A few days ago I have encountered a very nice tool that is called “Team For Word”

Until now I have worked with the “Team Spec” that cost a license compares to this tool that is totally free and with an open source.

In the past few days I have worked a lot with the “Team For Word” on clients sites, we have tried to see if this tool can replace the “Team Spec” and the answer is not simple.

This tool has some abilities that”Team Spec” doesn’t have like presenting all the work items from a query with links and attachments, or gives you the ability to show an attachment from a work item, but it lacks the ability to get word texts and convert it to work items or it can’t get a balk of work items from TFS to word.

The list of abilities are:

• Connection to TFS 2008 (2010).
• Adding one or more property of an item of work in the Word document.
• Notification of the changed items in the document.
• Notification of items changed on the TFS server.
• Publication of all or part of the modification made in the document.
• To update the document with changes from the server.
• Pre-defined in TFS query execution.
• Modification of the TFS server or project in the document properties.
• Creating a work item.
• Create formatting model.
• Inserting template formatting.
• Editing a block of data by the content of another element of travail
• Opening a WI from the action panel
• Management of the iteration and area
• Improved management of differences between the document and TFS
• Adding synchronization boxes identical document

Note: The tool is in French so some of the words will not look familiar, I must say that I have zero knowledge in French and it didn’t bother me at all.

You can download the tool from here.

You can see a video on the tool here.

Here is a short Guide:

Note: You will need to use the word template that comes with the installation in order to use the tool

Step 1: Open the word from the template

Step 2: Connect to the server by clicking the “Connection” button

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Step 3: The “Team For Word” will get all the work items from the project, you can now choose to see only work items from a query, you can update you query list with “Team Explorer” or Visual Studio and it will be shown here.

Note: The tool can only show “Flat Queries” and all the work items will be grouped by the Work Item Type.

You can now open explore the work items, you will be able to see that all the fields are sorted to a few folders, you can see the links and attachments too.

The word “Autre” in French is “Other” in English (Checked in the dictionary)

Step 4: You will need to add a new block using a Template you have created or the default one that was set for you by clicking “Insert a Block Template”.

In order to create a template you will need to do the following:

1. Double click fields in order to show them in word
2. Order them as you wish, I will recommend to create a Table for it
3. Mark the Table for example and click “Add Template”
4. Name your template
5. Save it

Step 5: Mark the block you have just created

Step 6: Choose the work item you will like to insert, and click “Apply the WorkItem”

The work item will fill the block

You can also create new work Items by doing the following:

Step 1: Choose the Work Item Type to create from the dropdown list

Step 2: Click “Create of a workitem”

Step 3: Fill all the fields in the work item form especially the required fields

Step 4: Click the “Valider” button in order to save

The new work item will be sent to the server

Finding a Work Item:

Step 1: Click on the “Find a WI” tab

Step 2: Insert the work item ID

Step 3: Click “Search”

Update a Work Item From Word or To Word:

In order to update the work items from the server you will need to click on the “Refresh” button.

If changes where made you will see a list of them.

Right click a list item you will be able to do the following:

• Refresh – To see if the change is still valid
• Cancel – In case you have made a word Change that you don’t like to publish or a TFS change you don’t like to show in the document
• Update the document – In case it is a TFS change you like to show in the document
• Update the Workitem – In case it is a change you like to publish to TFS
• See the details – Will show you a comparison to see what was changed

In order to send changes to the TFS use the “Publish” button.

Have Fun!!!

I have just encountered a very nice tool that helps connect TFS 2010 to SharePoint Server that was not installed with the TFS.

When Do I Use It? (From Download Site)

You can use this tool to configure an existing installation of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for use with Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. The tool automates the configuration of the following features with certain default values, which are explained in the configuration instructions that are included with the tool. The tool will skip configuring a feature if it is already enabled and configured.

The configuration tool is designed to configure relatively simple deployments of Office SharePoint Server 2007 or SharePoint Server 2010. The tool uses default settings to configure the features. You should not use this tool if any of the following is true:

• your deployment  requires the use of specific ports or protocols
• your deployment utilizes multiple application-tier servers for the server farm
• you want to configure your deployment with settings other than the default ones used by the tool

You can download the tool from: here

Have Fun!!!

