The latest number of the .Net magazine is arrived.  Again they published 2 article written by some Belgium Ordina colleagues.

The first article is by Kurt Claeys about Entity framework and Entity SQL.  You can read it here : http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/3/0/130ccf47-be89-48ee-829d-3a6568befbaa/114625.pdf

The second article is by Bart Wullems and Sven Cipido about eScrum in Team Foundation Server.  You can read it here : http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/3/0/130ccf47-be89-48ee-829d-3a6568befbaa/114602.pdf

If you want to read the full magazine online go to this link : http://msdn.microsoft.com/nl-nl/cc998678.aspx

Since the release of the March 2008 TFS Power tools, it is possible to write scripts to automate the creation of new Team Projects.  So this is a little walk through on how to use this feature.

Two important remarks:

• You need to have Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 installed.  But as there's no Service Pack 1 for the moment, you could use the beta of it.  Download it here.
• If you have, like me a test VPC with and the server and the client, you need first install the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 and then also the Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1.  You can download the TFS SP1 here.

The command you have to use is this : tfpt createteamproject /validate /server:tfsservername [/teamproject:teamprojectname] [sourcecontrol:Branch:[branchpath]] [/processtemplate:[templatename]] or you could use a settingsfile and the command would look like this tfpt createteamproject /validate /settingsfile:filespec. Using the settingsfile is a lot easier.

A bit about the parameters :

  OK, let's make a little example now.  The example I will show make use of a setting file.  Let's start with the XML. This XML file contains all our settings for our project.

 1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 

 2: <Project xmlns="ProjectCreationSettingsFileSchema.xsd"> 

 3:  

 4: <TFSName>win2k3</TFSName> 

 5:  

 6: <LogFolder> 

 7: c:\RemoteTFSProjectStart

 8: </LogFolder> 

 9:  

 10: <ProjectName> 

 11: My
First Auto project

 12: </ProjectName> 

 13: <ProjectSiteTitle> 

 14: <!--
default to project name if not specified --> 

 15: My
First Auto project

 16: </ProjectSiteTitle> 

 17: <ProjectSiteDescription> 

 18: <!--
default to empty string if not specified --> 

 19: This
is my first attemp to automaticly create Team Projects

 20: </ProjectSiteDescription> 

 21: <SccCreateType> 

 22: <!--
none | new | branch --> 

 23: New

 24: </SccCreateType> 

 25: <SccBranchFromPath> 

 26: <!--
string.Empty for none and new; supplied for branch --> 

 27: string.empty

 28: </SccBranchFromPath> 

 29: <ProcessTemplateName> 

 30: MSF
for Agile Software Development - v4.2

 31: </ProcessTemplateName> 

 32: </Project>

So this is pretty easy.  Next step is to run the createteamproject command :

1. Start the command prompt
2. Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008 Power Tools
3. Usage: tfpt createteamproject /settingsfile:<path to >AutoCreate1.xml (be sure that you put the path to the settingsfile with it)
4. If alle settings are correct your team project will be created.

Three things are missing:

1. Area's
2. If necessary creating of new TFS security groups
3. Adding your users to the correct groups

But all three items can also be in the automated process by calling a service afterwards.  This service will can the TFS API's to do these jobs.

Why would you use this?

Well in our company we are busy with creating an Infopath form, where project leaders can request a new team project.  After they submit the form, one of the three TFS administrators approve this request and then a workflow will start to automatically create the team project and put the security correct.

In our company we do a lot small internal projects (not for customers).  We don't want to create for each project a team project.  Otherwise we come directly to the limitation of 256 Team Projects.

So we have created one Team Project with the name of our company.  In here we create for each small project we create an area.  Our policy is that everyone who has access to the team project, have read rights to all area's and contribution rights to the area project his currently working on.  Here's a little guide on how to set the correct rights.

1. Create a local TFS group.  We give it the same name as the area.
2. Add the users to this group who need contributor rights.
3. Add this group to the contributor group of your team project.
4. Go to areas and iterations
5. For the main area gave the contributor group view rights.
6. Add the new area
7. Add the group to the corresponding area with following rights
   1. Edit Work Items in this node
   2. View this node
   3. View work items in this node
8. Go back to source control
9. Click for the properties of the team project.
10. Give the contributors read rights
11. Create a subdirectory for the area
12. Go to your area and click for the properties
13. Add the corresponding TFS group
14. Give following rights for this group
    1. Read
    2. Check Out
    3. Check In
    4. Label
    5. Lock

Now you have your security correct when working with area's.

Creating a build project in TFS2008 is very easy.  This because you can create a standard Build using the build wizard.

Mostly you will create at least 2 builds

• Continuous Integration Build (CI): This wasn't possible in TFS2005, without doing some hard work in the build script.  Mostly you will check every x minutes if there are new check-ins done by the developers.  If so, we will start a build.  This gives us the possibility for having a rapid feedback on any breaking changes and more after each check-in.
• Nightly Build: This build will only run during the night and will perform several more tasks than the CI Build, like deploying your binaries to your test server,...

