A Guide to Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management @TechEd 2010

This year I am covering the Development Practices Track (DPR) and the Visual Studio ALM focused sessions in the Development Track @ TechEd as Program Manager. Like last year I would like to give you quick guide which might help you choosing the right content from these tracks in the context of ALM.

Agile Development?

Stephen Forte will discuss in DPR301 - Scrum, but  how to get the best out of Scrum and why you might want to customize the process to your needs. Another topic is Agile Estimation as is not easy especially if you do it the first time. Stephen Forte will give you some good guidance to avoid common mistakes and frustration. If you plan to move to Agile or your Estimation process is not working for you, don’t miss  DPR201 - Agile Estimation.
You want to know how Agile Development works with TFS 2010? Then join Peter Provost and Aaron Bjork in DEV310 - Agile Development with Visual Studio 2010 and TFS 2010.   Peter and Aaron are building the next Version of the Agile Experience in Visual Studio XX, you can’t get closer.
And our famous Interactive session DPR201-IS - An Agile Talk on Agility  will explain Agile Development in a very special way and is always fun.

In the Architecture Track you might want to check out the following Sessions related to Agile:
ARC206 Scrum for Managers
ARC208 Architecture in Agile Projects – How to do it right

Testing Testing Testing ….

Brian Keller is there and has designed a couple of sessions to give you a solid overview of the Visual Studio 2010 Test capabilities. From Test Manager 2010, Coded UI Test to Lab Management 2010 which has been finally released in Summer 2010. For best results I recommend consuming the sessions in the following order. The title might help you :-)

DEV202 - Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010: Part 1 of 2
DEV303 - Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010: Part 2 of 2

Additionally I have asked Brian to run DPR303 - Applied Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010 covering practical aspects like which Tool is best for which scenario? You you will get some good guidance how to use the Tools in the right way to serve you best. Note: If you are not familiar with the new Test tools don’t miss Brian’s first sessions. And finally take all your questions and join Brian’s interactive Session DPR202-IS - Software Testing with Visual Studio 2010: Making it real for YOU

Don’t forget the Foundation!

Sure. Last Year I have got the feedback to have more sessions in this area and here you go. Join Brian Randell in DEV207 - The Busy Developer’s Guide to Team Foundation Server 2010 Version Control to understand the Basic concepts of TFS 2010 Version Control.  In DPR304 - Understanding Branching and Merging in Team Foundation Server 2010 Brian will build up on his talk DEV207and will dive into more advanced topics like Branching and Merging with TFS 2010. I case you are new to TFS 2010 Version Control don’t miss Brian’s first session! For those of you who have to deal with Shared Code might want to skip Lunchtime and join DPR303-LNC - Using Extensibility for Dependency Management with TFS 2010. Sven Hubert will demonstrate a  scenario which deals with code Dependencies and will use Visual Studio 2010 DGML capabilities to support visualization. Please note that a Lunchtime Session (LNC) is just 45min, so the session requires a good understanding of TFS 2010 Version Control.

Do You think Brian Randell is not capable installing TFS 2010 on a WIn7 Client in 30min or Less? The Race is on! Check it out at Lunchtime DPR201-LNC - TFS 2010: Install and Configure in 30 Minutes or Less and have Fun.

If you are interested in the new Project Server and TFS 2010 integration don’t miss:
OFS201 Application Lifecycle Management - Microsoft Project 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010, Better Together

Native C++ ALM

When ever I am talking about Visual Studio 2010 ALM I got  frequently the question. Does this work for native C++ to? That’s why have asked Ale Contenti, Program Manager in the C++ Team, to show in DPR202-LNC - ALM for C++ in Visual Studio 2010 to illustrate all the value that is available "out-of-the-box" for managing large native code bases.

Best Practices?

You are searching for best practices how to Run a TFS 2010 environment?  If so Neno Loje has in DEV209 - Successfully Administering and Running Team Foundation Server 2010 a lot of good tips and practices to share . Neno is now for Years in the TFS consulting business and has seen a lot of way’s how it can be done wrong.  As TFS gets really useful and unfolds its effectiveness by being customized and tweaked to the needs of your organization Neno will cover in DPR203 - Best Practices Using Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 some good practices for doing so. To know what is not working well before you will find it out yourself can be really helpful :-)  

Dogfooding?? TFS is build on TFS and we are deploying Pre-releases in our own Development to see if it works on a huge scale Team.  In other words “We eat our own dogfood”. Aaron Bjork, Senior Program Manager on TFS will cover in DPR202 - Visual Studio ALM: Lessons Learned through Dogfooding the lessons we learned from this process and will give you some insights how Development at Microsoft is done.

Architecture not just for Architects

Shortly after the release of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate we published our first Feature Pack, which directly targeted the Architecture Features. Peter Provost will cover in two session the main areas. DEV204 - Architecture Discovery with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate is focusing the Architecture Discovery and visualization. These Tools are not only for Architects! any Developer will love them when it comes to Refactoring, Impact analyses or just understanding the codebase especially if some else has written the code. DEV210 - Visualization and Modeling in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate cover the Modeling capabilities like DSL’s and UML with the a strong focus to the Extensibility of the framework.

For sure this is just a small scoped selection.

Enjoy the Event!

Below find the schedule of the above mentioned sessions. Please be aware that there could be changes, so make sure to check for updates at the Event!