There are times where we need to do a Visual Verification to our application, in Coded UI tests this task is now possible using the TestApi.

“TestApi is a library of test and utility APIs that enables developers and testers to create testing tools and automated tests for .NET and Win32 applications. TestApi provides a set of common test building blocks -- types, data-structures and algorithms -- in a simple, layered, componentized and documented stack.”

The TestApi can be downloaded here.

A good explanation of how to add the Visual Verification to the Coded UI Test can be found in Ivo Manolov’s post: “Introduction to TestApi – Part 3: Visual Verification APIs”

Have Fun!!!

The integration between MSProject and Team Foundation Server is available even in earlier versions of TFS.

I have worked with this integration in many of our customers with great success but…

There are organizations that needs more than a simple MSProject client, they need to have a better integration between there projects and better resources management.

The project Server Integration was a requirement for a long time, many of my customer keep asking me when it will be available, I kept using the same answer: “Soon…”.

Today I come with a different answer: “It is here!”

Brian Harry has announced that the TFS & Project Server integration is now available still in Beta but with a “Go Live” license.

Note: Some of the following Content is taken from Brian Harry’s post that you can find here 

Let us start with how to install it and Licensing… (From Brian Harry’s Post)

The TFS-PS Feature Pack is included in MSDN subscriptions purchased with Visual Studio Ultimate.  Specifically, in order to use the TFS-PS Feature Pack, an organization must own at least one license of VS Ultimate with MSDN.  With that one license, the software can be downloaded and installed and then all users with access to either the Project Server or the TFS server that are connected can benefit from the integration.  This is yet one more advantage to owning an MSDN subscription.  If you go to your MSDN download center, you should find the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack as an available download.

This Feature Pack is being released in tandem with VS/TFS 2010 SP 1.  It supports Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server 2007 and 2010.  For the Project Server <-> TFS integration to fully work, there are a few components that work together:

1. TFS 2010 SP1 needs to be installed on any Team Foundation Server 2010 instance that will be connected to Project Server.
2. VS 2010 SP1 needs to be installed on all VS 2010/Team Explorer clients on which you will use the TFS and Microsoft Project integration (basically project manager’s machines – while we recommend SP1 for everyone, it’s only required for the MS Project integration to work fully)- As you’ve probably noticed, in other news today, we announced the availability of VS/TFS SP1 Beta.
3. Team Explorer Everywhere SP1 needs to be installed on all TEE 2010 clients – A Beta of TEE SP1 is available already.
4. The Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration Feature Pack needs to be installed on any Project Server instance that will be connected to Team Foundation Server.
5. You’ll definitely want to read and follow the installation and configuration instructions.  Don’t forget that because it is a .chm file, after you save it to your local computer, you have to right click on it in Windows Explorer and select “Properties…”.  You then need to click the “Unblock” button.  If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to see the content.
6. If you have people who use VS 2005 or VS 2008 along with the corresponding Team Explorer, you will want to make sure the install the “forward compatibility” patches for those versions.  They’ve been out a good while.  Team Explorer 2005 patch.  Team Explorer 2008 patch.  And if you use another IDE and the TFS MSSCCI provider, then you’ll want to make sure you install the latest version of the MSSCCI provider.

We haven’t announced a release date for SP1 or for this Feature Pack but our expectation, pending your validation, is that it will ship sometime in the first half of next year (2011).  It will be possible to upgrade from this Beta to the final release easily while preserving all of your data and state.

Now I like to bring you Brian’s explanation of what you can get with this integration:

In short, TFS <-> Project Server integration is a server side synchronization/workflow tool that enables project managers who use Project Server to share up to date project status and resource availability with development teams who use Team Foundation Server whether they use formal or Agile development processes.  It enables the two constituencies to work in the tools of their choice and at a granularity that is most comfortable to them.  Project managers can work in fairly high level tasks using a long range plan.  Developers can see the plan and decompose the high level tasks into detailed assignments in whatever fashion works best for them.  As tasks are decomposed and work is completed, Project Server is updated with both resource availability and task progress.  Of course, all of this ties into the standard Project Server work approval process so that the project manager maintains some control over the high level plan and changes can be deliberate rather than random.  If a project manager wants to deal with all of the detail of the development team, they can configure the integration to import all task breakdown – but for projects that are very large, it’s likely to be overwhelming.

