It is the considered opinion of some that attempting to resolve the misalignment of Operations and Development is too difficult to crack, or that most organizations have no interest in solving such problems. That said, I have seen it done and the effort was worth it. Maybe your organization is not ready, but I am hopeful that this post provokes consideration. A key thought in the process – don’t get balled up in ITIL, CMMI, Agile, or anyone else’s canned magic; This is always important, but the larger scale improvements will hit organizational barriers harder than anything else. Solve the problems you have, leverage your existing strengths, and keep the dogma at bay.

What does it look like – to have things working well? Consider an organization running managed services on limited hardware and limited budget in general. Lets say, about 150 applications on a small set of common infrastructure. The organization does real systems engineering and they have an architecture committee(Ops & Dev working together!), which does solid analysis of the alternatives – which considers network architecture, servers, costs, capacity, potential updates to machines, open source libraries, SAN storage, performance, maintenance considerations, and more. Every 6 months they potentially do a serious technology refresh and they are regularly driving new functionality in all technical areas. They run highly available and meet their SLAs, their delivery dates, and their budget… because they actually work together.

Deployments are a collaborative effort of network, security, development, open system, systems engineering, QA teams, along with business owners and release management personnel. In the real organizations where I have seen this capability, it emerged over time – but not a ridiculous amount of time. Without naming names – we will look at one experience…

First, it was necessary to stabilize the patient. Having QA testing on the weekend just to make the Saturday midnight deployment, then deploying the wrong code, having to build new code in the maintenance window… all of this pretty much without a reasonable net… Desperate times indeed. Sometimes you must get this low to get serious, it seems.

So the end-to-end cycle needed stability, because things were piling in chaotically at the end. Needing developers in the maintenance window was ridiculous… so part of the “sale” was that developers would no longer be pager-bound on the weekend. Of course, QA needed relief also; Most of this disarray was because development was allowed to get code changes in late in the week, leaving no time for proper test. They were allowed to deliver late – so they did. As it happened, we had a decent toolset; But we needed some rules.

Does this sound familiar? What’s important to note here is that we have not mentioned code reviews or technical documentation or requirements; We needed first to get an organizational understanding of how this was supposed to work. Once we had flow, then we could focus on the tasks inside. Because so much variation was allowed, the actors in the process could not really depend on much. Delivery was prayer and heroics.

The key gatekeeper here was QA; If they could not have reasonable time with the code(and not on a Saturday!), it was hard to drive quality. But another critical element was needed… one I consider the most fundamental element of working software development; The build needed to be stable… and, in this case, the best answer was to take it away from those who had no time to get it right. Build should be script-driven, done on a dedicated non-developer machine. Developers should be able to replicate the build results prior to check-in, but the build machine is the arbiter of truth. [That is - we really do not care if it worked on your machine! ] Luckily, the QA Manager had the strength to say “Enough!” and Operations was tired of deployment windows going awry.

In this organization, we essentially had 1 or 2 maintenance windows per week. Getting your customer into a (sane) minimal but regular deployment schedule is something to drive for. Managing and leveling customer demand is part of a smart approach.

Based on the once a week model, we identified two checkpoints in the process: (1) Your code had to be in for test by noon on Wednesday, with all your ducks in a row[build complete, deployed into test environment with no issues, all related records in the right state, and deployment date approved: Noon was when the report was generated for the 1pm deployment meeting[, and (2) Your code had to be Ready for Production by Friday 10am(signed off as tested in QA environment, promoted to pre-production and verified, all tickets in the right state; A deployment report was generated for the 11am Final Deployment meeting). This was the standard process. Changes, as you might guess by the fast flow; QA had time to do their job, deployment mechanisms were verified, and time existed for contemplating risk and organizing for a solid deployment window. The Friday meeting included review of all the scheduled deployments and planning out the sequence of activities, the players involved, and so on… The Wednesday meeting had included preliminary discussions on these.

Of course, not everything will obey. So we had mechanisms for the exceptions. What is important, of course, is that you make sure exceptions are more rare.

