How is the Team Project limitation going to be addressed in Orcas? Is the problem going to be solved in Orcas or will it really be in Rosario? Read Brian Harry's blog post to learn more:  Orcas and Team Projects.

Looks like for Orcas they will be addressing the cost issue of having to purchase more servers to scale for greater number of team projects. Can you imagine what the Server and License cost is for a set up like CodePlex.... I would not like that bill. Orcas will support SQL named instances, so you can have multiple data tiers on one box. You will still have to have the app tiers on separate boxes but those are way cheaper than a beefy SQL box; you can (should) just VM the app tiers anyway's.

Ed K

What we've done with the iPhone is we've made it so that it will automatically switch to a known Wi-Fi network whenever it finds it. So you don't have to go hunting around, resetting the phone, flipping a switch or doing anything. Most of us have Wi-Fi networks around us most of the time at home and at work. There's often times a Wi-Fi network that you can join whether you're sitting in a coffee shop or even walking along the street piggybacking on somebody's home Wi-Fi network. What we found is the combination is working really well.

"Known Wi-Fi Network" please explain. I would not want my phone connecting to some wireless access point, especially if I will be purchasing products online or viewing my bank details.

"PiggyBacking on somebody's home Wi-Fi Network" .....so...... Apple thinks this is ok?

Read the whole interview "iPhone 'Surfing' On AT&T Network Isn't Fast, Jobs Concedes"

Tomorrow @ 6pm is the official launch, I sure hope my Stock soars in the morning :)

Ed K.

I have downloaded and installed Safari 3 Beta on my laptop today. I am not a Browser Guru, I just want to make sure our site looks pretty :)

Ed K. 

I've been asked so I'll just say, "Sorry, I'm not the Ed B. in today's Daily WTF."  Although very funny, it's not me.

Ed B.

Ouch! Look at this map. I need to see what is happening in some of these functoids. What is a developer to do?????

A map is just complex XSL.... So to debug the functoids we need to treat it as such. First, lets Validate our map and get the location of the XSLT.

Since it validated (no errors) we have the XSLT output location in the Output Window. Copy this location to your clip board. 

Open the file with Visual Studio:

Now, right click on your XSL working area and select properties. Here you will enter the input file that will be used for the transform:

Mark your break points, just as you would a code file, and start the debug:



Now you can step through just as if it was .Net code:

Even step into the functoid code:

Ed K.

 The next set of Team System chats with the product group will be on July 3rd. 

Join the chat on Tuesday, July 3^rd , 2007 from 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific Time. Add to Calendar | Additional Time Zones

                -and-

Join the chat on Tuesday, July 3^rd, 2007 from 4:00pm - 5:00pm Pacific Time. Add to Calendar | Additional Time Zones

Team System product group chats on July 3rd

Ed K.

So, if you didn't know I'm a huge fan of the Quality Indicators report in the MSF for Agile Software Development process template in Team Foundation Server.  Here at Infragistics, we're evaluating the Conchango Scrum Process Template for Team System and I don't get that wonderful report I love :-(  I've been stalling (because I haven't ever written a SQL Reporting Services custom report for TFS) but I finally did it today.  It really wasn't that bad.  Thank God I already had most of the report set up for me!  There are a TON of data and metrics you can get from the OLAP cube in the TFS Data Warehouse.

If you haven't read the Wrox Professional Team Foundation Server book, then it's a great avenue for learning TFS.  It also has a good section on how to creating custom reports with the Visual Studio Report Designer.

Really the only issue with just importing the original report to the Scrum team project is the fact that Bugs are actually Sprint Backlog Items with an Item Type of Bug (as opposed to the MSF Agile template that just has a separate bug work item type) and the status of an active bug is actually "In Progress."

Steps to Modify Report

1. You need to get a copy of the Quality Indictors RDL file.  Take a look at Customizing Reports to get more information on how to do this.  I happened to create a whole new Reporting Services Project in Visual Studio called TFS Scrum Reports because I may be creating some new ones later.
2. Be sure to add the two shared Data Sources to your new Visual Studio project.  You can use the settings of the existing shared data sources on your TFS SQL Reporting Services server.  (Usually found at http://[TFS Server Name]/Reports/ or you can right-click the Reports folder under your team project in the Team Explorer window and choose "Show Report Site...")
    