We will show you how to create a standard build.  You can add more features to your build script like

• Unit testing
• Code analyzes
• Code Metrics
• Deployment
• ...

Later we will show you how to implement those items.

OK, here we go.

You will see that creating a build under TFS2008 it's much different than using TFS2005.  One of the big changes is that it will be easier to trigger events.  It's all in the build wizard now.  So no more command lines, batch files and adding them to the windows scheduler.

One remark: Always keep in mind that your total length of the path (including filename) can be maximum 259 characters.  If the path is longer your build will fail.

1. Go to Team Explorer
2. Right click on builds and choose "New Build Definition"
   
   
   
3. Choose a build name.  Be aware for the path, as this will be a part of the path. And give it a description
4. Normally the workspace can be the default one
5. Next you have to add a new build project file.  You can use an existing one or create a new one.  Be sure to have defined the build name before this step.  You will see that the path to the build types is already filled in.
   
   
   
6. Take the option Create.  This will lead you to a new popup.
   
   
   
   Choose your solution.  You can change the configuration if necessary.  In the options tab you can if you want add unit testing and/or code analysis during the build cycle.  Press finish if everything is done.  Best practice on this is just doing a build before adding the extra tools.  When your build succeeded you can start adding the extra tools.
7. The next tab is the retention Policy.  Here you can say which builds you want to keep when a build was failed, stopped, partially succeeded or succeeded.  By default all builds will be kept.
8. The previous last step is the build defaults.  Here you define your Build agent and the staged location for your builds.  This is the most important part as you must define here the paths.  You can define one build agent for each Buildserver with the same port.  When defining the agent, you need to give the working dir.  By default this is $(Temp)\$(BuildDefinitionPath).  Mostly this will give you a path that is too long.  We create on the server a directory Buildserver, which will be also our share.  So for our working dir we got following path : x:\Buildserver\)\$(BuildDefinitionPath).  For the staged path we give in \\<servername>\Buildserver\<Team Project name>.  If you define it this way you will have following directory structure :
   
   
   
9. The last step before your build is ready is setting up the trigger.  This step was in TFS2005 very difficult especially when you want a CI build.  In TFS2008, this was made very easy.
   
   
   
   As you can see you can choose between different triggers. 
   For our nightly build we choose the last option with the default options.  So every weekday at 3 o'clock our nightly build will run, only when there are changes since the last build. 
   If you want a CI build, you can choose between the second and third option.  We have chosen for the third option and it will run every 15 minutes. Best practice is to start with the first option and when your build succeeded you can switch the trigger to the build type you want to use.
10. Now press OK and you can start with your builds.
    Now that you have your build script, you can double click on it to open the Build Explorer window.  On this window you can view complete builds and their logs.  You can follow which builds are in the queue and you can even start a build before it's actual trigger by queuing the build.
    
    
    

If you want to change your build, you can do this again through this wizard.  Just keep in mind that some options aren't available in edit mode like adding your unit testing to the build.  So for those options that aren't available anymore you still need to change it directly in your build script.

Hopes this quick guide helps you to setup your first build project.

This is the last part of the series posts about scrum under TFS.  We'll end this story by taking a look into the future by having a sneak preview at the Scrum templates for Visual Studio 2008.  Read our previous parts here:

• Part one: Introduction
• Part two: The installation
• Part three: User experiences
• Part four: Feature overview
• Part five: Conclusions part 1

This article is also cross posted on Sven Cipido's blog.

What about Team System 2008 ?

We looked at each of these templates in 2 ways:

1. Does the template still works after an inplace upgrade to TFS 2008?
2. Is there a new (upgraded) version available specifically for TFS 2008?

Microsoft eScrum

After an inplace upgrade, the template was still up and running. Only the website suffered a painful dead. Brian Harry was so friendly to post a solution on his blog. Go check it out!

VSTS Scrum Process Template

Everything keeps working after the inplace upgrade. A newer version is available here.

Conchango Scrum for Team System

No problems occured after the inplace upgrade. Scrum for Team System v2.0 is now available. Don't hesitate and download this template here.

Conclusion

Microsoft did a good job in terms of backward compatibility. After using the upgraded versions of the templates for some time, I did not encounter any problems. If we look at the new releases, we'll find a range of improvements. But this will be a story for a future series of blog posts.

So stay tuned for an updated version of these posts where we'll dig deeper into the new features of the updated Scrum templates for Team System 2008.

Your TFS Scrummasters

Bart Wullems and Sven Cipido

The fifth part of the series posts about scrum under TFS.  This time we will give a final review and our conclusion about the Scrum templates under TFS2005.  Read our previous parts here:

• Part one: Introduction
• Part two: The installation
• Part three: User experiences
• Part four: Feature overview

This article is also cross posted on Sven Cipido's blog.

Final review

eScrum

Advantage:

• Much SCRUM functionality on board
• Easy to use
• Lot of reports specific Scrum
• Has web front end

Disadvantage:

• Scrum à la Microsoft
• First version contains lots of bugs
• Extra libraries needed if you want to use the site also.
• Difficult installation, it’s a pain in the ass ;-)
• No help in Visual Studio
• Sometimes slow.  But the test was under a VPC, but you still need a heavy server.