All of this great integrated data can then be rolled up across all the projects in your portfolio into high level enterprise report on progress, resource availability and more:

Let’s look at an example scenario.  A project manager can start by defining a high level plan in Project/Project Server.  Notice that you can control which tasks are published to Team Foundation Server (not all tasks in a project are development tasks – even though we developers like to think that’s all that matters :)).

The development team lead can then use TFS tools – Team Explorer, Team Web Access, Excel, the Agile Workbook, etc to break down the high level requirements/tasks into the development team’s work – tasks, user stories, etc.  This first screenshot is a query run in Team Explorer to show that the Requirements entered in Project Server automatically flowed into TFS, the second shows using Excel to do decomposition and the third shows using the Agile workbooks.

Once the development lead saves the work breakdown, the project manager will get notified of updates and can use Project Web Access to view task and resource rollup.  Notice, the project manager is not seeing the individual tasks but rather a rollup that includes resource utilization so they can do overall resource planning.

And those rolled up detailed tasks are viewed by the project manager as multiple people working on the same high level task.

Of course, if the project manager want a detailed view, all tasks can be marked for publishing between Project Server and TFS and you can get a fully detailed project plan.

If you’d like to learn more there’s a great TechEd presentation/demo done just a couple of weeks ago here: http://www.msteched.com/2010/Europe/OFS201

Have Fun!!!

Since the release of the new SP1 beta of TFS 2010 and VS2010 that I have published about in my post: "Visual Studio 2010 And TFS 2010 Service Pack 1 Beta Has Released"

,  I have received a lot of questions about what’s new.

I have just read a very good post by: “Learn TFS” that summarize all that is new in this service pack.

You can read more in: “Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and TFS 2010 SP1 Roundup”

Have Fun!!!

When I started to work with TFS 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 I have thought what more Microsoft can give me when I already have the perfect tools to work with.

Each release starting from the Power Tools, Feature Packs and now the Service Pack 1 I see that the teams working on these products don’t rest, they keep bringing us tools that helps us create better products.

Starting from today the Service Pack 1 Beta of TFS 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 are available for the public.

The Beta comes with a "go live" license which means that it can be installed in a production environment.  Further, upgrading from the Beta to the final release of SP1, when it is available, will be very easy.

Download links for MSDN Subscribers:

• .NET Framework 4 Update Beta otherwise know as .NET Framework 4 KB2162169 – BETA
• VS 2010 SP1 Beta (Includes the .NET Framework 4 update)
• TFS 2010 SP1 Beta (Includes the .NET Framework 4 update)

Download links for everyone else (Will be available later today):

• .NET Framework 4 Update Beta – otherwise know as .NET Framework 4 KB2162169 – BETA
• VS 2010 SP1 Beta (Includes the .NET Framework 4 update)
• TFS 2010 SP1 Beta (Includes the .NET Framework 4 update)

Note: The following sections have been taken from Brian Harry’s Blog Post

Have Fun!!!

The significant new features in this service pack (Visual Studio) include:

Local help viewer - We got ample feedback during the VS 2010 Beta 2 period that people really missed having a local help viewer.  The help team has been working hard and had some previews of a new local help viewer.  It is now incorporated into SP1.

Silverlight 4 tools - The Silverlight 4 tools are now included along with Silverlight 3 support.

Unit Testing on .NET 3.5 - In VS 2010, you can only run unit tests against .NET 4.0 and must rely on Framework compatibility to trust that your app will actually work if deployed on .NET 3.5.  While Framework compatibility is VERY good, it's not perfect and we've heard focused but strong feedback that unit testing on the actual .NET 3.5 Framework is a must.  In SP1, you can.

