Blog Archive

Just because people are grouped together on an org chart doesn't make them a team. A team is something specific, and your Definition of Done reveals w...

Now that you've got your repo cloned in Visual Studio, let's make some actual changes and push them to GitHub. We'll also handle first-time Git config...

"This can't be split any further." I hear this in every refinement session. And sometimes it's true. But usually? It's not. This video gives you six d...

Before you build elaborate hierarchies of epics, features, and stories, let me save you some pain: most of the time, you don't need all that structure...

Ready to level up? GroupBy turns raw data into insights. Join combines datasets. And understanding execution timing keeps your code fast. What you'll ...

If you're a Windows developer using Visual Studio, this is your starting point. We'll take you from a fresh Visual Studio install through cloning your...

Most teams' requirements are way too big, and it's causing problems they don't even realize. This video gives you seven distinct reasons why small req...

Let's get practical. This video walks through real before-and-after examples — technical gibberish transformed into human-readable requirements. Once ...

If your requirements list is full of technical gibberish that only developers understand, you're missing out on the collaboration and trust-building t...

Your requirements list isn't a to-do list — it's the conversation about the work, made visible. This video shows you how to transform stakeholder dema...

Drowning in project chaos? Before we go deeper into any topic, here's your survival kit. The five things you absolutely need to have in place before a...

Everyone is drowning. Every team I work with is being asked to deliver more than they possibly have time to do. And when I dig into why things feel so...

You've cloned your repo - now let's actually DO something with it. We'll create a .NET console app, commit our changes locally, and push them up to Gi...

You've got a repository on GitHub - now let's get it onto your machine so you can actually work with it. This video walks you through connecting VS Co...

Let's get you started with GitHub! In this first video, I'll walk you through creating your first GitHub repository step-by-step. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: -...

Stop writing loops! LINQ lets you filter, sort, and transform data with clean, readable code. This is the moment C# clicks for most developers. What y...

**Ever worked with someone who loses their schpedoinkle if you mix up "Product" and "Project"?** Annoying, right? But they actually have a point. This...

**"We're committed to delivering by March 15th."** Stop right there. You just set yourself up to fail. Words for Leaders - the series that transforms ...

**"We should make our app faster!" Great idea. Totally useless.** Your developer is thinking "faster how? Faster when? Faster WHY?" Words for Leaders ...

Real programs don't work with one variable at a time - they manage hundreds or thousands of items. Let's master collections in C#! What you'll learn: ...

Garbage collection handles memory, but some resources need immediate cleanup! Learn how the 'using' statement prevents file locks, database connection...

Memory management used to be a nightmare - now C# handles it for you! Let's understand how garbage collection works and why you can stop worrying abou...

Bugs are inevitable, but finding them doesn't have to be painful! Learn essential debugging techniques that will save you hours of frustration. What y...

"We're moving to a new system." "We're restructuring." "We're changing how we do things." Sound familiar? And everyone immediately panics. Words for L...

Methods let you write code once and use it everywhere! This is how we build complex programs from simple, testable pieces. What you'll learn: • Creati...

Computers excel at repetition! Master the three types of loops and learn when to use each one. What you'll learn: • For loops - when you know the coun...

You're in a product review meeting and you and your team are showing off your upcoming features. Your boss looks at the feature you just delivered and...

Programs need to make decisions! Learn how to write conditions that make your code intelligent and responsive. What you'll learn: • Basic if statement...

Strings are everywhere in C#, but they have surprising behavior! Learn why strings are immutable and when to use StringBuilder. What you'll learn: • S...

This is THE most important concept for understanding how C# really works! The difference affects everything from assignments to method calls. What you...

Master the fundamental building blocks of C#! Every piece of data has a type, and understanding types is crucial. What you'll learn: • What variables ...

Let's decode how .NET organizes code! Projects, solutions, references - all that confusing stuff finally explained clearly. What you'll learn: • Proje...

Time to write actual C# code! We'll create, understand, and modify your first console application using just the command line. What you'll learn: • Cr...

Setting up your development environment the RIGHT way! We'll explore the entire spectrum of tools, from command line to Visual Studio. What we cover: ...

Let's demystify .NET! No assumptions, no skipped steps - just clear explanations of what .NET really is and why it's worth learning. What you'll learn...

Welcome to C# and .NET from Scratch! This comprehensive 40+ video series will get you productive with .NET development, filling in all those gaps that...

Stop writing 10-line loops when one LINQ method will do! In this presentation, I cover the game-changing LINQ methods that shipped with .NET 6+ that m...

Can your CFO read your backlog and understand what you're building? How about your biggest customer? If the answer is no, you've got a problem. Work P...

Your project is behind schedule. Features aren't working. Your team is accused of "not getting anything done." Sound familiar? Episode 1 of Fix a Fail...

"Stop sucking" isn't helpful leadership advice. Yet leaders say versions of this every day. This video reveals why telling people what NOT to do is la...

Don't think of an elephant. What did you just think of? This is the power of linguistic frames - the mental images between your words that shape how p...

