Microsoft TFS, Test Manager & Visual Studio–Why use it?

At Tech Days in Montreal a gentleman and I were chatting about Test Manager. He made a statement that I thought was well worth sharing.

It goes something like this:

“With Test Manager we no longer have to try and figure out when a tester leaves the company what all the excel spreadsheets on their desktop are all about. We know where the test cases are and what they test. It is great.”

I for one have been an advocate of reducing the paperwork tester’s have been required to generate. I know there were times we spent more time documenting what we were going to do then actually doing it. Including testing!

The comment was well stated and I agree Microsoft has created a great tool.

Testa Smile

Microsoft Test Manager– Test Case export to excel tool

Free tool available for exporting your test cases to excel in a nicely formatted fashion.

Click to download here

You  connect to Team Foundation Server by clicking the Connect TFS button.

Pick the Team Project you want to work with as shown below.

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The test plans and test suites associated to the team project you selected display.

Pick a test plan and test suite then specify where you want to save the excel file to on your system and a name for the excel file.

Click Export.

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Here is an example of test cases export to excel. The Actual Results, Pass/Fail and Comments are not populated from Test Manager. These would be fields your tester’s would enter as they are testing! Or you could remove them and add your own columns using this for test case reviews or any other type of reporting required.

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Testa Smile

Microsoft Impact award given to ObjectSharp

It was a great evening for ObjectSharp Consulting last night. At the Microsoft Impact awards ObjectSharp partners Dave Lloyd, Barry Gervin and Mike Green accepted the

 Partner of the Year award for Application Lifecycle Management.

Congratulations to Objectsharp and the Sharpe's.

Testa Smile

Agile with Microsoft Visual Studio

Sam Guckenheimer is the Product Owner of Microsoft Visual Studio product line. He has 30 years' experience as architect, developer, tester, product manager, project manager and general manager in the software industry worldwide.

Sam’s new book “Agile Software Engineering with Visual Studio: From Concept to Continuous Feedback” is a must for all to read. Available in paperback and kindle from Amazon.

Sam recently did a webcast for TesTrek 2011 in Toronto which is also well worth watching. Sam talks about Getting Agile with Testing.

“Testing is central to the success or failure of any organization adopting the Agile Consensus. A modern testing approach can be a great enabler of value flow, transparency and the reduction of waste. An outmoded testing approach can be a huge impediment and source of unending conflict. As testers, it's important that we be on the right side of the consensus and be the enablers. The alternative is untenable. In this session, we will explore fundamental principles of agile project delivery and discuss the impact on the QA lifecycle. “

If your in Toronto the week of November 7th sign up for TesTrek 2011 Conference where Sam is the keynote speaker. Dave Lloyd and I will be doing a hands on workshop on Exploratory Testing. There is lots happening this year at TesTrek check it out.

Testa Smile

 

AzureFest Revisited

Remember a few months ago when ObjectSharp and Microsoft put on AzureFest at the Microsoft office in Mississauga?  Well, here we go again!  This time we have two events:

  • Downtown Toronto: March 30th, 2011 – MSN Office, 222 Bay Street
  • Mississauga: March 31st, 2011 – Microsoft Canada HQ, 1950 Meadowvale Blvd

Our presenter for both evenings is Cory Fowler, and he is the Canadian MVP for Windows Azure, an ObjectSharp Consultant, and a good friend of mine.

You can register by clicking here.

What you’ll learn

  • How to setup your Azure Account
  • How to take a traditional on-premise ASP.NET applications and deploy it to Azure
  • Publishing Applications to Azure Developer Portal
  • Setting up the Azure SDK and Azure Tools for Visual Studio on your laptop
  • using the development App Fabric

We provide

  • The tools you will need on your machine to prepare yourself for Azure
  • Hands on instruction and expert assistance
  • Power and network access
  • Snacks and refreshments
  • For every azure activation – funding for your User Group
  • Post event technical resources so you can take your skills to the next level

You provide

  • Your own laptop
  • Your own credit card (for Azure activations this is required, even if you only setup for a trial period, but this event is free!)
  • Your experience in building ASP.NET Applications and Services

Seats are still available. Register!

You know you want to register… Smile

P.S. Did I mention this event is free?

The Azure Experience Lab

Every year ObjectSharp puts on a handful of events, and this year we are pushing hard for Azure.  Next week we have such an event geared towards ISV Developers and Business people.  ObjectSharp would like to welcome you to the Azure Experience Lab!

Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud operating system. Leveraging the .NET Platform, developers can easily take advantages of their skills to move their applications to the cloud.  The Azure Experience Lab is all about discovering new business opportunities and learning new technologies to leverage cloud computing for your organization and your customers.

For ISVs looking to augment their traditional software models with subscription and service models, cloud computing represents a huge growth opportunity. Join us for a day of exploration and experience with Windows Azure as we explore both the business value and the technologies available for cloud computing with Microsoft.

There are two tracks available for this event, and ideally, we recommend you include individuals in both tracks from your organization to get the most value from our Experience Lab.

  • The Business Value Track is recommended for product managers, strategic planners, CTOs, architects and other decision making leaders who evaluate strategic directions for their organization and their customers.

  • The Azure Development Track is recommended for Solution and Infrastructure Architects, Lead Developers and other technologies who evaluate technologies as part of their solution offerings.

