Steve’s Development Tools Newsletter – November 2010

I receive a lot of email each week from you asking very specific, and valuable questions.  It’s my hope that a newsletter like this will help me communicate important announcements, tips/tricks, and other items to help you and your team ultimately be more successful!  Whenever I post a new newsletter, I will send email notifications to those of you who would like to be contacted.  If you don’t want to receive email notifications, just let me know!

This installment is a little light – but there are still some goodies below, so enjoy!

Announcements

Did you know that you actually have TFS hosting options?  There are several companies out there that you can use to host your TFS projects, saving you the effort of managing your own TFS server.  For a good list, check this out.

At PDC last week, Brian Harry presented a new concept for TFS.  TFS on Windows Azure.  A lot of companies want this, and Brian discusses the challenges and successes of this endeavor in this blog post.

If your team is using Eclipse, or working on a non-Windows OS, then perhaps you’ve heard of Team Explorer Everywhere.  Well, now there’s a new Beta (2010 SP1) available for you to try.  Some key new features include localization, gated check-in support, and rich text (plus bug fixes).

Upcoming Events & Training

The ALM Summitis this month in Redmond, November 16-18.  If you are an ALM practitioner, lead, or manager who is passionate about mastering your craft, you should register to attend the ALM Summit at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, Washington.

When you attend the ALM Summit you will gain deeper insight into your application lifecycle. You will also discover and learn about industry best practices that address additional development challenges, and how Microsoft's ALM Solutions enable and support those best practices . You'll have the opportunity to interact directly with the Visual Studio team, top engineers from other Microsoft product groups, and industry luminaries - both at the event and at evening receptions. Attending the ALM Summit will provide you with new tools for making better design, implementation, and technology selection decisions.

The Build & Brew event series is coming to Phoenix on November 30th, and Denver on December 2nd.  Come join us for a half-day event at a local brewery (Sun Up Brewery in Phoenix, and Wynkoop Brewery in Denver) to learn about the new build system in TFS 2010.  Afterward, we’ll have a hosted happy hour to mingle and network with other companies that use TFS.  Registration info:  Phoenix  |  Denver

QuickAnswers

• Did you know you can customize the code analysis dictionary to suit your needs?  Here’s how.
• Yes, the Web Performance Test can be set up to emulate user credentials.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading, I really do appreciate it!  I’ve seen the hit stats for this newsletter going up, and have received a lot of email from people asking to be added to the mailing list.  Please let me know what else you’d like to see in this newsletter, and I’ll do my best to accommodate!

Also, I’d love to hear what else you’d like from the GotTeamSystem.com website.  My team maintains that site and are always looking for ways to improve it!

Reminder:  If you’d like me to email you when I post a newsletter, just send me a note at stevenl@microsoft.com.  I won’t email you directly otherwise!