Rangers Flash – February 2013

Project News

Latest releases	The following projects have shipped during February. All, with the exception of the Kinect prototype, are available from CodePlex and listed in the ALM Rangers Solutions index.          ALM Readiness Treasure Map – Win Store App Better Unit Testing with Microsoft Fakes guide Build-Release-Deploy BRDLite Disaster Avoidance and Recovery Planning guide TFS 2012 Storyboard with Kinect prototype
Latest release updates	In addition to the new projects we have also upgraded a number of the existing content on CodePlex to include latest in-the-field findings and align with the latest product updates. Again refer to the ALM Rangers Solutions or the  ALM Readiness Treasure Map for exact co-ordinates.     Test Release Management guide Test Tooling Guide (Coded UI) TFS Rational Hands-on labs TFS Upgrade guide
Imminent releases	We expect the following solution, which is content complete and going through final review, to ship shortly. The detailed quick reference poster has already started to appear at TechReady and on the wall of the Vancouver Development Centre. End to end guidance for DevOps bug resolution using
Triage #3 Results	We have completed the third quarterly triage and as below are looking at a number of “possible” projects, pending product owner / project lead commitment and project kick-off.
New Projects	We are in the process of starting a batch of “possible” new projects. Better Unit Testing with Test Code Generation Device dev and testing (Strategic) DevOps (Strategic) Practical Continuous Deployment Guide Practical Team Foundation Service Reporting Guide Continuous Delivery for the ALM Pipeline a collaboration series brought to you by ALM Rangers & p&p VM Demo Quick Environment Setup
Planned Project Upgrades	We are also starting a number of upgrade projects: ALM Readiness Treasure Map (arrrrrr…) v2 ALM Assessment v2 Branching Guide v3 Lab Management Guide to include latest features for Lab Management v3 CANDID FEEDBACK: Please add your comments to this blog post or start a discussion in the relevant CodePlex project (see ALM Rangers Solutions for pointers) and tell us what we need to improve, change and/or add as part of the upgrades.
Downloads update as of March 1st 2013	Average daily downloads since 2007: 205 ( 5 +2) Total downloads since Jan/1/2007 of tracked ALM Ranger projects: 461408 ( 5 +7198 since last flash ) We are T-38,592 downloads from Bijan’ s dream!

Community News

Two ALM Rangers win ALM MVP of the year awards!

Michael Fourie who recently won the ALM Ranger champion of champion award, and Mattias Sköld walked home with the ALM MVP of the year awards from the MVP Summit. Congratulations gentlemen, you are truly leading by example and with limitless passion for technology!

Artefacts survey trends

We asked all ALM Rangers for their views on our standard and proposed artefact types and formats. Not many responded, but the graph shows definite trends:

Some comments we loved:

• We have many poster stuck to walls around the building(s) … I will guarantee that we would have riots if we were to remove and/or discontinue those.
  (those == quick reference posters / sheets)
• Printing isn't from this time where everything goes digital.

Fakes team dog-foods a new delivery style

The Better Unit Testing with Microsoft Fakes guide has been produced in a single-document eBook, which contains the overview, the guidance, the hands-on labs and the quick reference sheets. In addition the default PDF format will be joined by ePUB formats such as MOBI shortly.

Already the positive feedback is rolling in:

• Nice work. I like the new ebook format!
• To summarize: I like it :).
• I love getting the guidance in book format. It not only makes it easier to consume and digest (IMHO) but it also adds a certain amount of credibility to the guidance (not that I feel there is any lack of credibility in the other guidance, there isn't - I just feel there is more with this format).
• Awesome, love it.

CANDID FEEDBACK: What do you think of the new format? Please add a comment to this post or start a thread in vsarTestToolingGuide Discussions. 

Two of my favo(u)rite pictures from ALM Rangers microSummit

Everyone was smiles at the microSummit, except for probably Charles Sterling “Chuck” when the events crew threw us out of the conference centre and Martin Hinshelwood when he spoke about migrations.

… see pre-TR16 | microSummit | ALM Summit for hi-quality images.

Three of my favo(u)rite pictures from TechReady 16

Jon Guerin talking to the TFS Task board with gestures via Kinect, Joseph Donnelly lighting up at the TechReady party and Robert Bernstein with his pirates Dave Crook and Anisha Pindoria.

… see The pirates rule! and other TR16 blog posts for hi-res pictures.

Pictures from the field

Proof that Michael Fourie is not just involved in most (if not all) projects, but also listening to the project planning meetings

Dave Crook shared this image with his team recently and if it were not for the suits we could swear that Robert Bernstein is telling Willy-Peter Schaub to walk the plank on his ALM Readiness Treasure Map ship.

New ALM Rangers

Please welcome the following new ALM Rangers: Javier Arguello and Tom Lindeman.

ACTIONS

ASK #1 – Submit your ideas!

• Please ensure that you add/update your project ideas on UserVoice.
  See Submit your Visual Studio idea using UserVoice for details and get your idea(s) on the radar.

ASK #2 – Quotes anyone?

• As always we would appreciate quotes from you or your communities in terms of the ALM Ranger solutions.
  Good news and positive quotes are invaluable!

ASK #3 – Tell us about your successes!

• One thing we love is celebrating your successes. Unfortunately not being omniscient we simply don’t know about many of them. So if you have done or know of some outstanding contributions/actions please send them to Chuck and Willy.