TFS & Visual Studio ALM - by Neno Loje

Awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Visual Studio ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)

neno — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:55:16 GMT

Today, I got re-awarded as a Visual Studio ALM MVP for the 8th time.

The Visual Studio ALM brand is used to refer to Team Foundation Server (and service) as the core, surrounded by clients like the Visual Studio IDE, Microsoft Test Manager, Team Explorer, Microsoft Feedback Client, Team Web Access, and some more).

Here’s how Microsoft describes the MVP Award Program:

Congratulations to the New and Renewed MVPs

Today, 885 exemplary community leaders around the world were notified that they have received the MVP Award! These individuals were chosen because they have demonstrated their deep commitment to helping others make the most of their technology, voluntarily sharing their passion and real-world knowledge of Microsoft products with the community.

While there are more than 100 million social and technical community members, only a small portion are selected to be recognized as MVPs. Each year, around 4,000 MVPs are honored. They are nominated by Microsoft, other community individuals, or in some cases themselves. Candidates are rigorously evaluated for their technical expertise, community leadership, and voluntary community contributions for the previous year. They come from more than 90 countries, speak over 40 different languages, and are awarded in more than 90 Microsoft technologies. Together, they answer more than 10 million questions a year!

MVPs are recognized each quarter for this annual award, which continues to grow and evolve to reflect the development of Microsoft technologies.

Congratulations to the new MVPs, and welcome back to renewed MVPs. We are very excited to recognize your amazing accomplishments!

--Neno

Podcast: Interviewed by dotnet.nl–.NET usergroup Netherlands

neno — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:58:00 GMT

Description

In this podcast, Hassan Fadili talks to Neno Loje, both VS ALM MVP’s, about new features in Visual Studio ALM & Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (and Service) 2012. Besides features, they also talk about success stories and areas of interest in this space.

Link to Podcast: (19 minutes, 24 seconds)

Additional Links

Neno TFS blog: www.tfsblog.com
The WHY book on TFS: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012: Adopting Agile Software Practices: From Backlog to Continuous Feedback
The HOW book on TFS: Professional Team Foundation Server 2012
Scrum & TFS: Professional Scrum Developer (PSD) Program by Microsoft and scrum.org
Ready to use VM with VS + TFS 2012: http://aka.ms/VS11ALMVM
Submit and vote for ideas for Visual Studio: http://visualstudio.uservoice.com
A lot of good documentation on MSDN: Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server

--Neno

PRB: You receive ‘not authorized’ errors on the TFS AT itself

neno — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:48:16 GMT

The Problem

On the TFS application, if you try to access TFS using its FQDN you receive a “Not authorized” or “Unauthorized” error.

How to fix

Try disabling the authentication loopback check as described in KB 887993 (there are two methods, where setting BackConnectionHostNames is the preferred one).

Q: What technologies do Coded UI Tests support?

neno — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:09:59 GMT

Q: Do Coded UI Tests support <some Technology>?

A: I don’t know. But Microsoft is maintaining a support matrix at:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2012/10/05/visual-studio-2012-rtm-coded-ui-test-support-matrix.aspx

Note: this screenshot is not updated. Please refer to the link above.

How to configure SMTP Settings for Team Foundation Server

neno — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:00:27 GMT

There are three places where you might want to configure SMTP settings:

On TFS itself via » TFS Admin Console » Email Alert Settings:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms400808(v=vs.110).aspx
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) via » Reporting Services Configuration Manager: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345234.aspx
SharePoint (SP) via » Central Admin » System Settings » Outgoing e-mail settings:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288949.aspx

Here are some screenshots:

TFS Admin Console:

Reporting Services Configuration Manager:

SharePoint Central Administration:

How to find the product key for Team Foundation Server 2012

neno — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:59:50 GMT

As a MSDN subscriber, the product key for Team Foundation Server 2012 does appears under the “Visual Studio 2012” section of “My Product Keys”:

How to enable the backlog view in TFS 2012 Web Access

neno — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:58:00 GMT

Q: Why is the backlog view missing in TFS 2012 Web Access?

A: In TFS 2012, web access permissions control what Web Access features are available to users. By default users get “Standard” permissions.

