela will be talking about her favourite things which include Microsoft Test Manager and Ed will be taking us through a journey of discovery of Git and TFS lovin.

I want to cover three things and I only have 30 minutes so it will be tight:

• Kanban Columns – Although a Kanban board and Cumulative Flow diagrams were added in Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 the product team have been busy agile beavers and added the ability to customise the columns independent of state.
• Work Item Tags – As is that was not enough they have also in Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 they have added the ability to tag work items with whatever you like. Awesome feature but how will it be used?
• Teams without Areas – I have blogged on the topic of Teams without Areas  and here I will demonstrate the techniques required to have team separate from both Area and Iteration.

Wow… if we can get through all of that this session then the Chicago Visual Studio ALM User Group looks to be steeped in geek goodness. So if you are in Chicago on Wednesday the 27th of March, are a geek and want a beer then head on over to the Aon Centre at 18:30…

Warning: Be sure to register as Aon Centre security will NOT allow individuals to access the building without being pre-registered: http://chicagoalmug.org/