Change the Release Management Server that your Client connects to
As a consultant I am onsite at a different customer every week and as I use my own laptop for most engagements I need to be able to change the Release Management Server that I connect to from the thick client.
Installing Release Management Client for Visual Studio 2013
With the addition of the new Release Management Client for Visual Studio 2013 to the Visual Studio ALM roundup many folks are going to be giving it a go. If you might remember some of my post during the preview days of this tool there were some issue with installing it. It looks like Microsoft has gotten most of them sorted out and I can now get everything installed.
Error adding Active Directory Group to Release Management Client in Visual Studio 2013
When you try to add a group from Active Directory in the Release Management Client in Visual Studio 2013 you get an unhandled exception. When trying to add an Active Directory group to release management the other day I saw a little popup after adding the group that disappeared too quickly to action. I noticed that the group that I was trying to add did not end up in the list so I gave it another go.
Professional Scrum in Immingham, UK
As my first engagement as naked ALM Consulting in the UK I got to work with the fantastic team at DFDS Seaways and teach the Professional Scrum course from Scrum.org.
ALM Consulting in Scotland, UK, Scandinavia & Europe
Well, that’s me started ALM Consulting in Scotland, UK & Europe as naked ALM Consulting – Martin Hinshelwood. As I write this I am on a train on my way to my first engagement in the north of England is what looks to be and awesome group of folks to talk a little Scrum and Team Foundation Build.
Issue [ TFS 2013 ] Value cannot be null. Parameter name: key
When customising your process template work item tracking gives you an “ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: key” exception with no more details. I have been onsite at a customer creating a custom processes template and migrating their current data into the new format. Because they make extensive use of Area Path for documentation purposes we could not use it for Team. So I dutifully configured their TFS for ‘team field’ as their client field so that they could create ‘teams’ that represent the work that is done for each client. All looked good for a few hours until the tester tried to edit one of their old work item; 2663.
Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013 are released, get yours now! Oh and Windows 8.1…
Microsoft just made both Visual Studio 2013 and Windows 8.1 available for download on MSDN and on http://visualstudio.com . This release includes Visual Studio 2013, .NET 4.5.1, and Team Foundation Server 2013 as well as making Windows 8.1 available on Windows Update .
PowerShell TFS 2013 API #2 - Adding to a GlobalList
Using the TFS 2013 API along with a little PowerShell we can add a ‘team field’ to our global list. I have been working a lot with PowerShell recently and I have been stuck by its flexibility even when calling standard .NET API’s. You should start with g eting the TFS Collection which will give you basic connectivity and imports required to get started. If we want to use ’team field’ we may want to automate some of the activities that we need to make it happen slickly. You will have created a Global List for your ’team field’ and you will want to add new entries. You can add them manually, or you can hit the TFS API to give you a leg up…
Review Part 3: Two Months with Intel Haswell Harris Beach SDS Ultrabook
Now that I have had two months with the Intel Haswell Harris Beach SDS Ultrabook I thought that it would be a good idea to give you an update. You can check out Part #1 & #2 below however in this post I want to concentrate on Windows 8.1 with the SDS.
PowerShell TFS 2013 API #1 - Get TfsCollection and TFS Services
Have you ever wanted to use PowerShell to interact with the TFS 2013 API? Well I have been working through a few scenarios and wanted to get them to you so that I can get some feedback.
Granting access to Team Foundation Server 2012 for diagnostic troubleshooting
In TFS 2012 the product team added a way to get to the tbl_Command information without needing to connect directly to the SQL Server and having access to the tables. This was an awesome add as being able to diagnose server issues and troubleshoot user reported problems makes us a little more efficient.
![Issue [ TFS 2013 ] TF255466 A previous update or installation requires a restart](/blob/resources/blog/issue-tfs-2013-tf255466-previous-update-installation-requires-restart/images/metro-problem-icon-4-4.png){kind=icon}
Issue [ TFS 2013 ] TF255466 A previous update or installation requires a restart
After you have installed SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 you may encounter the error “TF255466 A previous update or installation requires a restart” when trying to install TFS 2013.
What's new in Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013 RC
As you may have noticed the Visual Studio team has just put out a Release Candidate to the log awaited Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013. If you have been unable to install Visual Studio 2013 RC on Windows 8.1 Preview then you want to immediately get to grips with the new features. I would recommend that you have a look at What’s new in Visual Studio 2013 Team Foundation Server Preview for two reasons. I am going to assume that you have seen the aforementioned features and it should give you some idea of the pace of features improvement you get by being on the same cadence as the TFS product team.
