Agile, Manage & Test–Stickyminds launches TechWell for the test community.

Sticky minds.com has launched a new site called TechWell for the Agile, Manage and Test communities. You can interact with others through blogs, forums and groups. Access videos, podcasts, articles, and more all pertaining to testing.

With todays changes in the Software Industry happening quickly testers are facing challenges in the skills they need. The future is Agile with a Scrum methodology and framework. Testers need to be ready and it is going to  happen quickly, in fact it has started already.

I recommend checking out TechWell and getting the scoop from your peers in the community. Click on TechWell to check out.

Testa

Basics of Securing Applications – Steve Syfuhs talks about security

Objectsharp’s Steve Syfuhs the Canadian Developer Security MVP is being interviewed by Jonathan Rozenblit a Microsoft evangelist on the basics of securing applications.

Click here to follow.

Part 1: Development Security Basics (This Post)

Part 2: Vulnerability Deep Dive (Coming Thursday, June 2, 2011)

Part 3: Secure Design and Analysis in Visual Studio 2010 (Coming Thursday, June 9, 2011)

Part 4: Architectural Considerations for Developing Secure Applications (Coming Thursday, June 16, 2011)

Part 5: Incident Response Management with Team Foundation Server (Coming Thursday, June 23, 2011)

 

Testa

Microsoft ALM – the next release code named vNext

At TechEd 2011 in Atlanta Microsoft showcased some of the new features coming in the next release code named  vNext. Check it out by clicking the different links below:

VNext –  click the link to the vNext demo.

image

New Features are:

  • Storyboarding– A plug-in for PowerPoint that connects the creation and review of story boards with the rest of the team.
  • Backlog & Sprint Planning– New web based product backlog, sprint planning and task board.
  • Client Feedback –New tooling support to invite and receive feedback from stakeholders during development.
  • Team Navigator– More time ‘in the zone’, through improved experiences for day-to-day tasks.
  • Continuous Testing – A new unit test runner continuously running unit tests in the background
  • Agile Quality Assurance – Increased code quality with code review support, enhanced unit testing frameworks and new exploratory testing support.
  • Aligning Development with Operations (Intellitrace in Production) – Increased connections and insight between the operations and development teams lowering the time it takes to fix a bug in production.
  • SCOM & TFS Integration – Software Centre Operations Management now integrated with TFS.

Channel 9 - The Future of Microsoft Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management Cameron Skinner talk at TechEd 2011 

Whitepaper: PDF whitepaper which reinforces the value propositions for what we’re delivering in vNext.

Testa

 

Microsoft Test Manager & TFS–copy test cases from one Team Foundation Server to another

Shai has done it again. In my last blog I explained a tool that lets you copy test cases & shared steps from one Team Project to another. We had a need to copy test cases from one team project to another where the project resided on different Team Foundation servers.

Shai in no time revised the tool to enable copy of test cases between projects residing in different TF servers.

If you have a need for this tool email me.

Great tool – thanks again Shai

Testa Smile

 

Microsoft Test Manager & TFS – copy test cases from one team project to another team project.

In Test Manager you can copy existing Test Suites into Test Plans but only when they are both in the same Team Project. You can also create a copy of a test case adding it to a different team project but only one at a time in Visual Studio or MTM. So what happens if I have test cases that are in other Team Projects that I want to add to a new Team Project?

Shai Raiten who is a VS ALM MVP & Microsoft Regional Specialist has created a tool for this function.

