TFS FAQ - By Sanjay Jotwani

Introduction

A Work Item in common parlance is considered to be an instance of effort/work being carried out by an individual. Multiple instances of Work Items eventually culminate into the delivery of a service or a product that is meant for a customer.

Team Foundation Server Work Items

Depending on the approach one adopts for managing an application life cycle i.e. from requirement gathering to actual delivery/deployment, there are various work item types that will be instantiated and persisted into a database. As business needs and the processes thereof are dynamic, and disparate, customizing a Work Item, hence seems to be inevitable. It is therefore essential to understand the anatomy and thereby gain the basic understanding of customizing an existing work item type, or even adding a new work item type.

The Anatomy of a WIT(Work Item Type), in TFS has three essential parts, viz.

1. Fields
2. Layout, and
3. Workflow
   
   

In TFS there are approximately 57 “Field Reference Names”, mapping to base/native types. This is an extensible set.  In keeping with the .NET namespace tradition, two namespaces are predefined: System and Microsoft. The System namespace includes all system fields that are mandatory for Team Foundation system functions. The Microsoft namespace defines all required fields for work item types defined by Microsoft. Customers and partners can create their own field namespaces for custom work item types. We could define our own namespaces, for e.g. a WIT for tracking leads could have a field with a reference name of “Synergetics.LeadManagement.CustomerName”. This in turn could be of a base type “String”, having a name of “Customer Name”, as shown in Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1

Layout

In this section, you map the reference name of the field to a control. The control is the user interface for capturing the required data, and can be customized with a “Type” property to perform necessary validation and change the look and feel, as shown in Figure 1.2. A “Type” property could a “FieldControl”,  “DateTimeControl”, or even a “LinkControl” depending on the data requirement.

Figure 1.2

Workflow

A wok flow is a series of linked steps which would be used to declare transitions to different states, in the life time of a work item. Transitions would be declared, or provide links between states in a WIT work flow, using a graphical UI, as shown in Figure 1.3

Figure 1.3

As an example, the transition from “Active” to “Closed”, will occur for the reasons:

Obsolete, Chose Competitor, Project Cancelled, Too Expensive, or Offer Accepted;

Wherein default values and rules for the fields Assigned To, Activated Date, Activated By, Closed By, and Closed Date are also declared.

The Actions, provides the events under which this transition is deemed to occur.

To conclude customizing a WIT in TFS is a simple, code free effort and can be done within a short period of time, actually hours if not minutes. The key is to know the process and identify the flows, further to which each flow could be encapsulated as a WIT.

Interestingly, as may have been observed, the example used to explain the anatomy and steps, are for a WIT which captures and tracks non development efforts. If you are wondering why would I use TFS to do such a thing?! Well, think about support calls that one would want to capture, post deployment of a product/application.

Thanks for spending time in reading this blog, and sincerely hope it may have helped clear some doubts on the WITs in TFS.

Cheers & Have A Nice Day Ahead!!

About Author: Sanjay Jotwani is Technology Transformation Group Leader.

Synergetics India: IT consulting and Training services on .NET 4.0, SQL server 2008 BI. Awarded as the Best. NET Training Service Provider by Microsoft.

Microsoft tries to allay enterprise fears about Windows Phone 7

Microsoft tries to allay enterprise fears about Windows Phone 7

Microsoft may not view the lack of compatibility as a hurdle because it is looking for the new software to take it in a drastically new direction. However, enterprise adopters of earlier Windows Mobile might see things differently.

To its credit, Microsoft will allay some enterprise fears with its promise to support Windows Mobile 6.5 for a long time. Michael Chang, the senior product manager on Windows Phone 7, yesterday reiterated earlier vows made by CEO Steve Ballmer and others to keep on supporting Windows Mobile 6.5.

We will continue to support, ship and sell 6.5, Chang said in an interview at the CTIA Wireless conference. Windows Phone 7 is a departure and a break at a code level. Doing so wasn't an easy decision. It's a tough decision to move away from a platform like Windows Mobile, but one we were willing to make.

Ballmer has said Microsoft screwed up on Windows Mobile, and the company apparently hopes that the new Windows Phone 7 can help restore Microsoft's slipping share of the mobile operating systems market.

Asked whether Ballmer is pushing the Windows Phone 7 team to attain specific market share numbers, Chang said, not publicly.

Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices at AT&T, said that his company is looking forward to having Windows Phone 7 devices use its network. Other major U.S. carriers have endorsed the Microsoft OS as well.

Windows Mobile has become the enterprise standard OS for certain vertical segments," Bradley said in an interview. However, he added, "it has fallen back. But give Microsoft credit. They've taken 6.5 and made a break for something new. They've raised the bar substantially with Windows Phone 7.

Bradley noted that Microsoft's move to develop a Windows Phone 7 interface that's similar to its Zune digital media player likely won't be an allure to many users. Zune has not been widely adopted, he noted.

Even so, Bradley said he expects that Windows Phone 7 will have a browser that is very, very comparable to any smartphone on the market.

Chang said that while Microsoft expects to offer a rich multimedia experience on Windows Phone 7 devices, the OS initially won't include Adobe Flash player. We won't support Flash at general availability, although we do have a very deep relationship with Adobe, he said.

Chang said that adding consumer friendly features like multimedia support and rich browsing to its mobile operating system doesn't mean that Microsoft will abandon its place as a supplier of enterprise handhelds, including some rugged ones.

We think of this OS as an extension & of our scope, Chang said. I wouldn't say we are building a consumer phone at the expense of our heritage work productivity. We are taking that and adding to it features that include entertainment and a focus on a new experience. Windows Mobile was all about productivity, but we had relied on someone else to deliver a great experience. Not anymore.

On Computerworld, By Matt Hamblen.

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

On ITVoir Network, Microsoft Releases Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 by Vinod Negi

Microsoft Corp. has announced the release to manufacturing of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the next versions of its flagship desktop and server operating systems. With the completion of this development phase, industry partners are readying products in time for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 worldwide general launches.

Windows 7 will be generally available to customers around the world on October 22, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be generally available on or before that date. As always, current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Developer Network subscribers and TechNet subscribers will be among the first to get customer access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks.

Microsoft will make the announcement on its Windows Team and Windows Server Blogs later today. More information about today’s news is available via the following links:

• Windows Team Blog, http://windowsteamblog.com

• Windows Server Blog, http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver

• Partner Web sites, http://readyset7.com and http://talkingaboutwindows.com/Default.aspx

• Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for businesses,

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Highlights of   SQL 2005 and 2008

SQL Server is the fastest growing Database and Business Intelligence vendor

SQL Server ships more units than Oracle and IBM combined.

SQL Server is the #1 OLAP Servers on the market.

SQL Server is more secure than Oracle.