However, we deal with the fact that almost every month there is a new tool from Microsoft aimed to boost team productivity and reduce the effort required to build each piece of software, so it’s always a new challenge to give accurate estimations to our customers.

A critical thing is to record all the effort spent in every project and task, which can be used to calibrate the estimations and produce better results.

We try to follow the rule: “Count if at all possible. Compute when you can’t count. Use judgment alone only as a last resort.” as much as possible. 

Once we have a good requirements specification we produce a WBS (detailed task list) and we count web pages, sql tables or anything that can help to compute the effort required to complete the task, we compute and then we calibrate with similar tasks done in the past. We identify risks, review tasks checklist and then use a 3 point estimate to be as much accurate as possible. These can be just the first steps of any estimation procedure.

Once we decide which technologies to use (i.e. Dynamic Data, Entity Framework, ASP.NET MVC or any other tool which could help to improve productivity), we calibrate the estimated effort with the results obtained in similar projects using the same technologies, or the results obtained from some pilot using any other emerging technology.

Finally we allocate some contingency (in software development it’s quite needed!). In the past few projects we convinced our customers about having an agile methodology in place (such as SCRUM). One of the various advantages of SCRUM is that the customer will get periodic releases of the software, while paying for the time spent building the features on each iteration. Contingency makes then no sense, and it can help to reduce total cost which is a great way to convince customers.

When following an agile methodology the rule (count, compute and calibrate) is still valid, as the team needs to estimate each story at the begining of each iteration, and the same procedure can be followed on each iteration, also considering team velocity (productivity) and the actual results obtained from the use of the selected development tools.

So far we are very happy with the results obtained from this combination of agile methodologies and a structured estimation procedure, reducing risks and increasing our list of happy customers.

Stay tuned to know more about Search Engine Optimization in South America!

The tutorial is extremely detailed with screenshots, but it doesn’t go much deeper into the tool fundamentals (you should wait for the book or go through Hanselman or Scott tutorials in their blogs).

However it is nice to see how an application can be build on top of this cool new technology (to be released soon).

Our guys at UruIT have been using the Preview versions of this technologies with excellent results. It demonstrated to have a better organized and cleaner code, improving testing approach (TDD) among others.

So it worth sharing this cool resource. You can get all the details in the post by Scott Gu

It also integrates Microsoft Project  which means you would be able to use all its features for schedule, performance, costs and resources management (among many others). Microsoft Project can connect to the Project Server to retrieve the available enterprise resources and schedule for each of them, which is very useful when multiple PMs are working in project management across the enterprise.

A crucial aspect in every company is tracking the effort spent by the employees in project activities. We have been using different web tools in the past, but still not happy enough with the results.

Some months ago we decided to use Project Server features for time management. Project Server exposes a web access interface so resources can create their timesheets to report time spent in the assigned or not assigned tasks.

Managers have the ability to approve timesheets and generate dynamic reports by project, by resource, by task, by period and export it to Excel if needed.

So far the experience with Project Server features for time management has been really good. But configuring it for supporting all these, is not so trivial.

It requires to set up cubes and data views for reporting, build the enterprise resources library, internet explorer configuration, and many other steps. For those who are interested in configuring this powerful tool, visit my post about configuring project server timesheets in the asp.net weblogs.

There are thousands of user groups (communities) across different vendors, technologies and lines of businesses.

Microsoft supports the creation of users groups as a way to promote technologies through the community.In today’s meeting, I enjoyed a great time with my partner and a few talented guys from several software companies from Uruguay, representing the top of the software industry here inUruguay - most of them already well known professionals and friends While enjoying some snacks we discussed different approaches for achieving this goal. There are a lot of user groups like the Argentina one, and it used to exist one in Uruguay too, a few years ago.

The group objectives would be to share knowledge and experiences with the community (forums, webcasts, blogs), organize live events for discussing about different topics related to our industry and microsoft technologies, or whatever we might think is relevant to share.

I think it is a great idea, but it will require different companies to work together sharing resources, ideas and knowledge, which sometimes is not so easy to achieve in such competitive market.Even when UruIT actually encourages collaboration between companies in our market, I know there might be a few who won’t be interested, but hopefully this won’t be a stopping issue for this great idea.If this idea takes off, I will soon post more information about this Uruguayan Microsoft Users Group (we still need to find a good name ).   

I met with almost 15 young entrepreneurs who have a clear goal: have success in life. The group is organized by roles, and is working in several projects to develop their skills about leadership and entrepreneur. Some of them already have their own ideas and ongoing business and are trying to use the business network formed by JCI +200.000 members, who meet regularly all over the world. 

I was invited by Luciano Varela to spend some time with them talking about my experiences in leadership in my previous company (TCS) and my current challenges now at UruIT Global IT Services.  

Even when I am usually boring when talking about my past experiences, I wish to have added some value to my talk and to encourage this group to move forward. I hope they invite me to some of the trainings they organize to create leaders and CEOs, as I would like to improve my skills and also meet new people.  

Yesterday I met some guys who are currently leading their own projects related to IT (PHP and ERPs development), so overall this was a nice and very productive time.  

I wish this Uruguayan young team all the best in their initiatives !

Marcelo

PS: If you live in Montevideo, and you are between 20 and 40 years old with an entrepeneur spirit, just drop me a line and I will send you JCI Montevido Chapter email right away.

During the last few years I had the chance to lead several teams of talented developers, which gave me invaluable experiences and a lot of exposure to software development processes.