What's Windows Azure About?
Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud operating system. Developing for Azure leverages your existing ASP.NET Development Experience and provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web applications in the cloud through Microsoft® datacenters or even hybrid off/on premise hosting models. In the Experience Lab you'll learn how to develop ASP.NET Applications and Services for Cloud Computing.

We Provide
Light refreshments and a networking lunch. Attendees of the Hands-on-labs in the Azure Development Track are provided with computer equipment, labs and various technical resources.

You Provide
To get the most out of this event, we recommend those attending the Azure Development Track bring their personal or business credit card required for Azure activations as part of the hands on labs. This is required, even if you only setup for a trial period and shut down your account after the event.

When:
Monday, February 7th, 2011.
Two Learning Tracks:
Business Value of Azure - 9:00am - 5:00pm
Developing for Azure - 9:00am - 5:00pm

Where:
Azure Experience Lab
11 King Street West, Suite 1400, Toronto, ON M5H 4C7

Admission:
$99 (incl. refreshments)

Registration:
By invitation only. Please quote Invitation code XLAB02
Limited to 20 ISVs (max 2 people, 1 in each track)

8:30-9:00 Registration
9-10:15 What is Azure? All up overview and demonstration of the various services and capabilities of Windows and SQL Azure including a review of costs and benefits associated with each.
10:15-10:30 Break
  Business Value Track Azure Development Track
10:30-12:00 Fireside chat about Business Scenarios for Cloud Computing and Azure and how to unlock business value for your organization and your customers. All about Storage in Azure (including hands on lab)
12:00-1:00 Networking Lunch
1:00-2:30 Understanding, evaluating and mitigating Risks associated with Cloud Computing Building Services in Azure (including hands on lab)
2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-4:15pm Open Discussion for business discussions, individual break outs, q&a panel discussion with ObjectSharp and Microsoft Executives All about Security in Azure (including hands on labs)
4:15pm Closing Summary, Next Steps

If you are an ISV and are interested in attending, please register now!

AzureFest–Final Countdown: 2 Days to go

[The soundtrack for this post can be found at Youtube]

Cory Fowler is the Canadian MVP for Windows Azure, an ObjectSharp Consultant, and a good friend of mine.  He will be presenting on Windows Azure at, you guessed it, AzureFest!  We have two half day events on December 11th 2010 (two days from now – see what I did there?) at Microsoft’s office in Mississauga and it’s chock full of everything you need to know about getting started with Windows Azure.  You can register by clicking here.

What You'll Learn

  • How to setup your Azure Account
  • How to take a traditional on-premise ASP.NET applications and deploy it to Azure
  • Publishing Applications to Azure Developer Portal
  • Setting up the Azure SDK and Azure Tools for Visual Studio on your laptop
  • using the development App Fabric

We Provide

  • The tools you will need on your machine to prepare yourself for Azure
  • Hands on instruction and expert assistance
  • Power and network access
  • Snacks and refreshments
  • For every azure activation – funding for your User Group
  • Post event technical resources so you can take your skills to the next level

You Provide

  • Your own laptop
  • Your own credit card (for Azure activations this is required, even if you only setup for a trial period, but this event is free!)
  • Your experience in building ASP.NET Applications and Services

Seats are still available.  Register!

P.S. Did I mention this event is free?

More Changes to this Site

Due to the fact that the hosting provider I was using for Syfuhs.net was less than stellar, (names withheld to protect the innocent) I’ve decided to move the blog portion of this site to blogs.objectsharp.com.

With any luck the people subscribing to this site won’t see any changes, and any links directly to www.syfuhs.net should 301 redirect to blogs.objectsharp.com/cs/blogs/steve/.

As I learned painfully of the problems with the last migration to DasBlog, permalinks break easily when switching platforms.  With any luck, I will have that resolved shortly.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you start seeing issues.

Cheers!

Act II: New Opportunities

Sometime last week I sent out an email to quite a few people:

As is the way of things in the tech industry, jobs change.  More specifically, mine.

Sometime around October 1st this email will be turned off as I am starting a new position with ObjectSharp working with some of the brightest minds in Toronto.  If you need to get in touch with me after that date you can do it through a few channels.  My personal email is steve@syfuhs.net, which gets checked more often than it should, and my O# email will be ssyfuhs@objectsharp.com.

Cheers

Steve Syfuhs, MCP
Soon to be ex-Software Developer / Database Analyst
Woodbine Entertainment Group
416.675.3993 Ext 2592

While I really enjoyed my job here at Woodbine (even though I complained about it from time to time), it’s time for change and to move on to new opportunities. 

Barry Gervin offered me such an opportunity and I start with ObjectSharp on October 1st.  Bonus for starting on a Friday.

My role has many functions.  Some internal; some external.  Some loud; some…notsomuch.  Some cryptic. Winking smile  It sounds like it will be an amazing experience!

So… I leave you with this:

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WPF for Developers and Lead Designers Course Launch

I’m excited to be launching a WPF training course through Toronto-based consultancy ObjectSharp. The course is called “Windows Presentation Foundation for Developers and Lead Designers,” and, as the title suggests, it offers a hands-on experience designed to give developers and lead designers the knowledge, background, tips and references they’ll need to build smart client [...]