CodePlex

Advantage:

• Easy installation
• Guidance Explorer
• Very easy, very common as working with the standard TFS, just some renaming. 

Disadvantage:

• Not a many extra’s like reports
• No daily scrum
• In fact doesn’t follow the Scrum guidelines

Conchango

Advantage:

• Implements mostly the Scrum guidelines
• Easy in use, and very low learning curve
• Several skillfull tools added
• Very good reporting

Disadvantage:

• No web interface

Conclusion

If you want to use Scrum in TFS, Conchango is for the moment the best (free) solution.  The very good reporting with the skillfull tools makes it a pleasant experience.
eScrum has a lot of potential, but sometimes drops a stitch.  A very good point is the web interface.
Codeplex in its current form has too many limits to use in practice.  Although there is a final version (since September 2007) which seems to go on the good way.

So this was the fifth part.  In the next part, we'll talk about the Scrum templates under TFS2008. 

Your TFS Scrummasters

Bart Wullems and Sven Cipido

The fourth part of the series posts about scrum under TFS.  This time we will give a complete overview of all the features of the Scrum templates.  Read our previous parts here:

• Part one: Introduction
• Part two: The installation
• Part three: User experiences

This article is also cross posted on Sven Cipido's blog.

We'll start by explaning the different criteria we looked at:

• Licensing: What are the licensing conditions? Is it free to use?
• Installation: Which format has the provided setup? Are there any installation guidelines?
• Web Interface: Is there a separate web interface available?
• Real Scrum: Does the template follows all the Scrum principles?
• Process Guidance: Is there any form of process guidance available?
• Workitems: Which workitems are available?
• Custom reports: Which custom reports are available?
• Custom queries: Which custom queries are available?
• Overall quality: How did we rate the overall quality of the template? 
• Bugs found: Did we found any bugs while testing?

So this was the fourth part.  In the next part, we'll do a final review and make some conclusions. 

Your TFS Scrummasters

Bart Wullems and Sven Cipido

The third part of the series posts about scrum under TFS.  This time we will focus on the usage of the Scrum templates.  Read our previous parts here:

• Part one: Introduction
• Part two: The installation

This article is also cross posted on Sven Cipido's blog.

Use the Scrum templates

Common

Create your Team Site with the correct Template.  Once you have chosen a template, you can’t change to another template only make minor changes to the chosen template.

eScrum

Learning eScrum from within TFS is very difficult as there is no guidance.  So there is a lot of searching what everything means. For example: product backlog details, area, sprint backlog details.

The best way to learn this product is by using the web interface.  Here you can find a context sensitive help for each part which explains you very well what it means.

You can group several product items by using the areas.  There can be several areas’ which can contain several products.

A sprint is the same as iteration in TFS and the product backlog details in Scrum is the description in TFS.
Sprint information (Scrum master, start and end date of the sprint, goal,…) can be filled in the Sprint details

When using TFS to add your sprint items you have to connect manually the backlog ID.  This is done automatically when using the web interface.

In common we can say that the web interface is more handy and user friendly to use than TFS.  Although that the web interface has a few issues.  There are times that items disappear in the web interface.  But when you restart they’re back.  Also it seems that the page refresh after a post back not always work.  And in some cases you need a full refresh trigger (F5) before everything will be showed again.

Also viewing some reports seems to give problems, but after you rebuild the data warehouse this is solved.
The biggest disadvantage of eScrum is that not all the Scrum guidelines are followed.  Microsoft shouldn’t be Microsoft if they haven’t give it their own interpretation.  For example the burn down chart doesn’t give an overview of the complete sprint, but only to the current date.  This doesn’t give you a complete overview of the sprint.  Also when you want to book more hours than initial planned on a sprint task, eScrum gives sometimes strange results.

CodePlex

Codeplex has the less connection with Scrum.  There is no product backlog only the sprint backlog.  Making sprint items is equal to making work items.  During this phase you also include the item to an iteration.  There are 3 reports and the rest are just the standard reports.

Most of the changes are just a rename of the standard VSTS items.

The name Lightweight is well chosen.

Conchango

Using this template gives us a very nice user experience because it’s totally converted to Scrum

When creating product backlog items or sprint items, you have to fill in the manually the sprint number, which is defined separately.

There is no direct connection between the product backlog items and the sprint items, but you can link them through the Links tab.  This is the best solution, because you can’t create a hierarchical structure in VSTS 2005.

They have integrated a recycle bin, so if you “delete” (which means status is set to deleted) a Work item, you can recover it from here.

There are a few administration modules available which gives us extra possibilities.

It’s easy to maintain the users through the separate Administration tool “Listmanager”.  Through the Administration module “Report installer” you can choose which reports are available per project.

If you want a direct update of for example the burn down charts, you can use the “Warehouse manager” to push a direct update.

So this was the third part.  In the next part, we will give a complete overview of all the Scrum templates. 

Your TFS Scrummasters

Bart Wullems and Sven Cipido