Escalations and emergency deployments were also possible – but the signature requirements were nontrivial and they usually included both business owner and senior management. Development might want code delivered… they might be real proud of what they have accomplished; but a compressed QA cycle or rushed planning effort is real risk. Operations owns the stability of the production environment and the company pays a price for outages. Process needs to enforce and make evident such realities.

We continued to address production emergencies as priority interrupts, and identified a fix first and document after mechanism for anything that could be addressed quickly and without code change. (Not everything is code) Sometimes being in the environment negated access to the tooling. Note: We had monitoring in place for security and compliance, so many production changes were always noticed anyway – but we reinforced and followed up , so that production fixes(and other updates) had proper discussion recorded and audit trails. Outages and impairments also demanded follow-up root-cause analysis.

What is important about this process stabilization is what it enabled. Getting everyone on the same page was only a beginning. Once we had a rhythm, the metrics in the tooling started to have meaning. We could see bottlenecks and quality issues and manpower challenges. And individual groups could see better how to address local challenges. Developers really knew how to code, it seemed… the system before had just kept them too on edge to do their best or to improve anything. QA finally started having their weekends back and could also now execute solid test plans. Operations found their groove, because things were working.

The simplest change of all – getting on the same page with a contained and sane process flow – enabled continuing improvements going forward; Real improvement – reduced costs generally, respectable growth, and stable builds with increasing quality checks(e.g. unit test, static analysis). By laying a stable foundation, we were able to put more focus on the special cases that always come up – infrastructure updates and migrations, technology refreshes, architectural improvements, periods of long-running performance test and penetration tests in pre-production, and so on. Simple application deployments actually became simple. We got better at production monitoring, closed long-open defects, and more – we felt a sense of pride and accomplishment.

What’s important to note here: We did this without being led by ITIL or CMMI or any notion of agile. We did it without high-dollar ITSM tooling. You should try it!

However…

If you’re installing WSS 3.0 on the server during the installation process (such as for a clean install), then you really ought to to create a slipstream version of the TFS install with TFS SP1.  Reason?  Without the slipstream, you have to install WSS 3.0 with Sp2 on your own, and configure it.  And it takes less time to create the slipstream than to install WSS 3.0 with Sp2.

So, create a slipstream and install it!  You can find slipstreaming instructions all over the web, but here’s a good one from my friend (and TFS super-genius) Martin Woodward.  You can access it at: creating a TFS 2008 SP1 slipstreamed install.

I won’t regale you with stories of the parties or the in-hall discussions, but I do want to highlight three talks, and our role at TechEd.
With all the votes counted, Northwest Cadence did well.  In addition to speaking to great audiences, interacting with really smart people and meeting some new clients, our sessions apparently hit the mark and were rated highly by the attendees!  Three of our talks deserve special mention:

• Branching and Merging for Parallel Development, a talk by Jeff Levinson on the benefits and pitfalls or various branching strategies took 3rd place in the Developer Tools, Languages and Frameworks track.
• Practical Regulatory Compliance and Risk Management, my talk on using Team System to help software development teams achieve regulatory compliance (as well as manage risk) took 2nd place in the Developer Practices track.
• Metrics That Matter: Using Team System for Process Improvement, my talk on metrics took 4th place in the Developer Practices track.

Finally, we spoke at the preconference.  (Can I say “finally”, when it preceded all the other talks?)  Of the 15 preconferences, our talk titled Improve Your Software Development: Real World Solutions with Team System 2008 ranked 2nd just behind the excellent talk on SharePoint planning and governance.

For anyone interested in hearing or seeing these sessions, shoot me an email or leave a comment!  I’d love to share them with you!  We’re representing several of these sessions at our TechTalk: VSTS Firestarter event on the Microsoft Campus this Thursday, and we’ll be recording them.

A special thanks to those customers who generously allowed us to use your stories, and especially to those who went so far as to provide us with their data warehouse and cube.  You guys rock!  Thank you!

A few weeks ago during the MVP summit, I had the wonderful experience of hanging out with Martin Woodward of Teamprise and RadioTFS fame.  We chatted for an hour on strategies for adopting TFS successfully, recorded the conversation, and it has just been released as this months episode of Radio TFS.