Here’s how to fix it: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2012/06/04/enabling-feedback-requests-the-backlog-and-sprint-planning-in-team-foundation-server-2012.aspx

Note: Make sure that all users with “Full” permission have either Visual Studio Premium, Ultimate or Test Professional (more info can be found here).

Where to get Team Explorer from

neno — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:58:00 GMT

It can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center:

Team Explorer for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (.ISO or Installer; 103 MB)
+ Update 1
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 (.ISO; 304 MB)
+ Service Pack 1 (Installer or .ISO)
+ GDR*
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Explorer (.ISO; 387 MB)
+ Service Pack 1 (Installer or .ISO)
+ GDR*

Notes:

The “Installer” versions download necessary update files from the internet.
(*) = Install the GDR updates if you want to use TFS 2012 or TF Service.

Question: Can I use SQL Server 2012 with TFS 2010

neno — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:08:00 GMT

Answer: It’s not supported, and thus not recommended.

If you want to use SQL Server 2012 consider upgrading to TFS 2012, which fully supports it.

Restart Team Foundation Server AT using command line

neno — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:20:23 GMT

In order to restart the TFS app tier, you can run these commands on the AT itself:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd recycle apppool /apppool.name:"Microsoft Team Foundation Server Application Pool"
net stop tfsjobagent
net start tfsjobagent

You can download the ready-to-use script file here.

Note: You need to run this script as administrator.

Free Book: Testing for Continuous Delivery with VS 2012

neno — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:18:00 GMT

Microsoft patterns & practices published a new book.

What’s the book all about?

“Testing is potentially an obstacle to agile software deployment. The smallest change in your code could require the whole application to be retested. This book shows you how to minimize these costs by using the testing infrastructure of Visual Studio 2012. The code samples gives you a starting point to test your infrastructure.”

Who should read the book?:

“This book is aimed at test engineers, managers, developers, and folks interested in understanding the changing world of test.”

Read online: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj159345.aspx

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35380

SharePoint-based Dashboards on TFS Project Portal showing 404 File not found error after upgrading to new instance

neno — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:40:22 GMT

The issue

On the TFS Project Portal, you get a 404 error from SharePoint instead of the dashboard.

Background

Then that project were probably created with the Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 template, and that template is not available on the new SharePoint server.

How to fix

Download and install Visual Studio Scrum 1.0
In the Project Portal subfolder, look at Readme.txt
Execute the batch commands listed in that Readme.txt to upload the missing .WSP file
(on the first line, starting with “SET STSADM”, make sure to replace version “12” with “14” if you are using SharePoint 2010, or accordingly for any newer versions).

(Big thanks to Trevor Hancock, Hassan Fadili, and Wes MacDonald for the solution.)

Available Check-In Policies for Team Foundation Server 2012

neno — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:38:00 GMT

Shipping as part of Visual Studio 2012:

Builds – Requires that build was successful (CI builds) and therefore build breaks must be fixed before a new check-in.
Changeset Comments Policy – Requires that user provide comments on check-ins. (new in VS 2012)
Code Analysis – Requires that Code Analysis is run before check-in. [More]
Work Items – Requires one or more work items be associated with the check-in.

Note: The Testing Policy that shipped with VS 2010 is not longer available.

Added after installing TFS 2012 Power Tools (needs to be installed an all VS clients):

Custom Path Policy – Allows you to scope other check-in policies to specific folders or file types. [See here for how to use it.]
Forbidden Patterns Policy – Prevents users from checking in files with filenames that contain forbidden characters or patterns.
Work Item Query Policy – Requires that the associated work items need to be part of the result of a specified work item query.

Note: When using an older version of VS (2008/2010) you need to install the corresponding version of the TFS Power Tools (VS 2008 requires 2008 Power Tools, etc.)

Developed by the Community:

Code Review Checkin Policy – allows to enforce Code Reviews prior to check-in (by Colin Dembovsky). Get it here.
Checkin Time Tracker v3 – allows you to gather effort values from developers during check-in (by AIT TeamSystemPro Team). Get it here.
Column Limit Check-in Policy – prevents users from checking in files that don't comply with your column limit coding style guidelines (by Gambitrex). Get it here.
Merge / Branch Only Check in Policy – Block check ins that are not part of either a branch or merge operation (by Leon Mayne). Get it here.