 I have worked in a CMMI level 5 corporation for 3 years, and I remember being tired of following processes and completing documents with almost no tangible value for our projects but for the organization itself.

After attending to my PMP course last year, I understood that traditional development processes can be customized depending on the projects needs, and also learnt about the added value of performing some of the activities specified in the PM-Book (guide for project management in general).

Since working at UruIT Global IT Services, I have been trying to adapt the best of a traditional processes to our agile style of development. Why we need to be agile ? Because our customers expect deliveries soon, and because we are focused in using latest tools and technologies in our solutions, usually increasing risks.

However, I think that defining a procedure for identifying and monitoring risks, performing final revisions and a few quality assurance activities, estimating and monitoring costs, schedule or purchases, are helping us to have more profitable projects and satisfied customers every month.

This could be related to our customer profiles and team structure, but PMI suggested procedures are being adapted to our real needs with good results. I hope this PMP certification can help me to adapt more and more process to our organization, always with the goal of improving team productivity and customer satisfaction.

As a side note:

At the beginning, I was mentioning a challenging period in my career, and this is to the fact that I am developing other skills rather than development.

During the last year I have been working in Sales and Delivery Management, trying to reach more and more customers interested in our nearshore development services, and trying to deliver on time and with the desired quality.

This PMP certification is part of this process. I don’t have much time available during the week and weekends due to the overhead caused by my various job assignments, and I can spend some time reading blogs and news about emerging Microsoft technologies because it is part of my sales function, but I have almost no time for piloting them, except when meeting with our teams and architects.

This blog will then turn more to a personal blog, focused in best development practices, software entrepreneurs and live experiences, but also a few technology sharing.I consider myself as a lucky guy but also work committed and very entrepeneur, allowing me to reach the point where I am now, leading a company to a global vision, and helping talented individuals to reach their dreams.

I hope you get inspired from my stories from now onwards.

Cheers,
Marcelo     

This new framework for ASP.NET is quite cool. It eliminates the page life cycle, postbacks and viewstate. It divides the architecture in View, Model and Controller.

We have been using MbUnit to test the code. Having these well defined tiers really improves unit testing. We can have an object mock instead of rendering the actual page (View) for testing the Controller and be sure that all the methods are working properly, even before we finish the coding phase.

However the framework is still in Preview (2) and there are lot of changes with each release. The community around MVC is increasing every day but there is still poor documentation for some of the features. For instance, we found several issues when trying to add File Upload functionality to our MVC web site.

Last week Microsoft released the source code for the actual build of this new framework. This will definetely help to understand what is going on behind the scenes.

If you would like to learn more about ASP.NET MVC I can recommend Scott Hanselman videos available at http://www.asp.net/learn/3.5-extensions-videos/default.aspx. Scott Guthrie also published some tutorials (a bit out of date and some lines are not working with latest Preview 2 version but it worth a read) at his blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/02/12/asp-net-mvc-framework-road-map-update.aspx

In order to test this MVC Framework you need VS 2008 and the MVC Preview 2 installed in your computer.

Soon I will be posting more about our experiences with MVC.

Have fun

From MS site: “It is the next generation of SOA and Web-based applications spanning “on premise” software and “in the cloud” services”, an approach Microsoft calls Software + Services.

Some time ago, SaaS architecture discovered a new way of delivering the software: hosting it and providing it as a service, trying to catch the long tail of consumers, using the web as the distribution channel.

SaaS also introduced several questions and issues about data and application domain ownership, SLAs, and required particular characteristics for the product in order to be suitable for this deliver method. This led also into issues for the given ISV to find a reliable hosting provider for selling their product to the mass of consumers while reducing the costs.

S+S is no more than a hibryd architecture trying to have the best of various worlds.

Basically we are talking about connecting a on-premise or on-PC software package (running in the client computer, PDA or other devices) with an ISB (Internet Service Bus - which is no more than a integration hub containing a set of well defined URIs, connecting points, providing unified access to services within the “cloud” (Internet) ) + services connected to this ISBs.

This model will then allow third party providers to join the cloud of services and the clients to have a custom (composite) version of their software installed in their devices while consuming many of these services integrated within the ISB (which actually works as an ESB and as an ecosystem for various services providers). VMs are a perfect match for assembling this user needs in an isolated space and having the web (cloud) as the environment for running the applications.

 So how is Microsoft supporting all these new trends? The set of technologies with the code name “OSLO” is the answer:

 All new versions for these well known existing products will be shipped during the current year. The target is to simplify the design, development and deployment of solutions based in this new architecture named S+S.

For more information about OSLO and how it will enable you to support your S+S and SaaS architectures you can visit http://www.microsoft.com/soa/products/oslo.aspx

However, let me tell you the reasons why I have been so busy. Last month has been exciting for me. Our company is growing faster. So do I.  :D

We have some new projects, some new challenges. These includes ASP.NET developments, Sharepoint ones, RIAs , SEO and more. I am helping with some new proposals, so I hope 2008 is even better.  

What do we do ? We specialize in doing .NET Development from Uruguay. We have clients around the world, mainly Europe and U.S.

 Our prices are competitive, as well as the quality of our work and the professionals working with me. English skills and timezone is also a plus. That is probably the reason why I see a good future for UruIT.

So this has been an exciting year for me. Even when I am tired, I am happy. I hope you are happy too.

I’ll be posting some pics of summer time in Uruguay, weather is getting nice, so I am planning to take some rest during January.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a truly Happy New Year !