Category: Visual Studio Team System (VSTS)

  • My Mistake + Here’s Why I Like Team System

    Well, we all make mistakes from time to time and this weekend I made a good one. I’ve written a few posts lately on why I think small businesses need Team System. This weekend I got a comment from Ben Scheirman on my post about the cost of Team System licensing. Ben’s comment was in…

  • Small Companies Need Team System 2008: The Licensing Discussion

    A few weeks back, I wrote a post suggesting that small companies need Team System just as much – if not more – than big companies.  In the comments for that post, I got some feedback about how pricing makes it hard for small organizations to adopt Team System. This one comes from Dave: It…

  • My $0.02: Small companies need Team System (VSTS) just as much as big companies.

    As you may have noticed, the world economy has been a little under the weather lately.  Lately, I’ve been thinking about how the economy fits together with VSTS’s mission.  Specifically how, as Brian Randell says, “Team System is all about increasing the predictability of success”.  Team System has been pitched more at large- and medium-sized…

  • New Features in Visual Studio Team System 2010 (VSTS2010) Web Tests

    I’ve been starting to research Visual Studio Team System 2010 (VSTS2010) and Team Foundation Server 2010 (TFS2010) so that I can update the training materials for my class.  Part of this process is going through the features that are in VSTS2008 and finding the places that they are different.  Last week, I was helping a…

  • Team Suite 2008 Developer Machine Install

    For the last few days, I’ve been working on building student machines for the Visual Studio Team System / Team Foundation Server class that I’m teaching next week in Cambridge.  The complexity of the install reminded me of the confusion that one of my recent clients had trying to pull together all their licenses, ISO…

  • DBPro 2008 GDR: Deploy Database & Run Database Unit Tests from Team Build

    I’ve been digging in to the GDR release of Visual Studio Team System Database Edition (aka. DBPro GDR, “data dude”) this week.  One of the things that I wanted to see is whether GDR projects were easier to use from inside a Team Foundation Server 2008 (TFS2008) Team Build.  (Answer: yes, a little easier.)  What…

  • BDC, Inc. Public Training Schedule for March & April 2009

    After a numerous requests from potential students, I’ve finally gotten around to scheduling some open-enrollment classes here in the Boston-area.  I’m going to be teaching my Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) / Team Foundation Server (TFS) class, Test-Driven Development, and NHibernate classes in Cambridge, MA throughout March and April 2009.  Here’s the schedule: 3/23/09 –…

  • My VSLive San Francisco 2009 Slides

    I spoke at VSLive San Francisco 2009 last week. Here are the talks that I did and links to download my slides: Eliminate Team Build Headaches with Unit Tests, WiX, and Virtualization You’ve got your application written. The unit tests pass on your machine. It’s time to check in. Now what? What you really want…

  • Visual Studio Team System Webcast Interview

    Sometime before the end of 2008, I was interviewed for a webcast by Yuval Shavit at TechTarget.com and WinDevelopment.com.  In the interview, I talk about how to get the most out of Visual Studio Team System 2008 when you’re on a budget.  Specifically, some of the issues around licensing and what kind of functionality you…

  • A nice start to 2009.

    Yesterday morning was January 1st, 2009.  As I was rolling out of bed to make coffee, I stuffed my headphones in my ears and turned on the radio on my (completely functional) Zune.  I caught the tail end of a new story on NPR and then they started a new segment about helping the elderly…