Note: When using an older version of VS (2008/2010) you need to install the corresponding version of the check-in policies (for a list of check-in policies for VS 2010, see here).

What about the "Override Warnings" link?

Set up Policy Override Email Alerts (Post by Martin Woodward)
Monitor via the TFS Warehouse SQL database (via Colin Dembovsky)
Create a Report in Excel using the SQL OLAP cube (German with English screenshots)

How can I deploy custom Check-In Policies to all team members?

Distribute Custom Check-In Policies using TFS Power Tools (via Ricci Gian Maria)
Deploy custom Check-in Policies using a VSIX package (via Terje Sandstorm)

How can I create custom Check-In Policies?:

How to: Implement, package and deploy custom check-in policy for TFS 2010 (Jim Lamb)
How to write custom check-in policies (Brian A. Randell, MSDN Magazin, Nov 2007)

Do you know another great check-in policy for TFS 2012? Let me know!

--Neno

Updated (May 17th, 2013): Added Merge / Branch Only Check in Policy.

My New Book: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012: Adopting Agile Software Practices (3rd Edition)

neno — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:07:00 GMT

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012: Adopting Agile Software Practices
From Backlog to Continuous Feedback (3rd Edition)

Sam and I updated our book on agile software engineering to reflect the feature set of the new Visual Studio & Team Foundation Server 2012.

How to get it:

ISBN-10: 0321864875

Paperback:	Amazon \| InformIT
DRM-free PDF:	InformIT
Amazon Kindle:	Amazon

Promotional Offer

Use code VSTFS2012 at InformIT to get 35% off the printed copy or the DRM-free PDF. Offer valid until December 31st, 2013.

Sample Chapters

Chapter 2: Scrum, Agile Practices, and Visual Studio (25 pages)

Chapter 9: Lessons Learned at Microsoft Developer Division (23 pages)

Foreword to Third Edition by Brian Harry

Foreword to Second Edition by Ken Schwaber

Preface

Chapter 1: The Agile Consensus

Chapter 2: Scrum, Agile Practices, and Visual Studio

Chapter 3: Product Ownership

Chapter 4: Running the Sprint

Chapter 5: Architecture

Chapter 6: Development

Chapter 7: Build and Lab

Chapter 8: Test

Chapter 9: Lessons Learned at Microsoft Developer Division

Chapter 10: Continuous Feedback

Authors

Sam Guckenheimer is the product owner for the Microsoft Visual Studio product line.

Neno Loje is an independent Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) consultant and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) specialist.

Book Description

This is the definitive guide to applying agile development and modern software engineering practices with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012—Microsoft’s complementary Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) platform. It focuses on solving real development challenges, systematically eliminating waste, improving transparency, and delivering better software more quickly and painlessly.

Previous Editions

3rd Edition, 2012: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012: Adopting Agile Software Practices: From Backlog to Continuous Feedback
The latest edition was an update. We revised it to reflect the new capabilities and tools in VS & TFS 2012 (especially the ones that support small and agile teams) as well as an updated chapter on lessons learned at Microsoft. (There we only minimal changes to the parts on Scrum and agile practices).

2nd Edition, 2011: Agile Software Engineering with Visual Studio
The second edition was essentially a complete rewrite, focusing on Scrum and software development in a modern and agile manner using tools from VS 2010 (not sure why this was marked as a 2nd edition as this really is more a entirely new book).

1st Edition, 2006: Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System
This was the initial version by Sam and Juan J. Perez, targeting VSTS 2005.

What other’s say about the book

Brian Harry's blog: Sam and Neno’s VS 2012 Book Available at Launch

Matteo Emili: Review - Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012: Adopting Agile Software Practices: From Backlog to Continuous Feedback

Book Recommendations for Team Foundation Server 2012

neno — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:13:00 GMT

Here’s my personal selection of books covering TFS 2012:

	Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012: Adopting Agile Software Practices: From Backlog to Continuous Feedback (3rd Edition) Definitive guide to the application of agile development with Scrum and modern software engineering practices using Visual Studio. This book talks less about the HOW, but rather about the WHY. Written by Sam Guckenheimer (the Product Owner of Visual Studio) and me. This third edition covers the new capabilities of VS 2012.
	Professional Team Foundation Server 2012 Must have guidance on everything you need to know about TFS 2012. It’s the HOW book for TFS and contains many useful tips and best practices from industry experts. This book should not be missing on anyone’s shelve.
	Professional Scrum Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 How to turn requirements into working software increments using the tools from Visual Studio 2012, Scrum as the project management framework and modern, agile software development practices.
	Professional Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio 2012 Introduction to Application Lifecycle Management with VS & TFS 2012. The book is a great quick start if you are new to ALM with VS.