The tool is a wizard that walks you through the:

1 Connection to the Team Foundation Server
2 Selection of the Source Team Project (where test case to be copied reside)
3 Selection of the Target Team Project (where you are coping test cases too)
4 Selection of migrating existing test case links, attachments, areas, iterations and even the duplication of existing Shared Steps.
5 Addition of a Configuration File that saves the migration results
6 Field mapping – the wizard checks that the target test case work item has all the same fields as the source
7 If you selected to copy area and/or iteration the wizard checks that the same data exists in the new project, if it does not you shown what is missing and expected to add into the target team project.
8 Then you get to select the query from the source team project that contains the test cases you want to copy or it may just be all test cases from the source team project. Either way the test cases from your query are displayed with a checkbox. You are required for each test case displayed to check the one’s you want copied.
9 All that is left is to click Start

If your source test case has:

Parameter’s they are copied
Shared Steps they are duplicated but not the action recordings
Parameter data it is all copied
Action recording they are not copied
History it is not copied, the new tests case will show the date and time the create was done and all the data that was copied.

If you include the coping of links from your source to your target and the link is another work item from your source team project it does not get copied into the target team project.

If you would like to use this tool email me.

Shai great tool and thanks for providing me a copy.

Testa Smile

The Testing Planet – “Read all about it!”

The Testing Planet is available on your Kindle.

Think of me as the kid standing on the corner back in the 50’s with a newspaper held high yelling, “Read all about it”. I have downloaded my copy to my Kindle it cost 4.99US which these days is 4.99 Canadian. You can still download the PDF format or have home delivery should you not have a electronic reader yet. I’ll be reading from my Kindle on the train, on my deck (with a cold beer), anywhere I want.

Congratulations to The Software Testing Club, Rob Lambert and Rosie Sherry.

I am so excited, I absolutely love my Kindle for so many reasons. 

Did you know if the book your reading has text to speech you can plug your kindle into your car (need a USB plug) and listen while you drive. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law read a book on a recent road trip  with their kindle. Next road trip we’ll be reading.

The March 2011 Issue links: www.thetestingplanet.com or Amazon

Testa Smile

 

Migration to Microsoft TFS 2010 from Quality Center with Scrat

Quality Center has been the popular kid on the block over the years. Since Microsoft Test Manager came out in April 2010 it has and is giving QC a run for it’s money. Many companies are wanting to convert over to Microsoft TFS 2010 from Quality Center but are not sure how and do not want to lose existing artefacts.

SELA a Microsoft Gold Partner have created Scrat that will let you migrate full HP Quality Center projects into TFS2010 in days. Requirements, Bugs, Test Cases, Attachments and Links between items plus their interrelationship links can all be migrated to TFS 2010. Scrat is completely configurable to migrate what you want and need.

I personally have met a number of test teams that are converting to TFS2010 here are some comments being made about TFS2010 and Test Manger:

    • the collaboration between teams is outstanding
    • there is one place that stores all the project artefacts and anyone on the team can see them, how organized and commutative is that.
    • love the alerts, people know about bugs as soon as I save them
    • bug information automatically added would take me hours to put together
    • snap shot capability during test execution, no more folders full of screen prints
    • the test steps are added to the bug for me what a time saver
    • Test Impact – (normally it is the facial expression, such emotion, then demo it for people!)
    • now that I don’t have to manually note my steps during Exploratory testing, I can do a lot more testing and concentrate 100% on what I am doing

Note: the above are not direct quotes they are however truly what I am hearing testers saying.

Check out Scrat and if you need help give us a call.

Testa Smile

 

IE9 support in Test Manager and Coded UI testing

Overall IE9 is supported by Test Manager and Coded UI testing. You should check here for details on what exactly is supported and what isn’t.

You will need to download SP1 feature pack.

Testa Smile

Microsoft Test Manager– What is my test state at the Test Plan level?

Check out the Visual Studio Team Test blog on using Excel reports with MTM to identify test state at a test plan level. This is a step by step on how to create the report in excel using information on your test state from Test Manager.

Testa

Microsoft Unlimited Load Testing Announcement

Microsoft announces unlimited Load Testing for Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN Subscribers.

Read up about this huge deal and download today the VS2010 Load Test Feature Pack then start your load testing.

If you need help call Object Sharp we can help you with your Load Testing.

1-877-SO-SHARP

Testa

.