Intellitrace for 64-bit and Sharepoint - Intellitrace is the revolutionary new debugging technology in VS 2010 that allows you to move forward and backwards through a debug session.  With it being a V1 offering at RTM, we just didn't have time to make it work in all scenarios.  In SP1, we've rounded it out with a couple of important ones - 64-bit and Sharepoint.  We still don't have Silverlight or unmanaged C++ support but we'll continue to make progress on important scenarios.

Performance Wizard for Silverlight - With SP1, you will be able to profile your Silverlight code to tune your app performance.  Also, because so much of Silverlight is about rendering performance and a traditional code profiler is a blunt tool for tuning that kind of thing, we have included a number of higher level profiling abstractions to make is easier to understand where your app is really spending the time.

VB Compiler runtime switch (/vbruntime) – VB.NET relies on some VB specific runtime libraries.  In the past this has made support for VB.NET on new .NET platforms come to market more slowly than C#.  For instance support for VB.NET was enabled on Windows Phone 7 when we released the Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools.  This new switch and the underlying VB runtime refactoring will enable you to include the key VB runtime components as references in your application, making it easier for you to target new platforms as they are released.

Bug Fixes in TFS 2010:

Admin, Ops and Setup

• Add a tool to enable starting a service host if it is stopped
• Upgrade from Orcas fails if @@SERVERNAME is NULL
• Patch fails to install correctly if the configuration database is being mirrored
• Installing a patch fails if one of the collections is not available

Build Automation

• Cannot delete build drops if a controller goes down
• Summary View: The first changeset in the list of 'Associated Changesets' show up twice (sometimes)
• Ancient changesets being associated with build...
• Memory leaks and performance drop on TFS 2010 Build Service under heavy load
• Watson: Application buildnotification.exe; Exception system.argumentnullexception
• Watson: Application tfsbuildservicehost.exe from Dev10 RTM; Exception 0xC000001D
• Change the default in "Build Retention"->"What to Delete" from "All" to "All - Test Result"
• Manually queueing a gated check-in build intermittedly disables the dropdown "what do you want to build?"
• Build Definition Cache on the AT can become corrupt when multiple definitions map/cloak the same paths in the workspace templates
• Undo in gated check-in does not remove unshelved adds from the disk leaving a cluttered workspace and allowing breaking check-ins to potentially make it through
• Customer can inadvertently change build quality due to odd focus and scroll wheel interaction

Core Services

• QueryActiveRequests shows requests without associated threads
• QueryActiveRequests occasionally hangs and never returns
• The Server Plugin Architecture Should Not Disable Plugins When They Throw An Exception
• Watson: A transport-level error has occurred when receiving results from the server. (prov ...[trunc]
• Watson: ExceptionType sqlexception.20.5; Category: DataBase; Src: FA9FE1469BCF7263; TargetSite: 7c64855d
• Watson: SqlException - Failed to load Msxmlsql.dll.
• Security service crashes when you have 2 paths, differing only by I casing on a turkish database.
• Attach fails when custom instance groups are members of collection groups
• Watson: Application tfsjobagent.exe; Exception SYSTEM.DATA.SQLCLIENT.SQL
• Stopping the configuration service host fails if there is a running job that will take a long time to finish
• A process that calls ApplicationServiceHost.BeginRequest may prevent the service host from stopping until the request context passed to that method is disposed
• Can't Detach Offline Collection

Office Integration

• [Outlook Send Mail] Add the Work Item ID and Title to the subject line of the email when exporting a single work item.
• Non TFS project plan gets error TF80070 when changing work in Task Usage view side by side with bound project plan open
• There is no way to undo sort in Excel Trees and clearing "Sort and Filter" could cause unexpected results when publishing
• Excel: Disconnected client displays server not available error message for every table in the workbook.
• TF208021 when I convert to a tree query which only contains one WI by Configure list
• AV instantiating CLSID {23A20EA8-2DF0-40a6-A1FA-8143EDB7B172} S
• If a filter is set on the Gantt View, work item can be incorrectly parented when brought into the project plan through a refresh on the Team Planner view.
• MSProject: Adding additional resources to a summary task (already has resources) would not reset all assignment units to 0%

