Rangers Flash – March 2013

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Latest Releases

The following projects have shipped during March.

Latest 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.

Imminent Releases

  • End to end guidance for DevOps bug resolution using IntelliTrace
  • Additional eReader formats for the Better Unit Testing with Microsoft Fakes guide

New Projects

The following image shows a snapshot of the latest projects taken during the monthly retrospective:                   image

Download update as of 1 April 2013

Average daily downloads since 2007 673 ( 5+182 )
Total downloads since Jan1/2007 of tracked ALM Ranger projects 482,256 ( 5+20,484 since last flash )

TreasureMap https://aka.ms/vsartmapapp

Downloads to date 461
Average rating 4.9/5
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State of Ruck (the Practitioners Scrum) … by Brian Blackman

We have spun up several new projects and have wrapped up many more all using the Ruck process. I think it is a good time to reiterate that Ruck is light and flexible; recall that Ruck means a loose Scrum in Rugby. The Ruck guide has checklists to refresh your memory and practices. We are not far from the common practices of the agile community: use of Epics, use of child PBIs for the sprints, and tasks to direct and record the work. There is some overhead for the new onboarding Project Lead. I suggest those that are new to Ruck and are in a lead role team with someone seasoned in Ruck to remove the weeds so you can have a clear picture of Ruck.

This cycle I am a project lead and Ruck Master on two projects. I confess that at times I have to edit a work item to get things right. However, once I get the work items in place then it does not take much to maintain them. The biggest challenge for everyone will be updating your work itemSmile. It does not take long to do this, you can do this easily as long as you have a connection to the Internet and it is the right thing to do so your peers and the stakeholders know what is going on – knowing a project’s pulse is a nice thingSmile.

Ruck Certification … We are planning for the certification of three Ruck Masters very soon (Jahangeer Mohammed, John Bergman and Willy-Peter Schaub). We will have a total of four with one in the pipeline for certification (Anisha Pindoria). The last phase of certification remaining are creating a verification test of Ruck Master Knowledge and starting an improvement process.

Ruck Process Improvement … Part of the being a Ruck Master will be participating and leading process improvement initiatives for Ruck. We have been gathering the feedback and we now need to access that feedback and determine what we need to change. This program will start after we have the Ruck Master certification.

Ruck On!

New Associate Rangers

Please welcome the following new Associate ALM Rangers in our family: Andrew Clear, Cosmin Dumitru (back for another round), Devlin Liles, Hamid Shahid and Priyanka Janardhan.

New publications

TFS Branch Tool goes “community”

Mattias Sköld has released the TFS Community Branch Tool Visual Studio Extension, based on the ALM Rangers Quick Response Sample ALM Rangers Branch Tool Visual Studio extension. The goal of this solution is to enable TFS users to implement a consistent branching model as part of team project or team creation process, whichcomplies with the VS TFS Branching and Merging Guide.

Orlando Code Camp

Esteban Garcia and Brian Minisi presented sessions on TFS 2012, Microsoft Fakes and Team Build Customization at the Orlando boot camp.

Pluralsight course “Team Foundation Server Customization” by Esteban Garcia

Course description: Learn about different extensibility points in Team Foundation Server 2012 by customizing Work Item Tracking, Build Automation, Web Access, Process Templates, and internal services. The course will take you through real-world examples and teach you customization and deployment best practices, as well as give you the knowledge and skills to get the most out of TFS 2012 and support your team’s Application Lifecycle Management needs.

https://www.pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/tfs2012-customization

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Tell us about your success stories!

Are you aware of a success story in which the Visual Studio ALM Rangers and/or their solutions have accelerated the adoption of Visual Studio, unblocked an engagement and/or resulted in a Smile  (happy) user?

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clip_image002 Brian Minisi and Esteban Garcia all smiles Smile clip_image004 Mattias Sköld released the TFS Community Branch Tool Visual Studio Extension image Submit your TechReady17 session ideas. What will the pirates surprise us with under the captaincy of Robert Bernstein at the event? clip_image002[1] Even laptops refusing to connect to Lync will not stop the Rangers … Willy-Peter Schaub with the hands-free mobile a la Rangers at the crack of dawn. 481386_578527182157492_1364267066_n Jesse Houwing can tell you stories about what Rangers should NOT do during their vacations.

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