Quality enablement to achieve predictable delivery
You need quality enablement to achieve predictable delivery for your organisation which takes effort to achieve. I do a lot of ALM Assessments for companies and almost every customer that I speak to has unpredictable quality in the software delivery that they receive from their teams. This is not always the Development Teams fault and is often the result of an organisation that is finely tuned to minimise the ability to have a defined and predictable level of quality. In most cases this is due to a lack of a bar that quantifies the minimum things that need to be completed in order for and organisation to understand what i involved in each delivery.
Team Foundation Server 2013 is production ready
Did you know that Team Foundation Server 2013 is production ready? I have already deployed it at two customers with a grand total of zero problems so far. The product team are so confident that they have upgraded their main DevDiv server to 2013.
Creating a custom Activity for Team Foundation Build
You can be creating a custom activity for Team Foundation Build in a few simple steps. There are always advanced steps but this will get you started. It is fairly simple to create a custom activity for Team Foundation Server build services. The first thing to do is to create a Class library and add a reference to “System.Activities.CodeActivity.dll” you will be all set to start creating any build activities that you need. This class library can contain as many activities as you would like to create.
Video: New with Visual Studio 2013: Manage portfolio backlogs to understand the scope of work
New with Visual Studio 2013 is the ability to manage portfolio backlogs to help you understand the scope of work that you have to do. In order to organise our work a little better we tend to create something called “Epics” that are representative of things that are too big for any single sprint and may be broken down into smaller items. However these ‘Epics” do not really continue to exist as all we really care about is the leaf nodes. We still need to understand things that are maybe always larger, like Features and Goals.
Modelling Teams in Team Foundation Server 2013
Do you know what to do with Areas, Iteration, Teams, Source Control, and Security when modelling Teams in Team Foundation Server 2013? There are a number of things that we need to take into consideration when modelling Teams in Team Foundation Server 2013 and enabling a method of work that supports all of our activities. Lets say that I have a single core product that is then further customised for many customers. In this circumstance, I have a number of Projects that are run against a single Customer that may have one or more teams. Each of these Projects exists on a single branch off of the Production branch for that customer and all work on that Project is completed against that branch.
![Issue [ TFS 2013 ] You need elevated privileges to install InRelease](/blob/resources/blog/issue-tfs-2013-you-need-elevated-privileges-to-install-inrelease/images/puzzle-issue-problem-128-link-3-3.png)
Issue [ TFS 2013 ] You need elevated privileges to install InRelease
Installing InRelease 3 fails as you need elevated privileges to install InRelease When you try to install InRelease as part of your Team Foundation Server 2013 infrastructure you are allowed to fill out all of the fields and then you get a “you need elevated privileges to perform this installation. You can achieve this by running a command prompt”.
![Issue [ TFS 2013 ] You get TF400324 when connecting InRelease to TFS](/blob/resources/blog/issue-tfs-2013-inrelease-you-get-tf400324-when-connecting-inrelease-to-tfs/images/puzzle-issue-problem-128-link-3-3.png)
Issue [ TFS 2013 ] You get TF400324 when connecting InRelease to TFS
If you follow the documentation for the new InRelease 3 for Team Foundation Server 2013 “TF400324: Team Foundation Services are not available from server” with a remote server error of 404.
![Issue [ TFS 2013 ] InRelease account requires make requests on behalf of others](/blob/resources/blog/issue-tfs-2013-inrelease-account-requires-make-requests-on-behalf-of-others/images/puzzle-issue-problem-128-link-5-5.png)
Issue [ TFS 2013 ] InRelease account requires make requests on behalf of others
When you try to configure InRelease to connect to your Team Foundation Server 2013 Team Project Collection you get an error message saying that you are unable to connect because you need to be able to requires make requests on behalf of others.
Does your company culture resemble Survivor?
Does your company culture resemble Survivor? Do you have a culture in your organisation where individuals that help others are considered slackers for not getting their own assignments complete? If you are trying to achieve agility it is imperative that your team members work together to solve problems. I am not saying that you have to do pair programming but you have to have a culture where collaboration and working together is the norm. This is one of the two main roadblocks to agility ( the other one being requirements management) that companies hit time and time again early in their agile adoptions.