3. With the report open, navigate down to the section that gets the Active Bugs metric:
    
4. Notice what it grabs for the work item type and state:
   
   MEMBER [Measures].[Active Bugs] AS ([Measures].[Cumulative Count], [Work Item].[System_State].[Active], [Work Item].[System_WorkItemType].[Bug], STRTOMEMBER([Measures].[Build Date])) + 0
   
5. Now, change these values to the following:
   
   MEMBER [Measures].[Active Bugs] AS ([Measures].[Cumulative Count], [Work Item].[System_State].[In Progress], [Work Item].[Conchango_VSTS_Scrum_SprintBacklogItemType].[Bug], STRTOMEMBER([Measures].[Build Date])) + 0
   
6. All you have to do now is save the report and upload it to the SQL Reporting site in your team project's reports folder.
   
7. Last thing, you may run into a problem with the report finding the shared data sources.  If this happens, go into the properties of the report on the SRS site and choose the shared data sources that are being used by SRS.

Really, you can use this method to port this great report into just about any process template you might be using.  Pretty much any of the OLAP metrics can be changed.

What other kinds of reports should we have?  Do you have any interesting custom reports that you find useful for the major process templates that are available on the Internets and what not?

UPDATE:  I've attached a modified report if you don't want to go through all the steps of customizing.  Just download it and start at Step 6.  It's much more fun doing it yourself though!

Ed B.

P.S. We're changing up some of our tags to better organize all of our blog posts.  May take some time...

What Does the Updated Quiescing GDR Fix?

• TFS SP1 and Hotfixes fails to install on a SQL Clustered Data Tier.
• TFS SP1 and Hotfixes may fail to install due to issues connecting to the TFS databases.
• TFS Databases may be left in Single-User mode after SP1 or Hotfix installation failure.

Source: Brain Harry Blog

Patch Download

Ed K.

There's a new Scrum process template and it looks like Microsoft has developed it this time.  You can pick it up here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55a4bde6-10a7-4c41-9938-f388c1ed15e9&displaylang=en

Overview

eScrum is a Web-based, end-to-end project management tool for Scrum built on the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server platform. It provides multiple ways to interact with your Scrum project: eScrum Web-based UI, Team Explorer, and Excel or Project, via Team Foundation Office Integration. In addition, it provides a single place for all Scrum artifacts such as product backlog, sprint backlog, task management, retrospective, and reports with built-in context sensitive help.

We'll have to evaluate it and see where it ranks among the other Scrum process templates.  For now, check out some of the other ones:  (Did I miss any?)

• Conchango:  http://www.scrumforteamsystem.com/en/default.aspx
• CodePlex:  http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSScrum

Update:  HOLY CRAP! There is a ton of post-installation steps that you have to take and other items that you have to download.  If you don't happen to have the specific version of the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit that eScrum requires, then you are going to have to do a binding redirect.  If you download it from the ASP.NET AJAX Website, it is a later version.  See the Readme after you install. This setup and install experience is probably one of the worst I have ever done!  Even rivaling the TFS Beta 3 to Beta 3 Refresh upgrade!  That's saying a lot.

Now I'm just having problems with the reports after I've rebuilt the TFS Warehouse five time!  This process template undoubtedly deserves a Colbert Wag of the Finger.

Ed B.

Several people who had attended TechEd 2007 in Orlando, Florida last week had the opportunity to see the shuttle launch.  It's pretty awesome because they don't happen all of the time.  A group of us who had stayed for the weekend decided to head out to Cape Canaveral for the event.  We made our stakeout for about five hours and played cards but I have to tell you it was totally awesome.  It was extremely bright too!  I don't have the most awesome camera in the world but got some pretty cool shots.

Oh yeah - Congrats to Ed K on passing the TFS exam!  I guess I'll have to go take it now too

Ed B.