Have fun reading!

Japanese version of my book published

neno — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:51:00 GMT

Sam and my book for TFS 2010 is now available in Japanese.

Solved: Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 crashes with MissingMethodException

neno — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:48:55 GMT

Re-applying Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 solved the issue.

How to set the SMTP Port in TFS 2010

neno — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:48:08 GMT

The Problem

You are configuring SMTP Settings for TFS 2010 and want to specify a different port for your SMTP server than the default port (which would be port 25)

Figure: TFS 2010 does not allow to set a custom SMTP port.

Solution #1: Change config file

As answered here and here, you could add the following XML to the TfsJobAgent.exe.config file (usually located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\TFSJobAgent):

<mailSettings>
<smtp deliveryMethod="Network">
<network port="2525"/>
</smtp>
</mailSettings>

Keep in mind that this is only valid for TFS notifications itself and not for notifcations from SQL Server Reporting Services or the SharePoint-based Project Portal.

The Solution #2: Install a local SMTP server

Install the SMTP Service on Windows Server and ask it to route all SMTP traffic to a different SMTP server.
On the Delivery tab, click Advanced, an enter the SMTP server name as "smart host".
On the Delivery tab, click Outbound Connections, and set the TCP port (= SMTP port).

Figure: Setting up a local SMTP server has the great benefit that you can use it SMTP for other applications, too (like notifications from SQL Server Reporting Services or SharePoint).

How to move a SQL Server Database from Enterprise to Standard Edition

neno — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:47:33 GMT

Cross-posted from my other blog:

The Problem

You have a database (e.g. TFS collection database) in SQL Server Enterprise Edition.

You want to backup and restore this database on a SQL Server Standard Edition.

You get an error message on restore that some features are not supported.

The Solution

…

[Read the full post]

TFS Build cannot resolve dependency to assembly 'Microsoft.Windows.Design.Extensibility'

neno — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:44:28 GMT

The Problem

You are using DevExpress components.
Compilation fails with the message:

'Cannot resolve dependency to assembly 'Microsoft.Windows.Design.Extensibility, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'

The Solution

Check your references and remove any reference to DevExpress.*.Design.dll's.

(Thanks to "Kookiz" who solved this.)

TFS & Visual Studio ALM - by Neno Loje

Awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Visual Studio ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)

Congratulations to the New and Renewed MVPs

Podcast: Interviewed by dotnet.nl–.NET usergroup Netherlands

Description

Additional Links

PRB: You receive ‘not authorized’ errors on the TFS AT itself

Q: What technologies do Coded UI Tests support?

How to configure SMTP Settings for Team Foundation Server

How to find the product key for Team Foundation Server 2012

How to enable the backlog view in TFS 2012 Web Access

Where to get Team Explorer from

Question: Can I use SQL Server 2012 with TFS 2010

Restart Team Foundation Server AT using command line

Free Book: Testing for Continuous Delivery with VS 2012

SharePoint-based Dashboards on TFS Project Portal showing 404 File not found error after upgrading to new instance

The issue

Background

How to fix

Available Check-In Policies for Team Foundation Server 2012

Developed by the Community:

How can I deploy custom Check-In Policies to all team members?

How can I create custom Check-In Policies?:

My New Book: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012: Adopting Agile Software Practices (3rd Edition)

How to get it:

Promotional Offer

Sample Chapters

Table of Contents

Authors

Book Description

Previous Editions

What other’s say about the book

Book Recommendations for Team Foundation Server 2012

Japanese version of my book published

Solved: Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 crashes with MissingMethodException

How to set the SMTP Port in TFS 2010

How to move a SQL Server Database from Enterprise to Standard Edition

TFS Build cannot resolve dependency to assembly 'Microsoft.Windows.Design.Extensibility'