Reporting

• Analysis Processing: TFSOlapProcessComponent's class ICancelable implementation need to call server.Disconnect(false) in addition to CancelCommand()
• Stress: SQL deadlocks in prc_Dimension_DimFile_AddUpdate
• Watson: Cannot insert duplicate key row in object 'dbo.DimFile' with unique index 'DimFile_FileBK'.
• _LastUpdatedTime: jobs do not get deleted when Reporting is disabled, resulting in inaccurate data showing on reports
• WIT Warehouse adapter should not rely on WorkItemsAre and WorkItemsLatest having the same [Changed Order] values
• TFS 2010: AS warehouse processing fails with error "The trust relationship between the primary domain and the trusted domain failed"

Team Web Access

• Web Access UI has not reacted to locked links
• ENU: Click "View Log" can't show content when using Firefox3.5 browser.
• Build web part queries WAY more data than it needs leading to a performance issue with lots of builds
• Loc web access site points to ENU msdn pages for help content

Version Control

• Support for QueryMergesExtended to query merge targets for a given item
• Changes to baseless merge for deleted items / cherry picks
• Fix for branch mappings would pick up the wrong mapping
• Changes to make the comparison for get /remap to be case-sensitive.
• 2 fixes for blocking problems on checkin and remove access control list
• Product changes for remove redundant content
• Merge, Unshelve bad query plans and rename merge bug
• Query plan fix for checkin, fix for infinite merge loop
• Syncing to a label which has a duplicate name but different scope in the system will lead to unpredictable results
• After opening solution, database node in server explorer becomes fully expanded and I'm prompted to add database diagram
• Comparing a file after renaming its parent does not work
• BV: Can't tell one branch from another when they have the same name
• A lock on a file is orphaned on checkin when the parent is renamed and checked in in another workspace
• InvalidOperationException on message pump callback from PendingChangesFileList crashes VS when resolving multiple conflicts
• Autoproxy contacts LDAP every time we process GetOperations when talking to a 2005/2008 server
• Upgrade from 2005/2008 adds ACEs for shelvesets as well as for workspaces - can keep identities alive incorrectly
• Turkish I bug on large checkins
• Candidate delete is lost after merging in a folder rename

Work Item Tracking

• Back compat verbatim error message needed
• HTML control truncates stack trace that contains hyperlinks with quotes
• Error on Work Item form in TFS - object reference not set to an instance of an object
• Changing the reporting type of a field blocks WIT operations for up to 7 minutes.
• WorkItem.aspx treats the default Description field differently than other longtext fields
• Team Project Creation failing in PLOC because of Global Workflow Issue
• Bypass rule attribute doesn't work with batch update
• String fields should accept newlines and tabs,
• System.History field does not display in query results view
• WIT OM can't be loaded
• Usage incorrectly identifies flags for WitAdmin ExportGlobalWorkflow
• WitAdmin commands can't be run on an RTM client against an SP1 server
• VSTSPioneer: witadmin deletefield caused TF237159: The query contains columns that are not valid.
• SERVERDEFAULT from currentuser does not work with fields marked as SyncNameChanges=True
• After upgrade, allowed values in fields marked as syncnamechanges=true may block WIT import.
• Bypassing workflow rules is broken if you delete a field that existed prior to the last servicing operation.
• The index on Title needs to be removed.

A new Virtual Machine was released for evaluation purpose.

The Virtual Machine is a preconfigured Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio with all the latest releases and patches.

Overview from the site:

This virtual machine is pre-configured with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. It is designed to provide an easy way to evaluate and learn the Visual Studio 2010 family of technologies. A set of hands-on-labs / demo scripts are also available and provided a guided experience through many of the new application lifecycle management capabilities of Visual Studio 2010.For more information on this release, along with instructions on how to use a download manager for more efficiently downloading the files required to use this virtual machine, please click here. This post also contains links to download this virtual machine for the virtualization platform of your choice (Hyper-V, Virtual PC 2007, or Windows Virtual PC).For more information on Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 visit http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/products/2010/default.mspx. This virtual machine does not have anti-virus software installed. It should not be connected to any network until it has anti-virus software installed. In addition, the operating system and programs installed were patched with all updates as of December 8, 2010. This virtual machine will stop working on June 1, 2011, when the trial software expires. A new version of this virtual machine will be made available before this one expires.

