Visual Studio ALM and TFS vNext Announcements at TechEd 2011

I’m here at Microsoft TechEd 2011 North America and just wanted to fill you in on some of the news coming about in the TFS and Visual Studio ALM space for the next major release.

• Stakeholder Feedback Tools
• Storyboarding Assistant – Add-In for PowerPoint that allows for rich storyboarding
• “Feedback Tool” – Very similar to Microsoft Test Runner in Microsoft Test Manager and allows for stakeholders to perform feedback sessions and collect rich data.  Easy to provide rich feedback including creating bugs in the Feedback Session
• Collects Audio & Video Recording
• Action Step
• Microsoft Test Manager – “Create Test Case from Bug”
• Additional Agile Planning Tools
• New Team Web Access (TWA) for TFS  (Metro UI)
• “Teams”
• Product Backlogs in New Team Web Access – Re-prioritizing quickly and live updates
• Sprint Backlogs in New Team Web Access
• Capacity Planning (by Team and Person)
• Work Breakdown into Tasks
• Moving Backlog Items to New Sprints (Drag & Drop)
• New Task Board
• State Changes Using Drag & Drop  (Cameron even showed a touch-enabled monitor)
• Iteration/Sprint Burndown Charts in New Team Web Access
• New “Team Navigator” Window in Visual Studio
• “Pause” Working with Visual Context Saving
• “Start” Working on New Task
• Tracks individually edited files with pending changes.  Allows checking-in just those files that were edited for that new work session.
• “Resume” Working on Previous Task and Resets Visual Studio Context
• Code Review Tools  (Just Mentioned by Cameron)
• Tools for Interacting with the Operations Team
• Based on System Center
• “TFS Connector”
• Escalate Monitoring Issues to Engineering Team in TFS
• Create Rich Work Item in TFS with Collected Information from Production
• Shows TFS Work Item ID in System Center
• Full Call Stack, Parameters, Navigate to Source Code
• IntelliTrace Logs from Production!
• Rich Text in Work Items Including Screenshots & Pictures (Shown with Feedback Collection Tool)

More information about each of them coming soon!  I’ll update as more information is publicly announced.

If you are in town for the conference and want to learn more, there are several great sessions that you can attend as well as meeting up with several of the MVPs and Microsoft product team members at the TFS and Visual Studio ALM booths in the Exhibition Hall.  Come find us and we’ll be happy to chat!

Ed Blankenship