Upgrading from the TFS 2013 Preview to TFS 2013 RC
With the TFS 2013 RC being made available I need to upgrade one of my main customers from the TFS 2013 Preview. I have been working with a fairly progressive customer that has no qualms to using the latest version of any software as long as it is supported. They have around 500 developers in Team Foundation Server and 2-3TB of data. No that was not a typo. Although they have 500 active engineers there are around 9000 user accounts that have permission to TFS. This is the Engaging with complexity – TFS Edition customer that was moving through many environments. They since managed to streamline their processes and I have been working with them for a while. We have done maybe 10 to 15 upgrades of the 2TB collection across five separate environments over the last few months practicing for the production move. All with Team Foundation Server 2013 Preview. And we have had no problems at all. Indeed when we moved to 2013 many of the issues that we had disappeared.
Unable to install Visual Studio 2013 RC on Windows 8.1 Preview
When you try to install Visual Studio 2013 RC (or Visual Studio 2013 RC Team Foundation Server) you get the message “Error: This version of Team Foundation Server is not compatible with Windows 8.1 Preview”
Professional Scrum Foundations coming to Glasgow, Scotland in November 2013
For too long has Scotland been ignored in Professional Scrum Training. I am not sure if there has ever been a Scrum.org course held here as I could not find one and the last time Ken was here was way back in 2004.
Review Part 2: Developing with Intel Haswell Harris Beach SDS Ultrabook
It has just over a month since I received my Intel Haswell Harris Beach SDS Ultrabook from Intel to review and I have to say that I love this little laptop. I have been trying to use it exclusively and have done pretty well.
There is no "do agile" there is only "be agile"
I commented on Scrum is hard to adopt and disruptive to your organisation before and I think that for most companies this is just beyond their comprehension. They are fundamentally misunderstanding agile and trying to do agile rather than be agile.
Review: The Professional Scrum Masters Handbook
I was asked recently to review The Professional Scrum Masters Handbook. As I read this book there were times that I shouted at it and I almost stopped reading in disgust around chapter 4.
The great Team Foundation Server 2013 Upgrade Weekend
The product team have put some more engineering resources where their mouth is and the great Team Foundation Server 2013 Upgrade Weekend will be on September 13-15.
The evolution of naked ALM with Pagelines DMS for Wordpress
The evolution of naked ALM with Pagelines DMS for Wordpress is a story of successful change. All you have to do is learn to compromise and aspire to the easy 80%.
A change for the better #4 - Homecoming
Yet another change for the better as I move in a few months back to Scotland to join my family. My flights are booked. As a family we decided not to stay in the USA and while we had financial obligation here we also needed to make sure that the kids got back into the right point in School. In the UK School starts just after 4 years old where as in the USA its 5. As our kids are 4 and 6 now they started in the USA and were already a year behind. My wife and I decided that it would be best to get them into the last school year and so in January I sadly bid farewell to them all and have been relegated to Skype since then…
Integrate reporting and analyses services with Team Foundation Server 2013
Did you skip reporting and now you want to integrate reporting and analyses services with Team Foundation Server 2013? Lets assume for a minute that you did not install Reporting Servers or Analysis Services with your install of Team Foundation Server 2013. I often get asked if you can add it later… and the answer is a resounding yes. This might be the same procedure if you want to have Analysis Services and Reporting Services on separate server for performance or if you just choose not to install it or even if you started with TFS Basic.
Searching for self-organisation
Many companies have started searching for self-organisation. That ideal or nirvana where teams can figure out how to work together effectively with limited or little direction to solve problems. Many, including some of my colleagues, believe that this search for self-organisation is ultimately fruitless. While many of our customers don’t initially believe in its existence because they have never seen it my colleagues think it impossible because they see company after company fail to achieve it. This is mostly as companies that call use are not ding so because they are awesome but instead because they see that they have some problem that needs looking into. These companies, while realising the need to change, tend to have an organisational structure and culture that presents an anti-pattern for self organising teams to ever exist. Oh, you will occasionally find small pockets of self-organisation within an organisation but if anyone tries to roll this dynamic out, it is ultimately demonstrated as unworkable due to those anti-patterns and those required traits and patterns are then ground out of people.
Integrate SharePoint 2013 with Team Foundation Server 2013
You can integrate SharePoint 2013 with Team Foundation Server 2013 at any time and even link to your corporate SharePoint*. Although I use, install, and configure SharePoint often, I have a saying that I have used in relation to that work with SharePoint and I think it is very relevant now.
Review Part 1: Unboxing the Intel Haswell Harris Beach SDS Ultrabook
I was contacted just over a week ago and asked if I would like to review the new developer Ultrabook from Intel, a “Harris Beach SDS Ultrabook SDP - PVT2 ISV”. Geek stuff, wohoo… (composure) … Why sure, I would love to review your new device.
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.
