October 7, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Pretty pictures of deep space! On with the links…

Improving Developer Productivity with Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview from The Visual Studio Blog
The Visual Studio Blog breaks down how Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview increases developer productivity and how Visual Studio’s performance has been improved. Details and screens can be found at the link.

A Custom Data Diagnostic Adapter for Visual Studio Coded UI Test using Windows PSR from Visual Studio ALM + Team Foundation Server Blog
This is a neat post that shows how the Windows Azure AppFabric Product Group developed an automated UI test framework using the Windows Problem Steps Recorder. They’ve made the project and code available over at Codeplex, and in this post they show off code, screens, and details on how it works.

Build 2011 – ALM Wrap-up from Bryan Group
Bryan recaps BUILD and provides links to all of the major news related to developers that was released at the conference. If you’re looking to start diving into the news and bits from BUILD, start here.

TFS Azure: Set Up Visual Studio 2010 to Work with TFS Azure from Tarun Arora
Tarun walks you through you through, screen-by-screen, how to set up Visual Studio 2010 to work with TFS Azure.

October 6, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

I’m sure you’ve all heard the terrible news that Steve Jobs died yesterday. While I’m a PC guy, I’ve owned Apple products including iPods, iPhones, and iPads. In my lifetime, computers have gone from a novelty to an integral part in virtually every part of life, work and play, and Steve Jobs was a significant contributor to that remarkable cultural change. May he rest in peace, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. Life goes on, and the tech industry that has brought us so much will continue to flourish, grow, and change. On with the links…

Creating Custom Team Foundation Server Reports from Bryan Group
Bryan has a great post walking you through how to create your own custom TFS report. In his example, he creates a report to show which work items are assigned to which team members and the area and iteration they’re contained within. If you’ve looked to create your own reports, you’ll want to give this a look.

What's New in the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 11 Developer Preview from Visual Studio ALM + Team Foundation Server Blog
Check this post for a look back at a lot of the new goodness that can be found in the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 11 Developer Preview that was announced at BUILD. It’s been a few weeks now, but if you’re still trying to get caught up (like me), you’ll find lots of interesting stuff at the link.

Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview: Find & Replace from The Visual Studio Blog
An overlooked new feature in Dev11 is the new streamlined and modernized the Find and Find and Replace interfaces for Visual Studio. The Find and Replace capabilities in Visual Studio are immense and used by every developer slinging code, so it follows that there are LOTS of details, screens, and changes you’ll definitely want to check out.

Good Collaboration: Bringing Devs and Testers Closer from Jim Holmes
I really liked this post from Jim Holmes on how to encourage developers and testers to work more closely with each other to influence the quality of software. I definitely have a few nits I could pick with his approach, but that doesn’t change the fact that figuring out ways to get developers and testers to work together better to increase quality and productivity is the goal we are all striving towards. Good stuff.

October 5, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

It’s not Olympus Mons but it puts Everest to shame. On with the links…

Team Build: Building Code with Visual Studio from Tiago Pascoal
Tiago has a terrific post on on building code with Team Build for projects that aren’t supported by MSBuild. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and still learned a lot about how TFS Build works and how to leverage the tools better in scenarios that aren’t directly supported. This is definitely worth a read, even for the most skilled build ninjas.

Community TFS 2010 Build Extensions – September 2011 from Mike Fourie
I’ve linked recently to a few posts that mentioned the new release of the TFS Build Extensions, but never linked to the announcement itself. In this post, Mike provides a link to the new release and a preview of what’s coming in the next release, which is targeted for December.

Utility to Manually Refresh the TFS 2010 Warehouse from Benjamin Day
Ben has created a utility to let you refresh the TFS 2010 Warehouse via the push of a button. Details, screens, and a download link can be found in the post.

A Pre-Commit Checklist from Ivan-Assen-Ivanov
I really liked this post which provides a pre-commit checklist to help improve your defect resolution process. It’s thorough while still being succinct, and is probably worth printing and taping to the wall in your developers’ workspace.

October 4, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Reusable rockets? Innovation starvation? On with the links…

Rangers Flash – September 2011 from Willy-Peter Schaub
Check this post to find out what the Rangers were up to in the month of September, including updates for CodedUI guidance and the Word4TFS projection.

Hands On Intro to Blend for HTML – Video Plus Code from BlendInsider
The official Microsoft Expression Blend team blog has a video from BUILD where Christian Schormann presented a deep dive into Blend for designing Metro-style applications with HTML. He shows step-by-step how to use the Blend preview so download and follow along to get up to speed.

How to Enable Code Coverage in my Team Build from Donovan Brown
If you’re looking to get code coverage statistics from your build process, you’ll want to check this post from Donovan Brown that includes a video showing you how to make that happen.

Seeing Loads of ‘Cannot Load Load Assemblies’ Errors when Editing a TFS 2010 Build Process Workflow from Richard Fennell
Richard ran into an issue with the Community Build Extensions where the build workflow he was working on reported a “Cannot Load Load Assemblies” issue. He shows how he diagnosed and fixed the issue, using Process Monitor.

MTM Testing Scorecard using TFS API from Tarun Arora
Tarun Arora keeps knocking posts out of the park with this continuation on his series using the TFS SDK and the TFS API by showing you how to programmatically build a test scorecard. Lots of code, screens, and details can be found at the link.

October 3, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

October is here, which means fall is in full stride! In science news, the Tevatron has retired. On with the links…

Visual Studio 11 Programming Language Advances from S. Somasegar
Soma shows off some of the new programming language advances in Visual Studio 11 by highlighting the advances made with JavaScript and the Visual Studio editor, asynchrony in Visual Basic and C#, C++ and parallelism, and F# and data access.

Program Management – Thinking About PM != PM and the PM Role in Microsoft from Willy-Peter Schaub
I really liked this post, which explores the job of the “Program Manager” at Microsoft and how it corresponds to how the Visual Studio ALM Rangers conduct business.

CUIT Demo of Feature Pack 2 Coded UI Test Editor from Donovan Brown
Donovan has recorded a great video that shows off some of the new capabilities of Coded UI Testing in the recently released Feature Pack 2 that helps you deal with issues where tests are failing on playback. Titled “Solving Real World Recording Issues”, you’ll definitely want to watch this video to help you better utilize the Visual Studio automated testing features.

TFS SDK Get Groups Users Permissions Using TFS API with Linqpad from Tarun Arora
Tarun continues his excellent series on the TFS API by showing you how to get security groups, members, permissions, and security settings of users in Team Projects in TFS. Lots of details, screens, and code can be found inside.