You can only do one thing at a time. (Yes, even you, multitaskers!) In this video, I break down what a backlog REALLY is and why it's fundamentally di...

Every branch you create is like taking out an "integration credit card." The longer it lives, the more "interest" you pay in merge conflicts and rewor...

When I hear "we'll just cherry pick that," I think: "Oh no... we're in trouble." Cherry-picking creates isolated, inconsistent code paths. It's a symp...

Story points making your head spin? You're not alone.If your team's estimates are abstract, hard to explain, and unreliable for forecasting, try track...

We promise to deliver by May 15" vs "85% chance we'll deliver by mid-May" Which sounds better? The promise. Which builds more trust? The forecast. Pro...

Learn how to modernize your CI/CD process with Azure DevOps YAML pipelines. This comprehensive guide from VSLive San Diego 2025 covers multi-stage dep...

Do more with less" doesn't mean work harder - it means work smarter. Gerald Weinberg's research shows that at 5 simultaneous tasks, 75% of time is was...

Your team delivers 75% of the time - that's pretty good, right? Wrong. With 10 deliverables, the chance ALL are on time drops to just 5%. (0.75^10 = 0...

Benday.CosmosDb is a lightweight .NET library that simplifies working with Azure Cosmos DB. It provides base entity and repository classes, DI configu...

Azure Blob upload failing with InvalidQueryParameterValue? It might be an extra slash in your URI. Here’s what caused it — and how to fix it.

As a developer and author, I’ve seen both AI success with GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT—and time-loss from confidently wrong answers. Introducing the AI ...

When is AI actually helpful—and when is it just confidently wrong? In this video, I share some real-world wins and painful failures using tools like G...

Struggling with Azure VMs or Azure VM Scale Sets with sysprep? Turns out, Azure overwrites your image's OOBE settings in unattend.xml with its own set...

Learn how to streamline your GitHub Projects setup with templates! In this quick demo, I walk through how to save a customized project as a template a...

I was trying to create a simple ASP.NET Core form with model binding. I ran into a validation problem when I wanted a string property to be optionally...

In this video, we break down the two types of Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) workspaces available in Azure DevOps: server-side and local. Lear...

In this hands-on demo, you’ll learn how to use Source Control Explorer in Visual Studio to manage files and folders with Team Foundation Version Contr...

In this step-by-step tutorial, you’ll learn how to connect Visual Studio 2022 to a TFVC-based Team Project in Azure DevOps by creating and configuring...

In this step-by-step demo, you’ll learn how to create a new Azure DevOps Team Project that uses Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) instead of Git....

New to Azure DevOps? Did you know there are two version control systems you can use—Git and Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC)? In this video, we ...

This post gives an overview of creating some requirements (Product Backlog Items, PBIs) in your Product Backlog. Once those basic demo PBIs are create...

This is part two in my Scrum with GitHub Projects series. In the last post, I did some overview of some of the concepts. In this post, I'm going to s...

This is the first post in a series on how to do Scrum with GitHub Projects. My plan for these posts is to help you not just figure out how to do the ...

I was trying to do something fairly simple in ASP.NET Core. I just wanted to display a date in a textbox. It was annoyingly hard. Turns out I was miss...

Another way for you to monitor your project's progress and status is to use GitHub Insights -- aka. Reporting & Charts. In this demo, I'll cover how t...

In Scrum, the development team comes together once per day to review their progress and their delivery plan. This meeting is called the Daily Scrum an...

This video is the last of the sprint planning process demos. In this demo, we'll find where the missing Task sub-issues went and create some views to ...

This video is part 3 of the sprint planning process demos. In this demo, we'll start breaking the PBIs (requirements) down into actionable tasks that ...

This video is part 2 of the sprint planning process demos. In this demo, we'll pull PBIs (user stories) into the Sprint. I'll also walk you through cr...

This video is the first part of the sprint planning process demos. We start off with assigning an iteration to an issue and then pivot to editing the ...

This video reviews where we are in the overall scrum process and then pivots to Sprint Planning and the Sprint. BTW, this video was made using SlideSp...

In this video, I'll demo how to convert draft issues in your GitHub Projects to "real", actual issues in a Repository. I'll give you my tips for keepi...

I've got to admit. This one was confusing. When you create issues in a GitHub Project, they initially are created as "draft" issues. You'll almost cer...

In this demo, I'll show you how to use GitHub Projects to prioritize your Scrum product backlog. BTW, this video was made using SlideSpeaker...

In this demo, we'll work on editing the details of a requirement (PBI). This will cover some details about using Markdown to format your descriptions ...

In this demo, I'll show you around the Product Backlog features in GitHub Projects and start creating some requirements (PBIs, User Stories). BTW, thi...

GitHub Projects is starting to get really good. If you need enterprise-quality project management tooling -- especially if your code is hosted at GitH...

GitHub Projects is starting to get really good. If you need enterprise-quality project management tooling -- especially if your code is hosted at GitH...

I was getting errors from Azure DevOps Server 2022 when trying to make changes to work item type definitions using 'witadmin importwitd'. Turned out i...