A new Visual Studio plug in SeeTest for mobile testing. You can use Visual Studio (all versions) to test real physical phones including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian. This includes Windows 8 phones. Just connect your device using a standard USB cable to your computer and record tests. SeeTest auto generates a script that you can copy & paste into Visual Studio. Then you can edit, run & view results in Visual Studio.
Check out Charles Sterling blog all about Visual Studio & SeeTest plugin. There is a video on Charles blog that you can watch.
Testa 
Microsoft is storyboarding the process of code coverage for manual testing. They are also looking for you to complete a quick survey on the subject. The Visual Studio ALM team are asking for our help so let’s give it to them. Click below to do the survey.
Code Coverage for Manual Testing Survey
This is how tools get made that we will use, thanks for helping.
Testa 
Karthik K.K has posted on LinkedIn (click to see) a chart that compares the features of Visual Studio & Test Manager to Quick Test Professional (QTP).
I like the last item:
Visual Studio 2010 Test | QTP | Who’s Best |
VSTS is cheaper and can be used for both development & testing. | QTP is costlier and can be used ONLY for testing. | VSTS |
VSTS can also be used by Business Analyst, Project Managers, and Stakeholders. It can assist teams being Agile or Scrum or Waterfall thru a process template. The process template can be customized to meet your company need. VSTS reports on all aspects of a project and can tell you at any time where in the project you are at, the quality of the project to date, the status of your requirements/user stories. You can have a “Requirement to Test Matrix” in seconds at anytime.
If this alone has got your attention and you want to know more contact me directly.
Testa 
The first Toronto VS ALM User Group kick off meeting is being held on April 12th @6:30pm sign up at TALMUG to get the details and register.
The User Group is for all roles within the Application Life Management team. Topics presented will vary from generic ALM practices to ALM with Visual Studio. If your involved in product management, a stakeholder, a business analysis or product owner, a developer or a tester this User Group is for you.
The goal of the first meeting will be to:
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Define the group’s mission
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Select an appropriate name
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Document the roles of the executive
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Recruit volunteers
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Funding
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Discuss how to reach out for sponsors
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Discuss meeting locations
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Discuss ideas for the first few meeting topics
Come out on April 12th and help us to kick-off this new user group code named TALMUG.
Testa 
On Wednesday, January 25th I will be doing a session on Performance Testing SharePoint 2010. This free session is online with a 20 minute presentation and demo and then Q & A starting at 12:25pm. Join us if you are available and can attend. Contact Denise Faustino for information on how to log into the session.
Denise's contact info.
Email dfaustino@objectsharp.com
Toll Free: 1-877-So-Sharp
Local: 416-649-3690
Testa 
If you are reading this blog you should check out bloggers, Susan Ibach and Jonathan Rozenblit. Microsoft developer evangelist who are the resident bloggers at Canadian Solution Developer. Susan and Jonathan are posting some very informative information on ALM, TFS, Visual Studio, testing, events coming, events happening now and in the past.
The most recent blog is about LinkedIn with some great tips on setting up a professional profile. What not to do and what is important to do. Click the link below to see what they have to say.
Microsoft Canadian Solution Developer blog
Testa 
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 
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.

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.

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.

Testa 
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 
Microsoft vNext was released yesterday at BUILD and is available on MSDN if you have a subscription. The released name is Visual Studio 11. There is lots of new stuff for the developer’s but of interest to me and likely anyone following my blog is the Agile features shown in the diagram below. The Exploratory Testing tool is very cool as is the Feedback tool. What am I saying it is all cool.
Check out more information on each of these items here.
Visual Studio 11

Stay tuned I will do my own review of these tools for you in the days to come.
Testa 