Have Fun!!!

One of the things missing in most of the Testing Tools is the “Exploratory Testing”, where the tester runs an unmanaged tests which means that no steps reproduction is done when he finds a bug.

Not Anymore…

In Visual Studio Test Manager 2010 there is a great function called Exploratory Bug, so how do we use it?

Step 1: First create a Test Case that will be the shell for the exploratory test, all you will need to do is write the Title and the meta data for the Test Case

Step 2: Run the test case from the “Test Tab”

Step 3: Check the “Create Action Recording” checkbox

Step 4: Click the “Start Test”

You can see the “Currently Recording” icon on the recorded window

Step 5: Explore your application up to the point where you find a bug

Step 6: From the toolbar open the “Bugs Dropdown List” and choose: “Create exploratory bug”

At this point you will have a bar that shows you the test time range where the collectors have collected your test data.

If your test was long you will not need to save all the collected data in order for the developer to reproduce the bug, part of this data will be more than enough.

Step 7: Choose the range of data from the collectors you like to save to the bug.

Step 8: Click “Use range to create bug”

The Test Manager will automatically open as new bug with all the collectors data you have chosen to save.

You can see this data in the following Screenshots:

Screenshot 1: The bug and its data in the “Details Tab”

Screenshot 2: User Action Log

Screenshot 3: Event Log

Screenshot 4: Video

Screenshot 5: System Information

There is more information that you can collect in your test, the information that will be collected is depend on the collectors that you “turn on” in your test settings.

Have Fun!!!

Many times when I go to a client and tell him that his QA team needs to start at the beginning of the project's development process I see a wondering look at his eyes.

A good QA process needs to start as early as possible in the development process, the type of testing that is being done at that early stage called "Static Testing".

"Static Testing" is basically documentation testing and code testing but without using the software, for example "Code Reviews".

When the software is used for testing it is called "Dynamic Testing".

In this post I will focus on the "Static Testing" of the requirements only.

Why should we test the requirements?

Research shows that over 80% of the bugs are introduced before a single line of code is written.

If we think of that it make sense, how can a developer write a good application if the requirements are faulted? How can a tester test the application if he doesn't know what exactly to test? How the user can finally get what he needs if the developers don't know what exactly to develop?

So we can see that the base for the product's quality starts with good requirements.

I don't say that this is the only parameter for good quality, but it is the most influencing parameter and that people don't know.

Now we have a new question coming:
Why the QA team should test the requirements?

The QA team member has a very unique view, the QA team member can see that the requirement is testable, he can see if the requirement is well defined and he can put himself in the user's shoes by that he can spot usability problems before a single line of code is written.

Important: I don't say that the QA team members are the only people that will test the requirements but they must be in the list of people that tests the requirements.

We can see that the QA team member needs to have a wide knowledge in many fields, one of them is requirements and documentation.

Have Fun!!!

On 29/11/2010 I had my session in Tech-Ed with Coby Peled and Mani Zalzman.

We have talked about the Lab Management and its abilities, we have seen how the Lab Management can speed up my development and testing and how it can leverage my product’s quality.

You can download our presentation from here.

I wanted to thank a few people that made this presentation so grate.

First I like to thank Coby for his support and mentoring during all the preparations for this session.

Meni that helped a lot from his grate experience and deep knowledge with the product.

Tzvia Gitlin for all the help preparing the best presentation in the ALM Track and for the opportunity to share my knowledge with you.

During the preparations for the session we had a lot of support from a lot of people that invested from there time to make our presentation EXCEPTIONAL I like to thank them too.

Finally I like to thank you all for coming to our presentation (Or downloading it when it will be available on the web).

I had a Lot Of Fun, and I hope to see you all in the next Tech-Ed!!!