![Issue [ TFS 2013 ] TF50309 when configuring features in Team Foundation Server 2013](/blob/resources/blog/issue-tfs-2013-tf50309-when-configuring-features-in-team-foundation-server-2013/images/puzzle-issue-problem-128-link-5-5.png)
Issue [ TFS 2013 ] TF50309 when configuring features in Team Foundation Server 2013
You may get a TF50309 when configuring features in Team Foundation Server 2013 and you are unable to complete the configuration. TF50309: The following account does not have sufficient permissions to complete the operation: The following permissions are needed to perform this operation: Manage process template.
Create a Portfolio Backlog hierarchy in Team Foundation Server 2013
There are many reasons that you would want to Create a Portfolio Backlog hierarchy in Team Foundation Server 2013 not least of which is modelling your existing processes. You can have a hierarchy five items deep with a parent child relationship between them. You will get a backlog for each one as well as cumulative flow and a board. This is awesome as you may have, for instance, Goals that break down into Feature. These goals would be the company or product goals and the features would be those things that go to achieve them.
Engaging with complexity - Team Foundation Server Edition
I have been engaging with complexity for a company in Silicon Valley that is doing one of the most complex Team Foundation Server migrations that I think I have ever seen.
Windows 8.1 Preview Issue - The update is not applicable to your computer
Some system are receiving an error when trying to install the Windows 8.1 Update patch (“Windows8-RT-KB2849636-x64.msu”) and they get a “The update is not applicable to your computer” error.
![Issue [ TFS 2013 Preview ] TF400654: Unable to configure Planning Tools](/blob/resources/blog/issue-tfs-2013-preview-tf400654-unable-to-configure-planning-tools/images/puzzle-issue-problem-128-link-2-2.png)
Issue [ TFS 2013 Preview ] TF400654: Unable to configure Planning Tools
If you have the ‘team field’ enabled you will receive a “TF400654: Unable to configure Planning Tools” when you try to use the automatic configuration. [Error] TF400654: Unable to configure Planning Tools. The following element contains an error: TypeFields/TypeField[type=‘Team’]. TF400517: The value of this element is set to: HinshLabs.Team. You must set the value to a field that exists in all of the work item types that are defined in Microsoft.FeatureCategory. The field does not exist in the following work item types: Feature.
Customise the colours in Team Foundation Server 2013 Agile Planning Tools
If you want to customise the colours in Team Foundation Server 2013 Agile Planning Tools you need to download and edit the Process Configuration file that tells TFS how to configure many of the features in the Web Access.
What's new in Visual Studio 2013 Team Foundation Server Preview
Steve Ballmer just announced the Visual Studio 2013 Go-Live preview at the Build summit not more than an hour ago so get Visual Studio 2013 Team Foundation Server while its hot! Remember that this Preview is covered by a Go-Live licence and is fully supported for production use.
Upgrading to Visual Studio Scrum 3.0 process template in TFS 2013
You want to upgraded to the Visual Studio Scrum 3.0 Process Template in Team Foundation Server 2013 but you really want to upgrade your whole process template in place and not jut enable new features.
Upgrading to Team Foundation Server 2013
With the release of Team Foundation Server 2013 I need to upgrade all of my servers. I have a few customer installs getting prepped and I wanted to get a look see.
Installing Visual Studio 2013 on Server 2012
I will be installing Visual Studio 2013 on Server 2012 side-by-side with Visual Studio 2012 on my development rig. Installing and configuring Visual Studio has always been a cinch and Visual Studio 2013 is no exception. As most of you know I always run developer tools in a VM. The main reason for this is the ability to reinstall my host OS and get up and running very quickly. So for example when Windows8.1 becomes available I will not have to think twice about upgrading and just do it. I will be back up and running with Visual Studio in my VM within 15 minutes of starting the process. This level of flexibility is awesome.
Configure features in Team Foundation Server 2013
So you have upgraded to Team Foundation Server 2013 but you still don’t have some of the features that you upgraded for. There is a wizard for that but it is not supper discoverable that allows you to configure features in Team Foundation Server 2013.