Have a listen: Adopting Team System with Steven Borg

Click the image for a link to Tech Ed! And be sure to drop by and visit us at the Team System booth!

CAUTION – THIS INVOLVES GOING INTO THE TFS DATABASE – DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER

Okay, having given you that warning, here’s what you want to do:

Look in the database server for the TfsIntegration database. Run the following selects:

select * from tbl_subscription

select * from tbl_security_identity_cache

The first table gives you the list of subscriptions. However, the users aren’t displayed in the table, only the SID’s. Look in the second table for the SIDS. You can delete rows out of the tbl_subscription table without harm which will remove the alert.

Do NOT delete the first four alerts (which are not assigned to a user and don’t have a filter).

TAKE A BACKUP FIRST.

It never hurts

Northwest Cadence Further Distinguishes Itself by Earning a Microsoft Competency in Custom Development Solutions and Learning Solutions

Kirkland, WA, USA – 9 January, 2009

Northwest Cadence, www.nwcadence.com, today announced it has attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program with a competency in Custom Development Solutions and Learning Solutions, recognizing Northwest Cadence’s expertise and impact in the technology marketplace. As a Gold Certified Partner, Northwest Cadence has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and a proven ability to meet customers’ needs. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including access, training and support, giving them a competitive advantage in the channel.

Northwest Cadence provides consulting, coaching, and training on Visual Studio Team System and Application Lifecycle Management. With careful attention to both the present and the future, Northwest Cadence provides sound solutions that can be implemented, metrics that can be measured, and knowledge-transfer to ensure sustainable success. “This Gold designation helps tell the story of who we are. We are extremely pleased to be recognized as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Although this Microsoft designation is quite an achievement, we are especially proud because it represents who we strive to be, every day” said Lori Borg, President of Northwest Cadence. “At Northwest Cadence, our mission as a team is to listen and be responsive to our customers and attaining this Gold status will enable us to continue to better serve our VSTS community.”

“Customers are looking for partner companies that can bridge the gap between their business demands and technology capabilities,” said Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. “They need to trust in a company that can act as an expert adviser for their long-term strategic technology plans. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, which have certified expertise and direct training and support from Microsoft, can build a positive customer experience with our technologies. Today, Microsoft recognizes Northwest Cadence as a new Gold Certified Partner for demonstrating its expertise in providing customer satisfaction using Microsoft products and technology.”

As one of the requirements for attaining Gold Certified Partner status, Northwest Cadence had to declare a Microsoft Competency. Microsoft Competencies are designed to help differentiate a partner’s capabilities with specific Microsoft technologies to customers looking for a particular type of solution. Each Competency has a unique set of requirements and benefits, formulated to accurately represent the specific skills and services that partners bring to the technology industry. Within select Competencies, there are Specializations that focus on specific solution areas that recognize deeper expertise within that Competency. Serving as a specialized path to earning those Competencies, Specializations give direct access to the tools and resources that support that specific area of focus.

The Custom Development Solutions Competency is designed for technology partners providing custom-built solutions for clients that require value-added capabilities to optimize business opportunities.

“Our developer partners enable us to deliver high-quality solutions and applications to our customers,” said Nick Abbott, group manager in the .NET Developer Product Marketing Group at Microsoft Corp. “As the demand for applications built on the Microsoft platform continues to grow, there are more opportunities for providers of custom-developed applications than ever. The Custom Development Solutions Competency provides partners with a way to showcase their expertise delivering custom-built solutions to customers, to enhance partners’ revenue opportunities and positioning them for growth.”

Microsoft partners with the Learning Solutions Competency specialize in delivering high-quality training and full-service learning solutions to help customers maximize their investment in Microsoft technologies. Earning this competency identifies partner members of Microsoft’s premier commercial training and delivery channel, making it easier for partners to expand their scope of services and market potential. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners with the Learning Solutions Competency deliver a comprehensive range of information technology and developer training services, including skills assessment, technical training, student mentoring, and Microsoft Certified Professional exam preparation.

The Microsoft Partner Program was launched in October 2003 and represents Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to the success of partners worldwide. The program offers a single, integrated partnering framework that recognizes partner expertise, rewards the total impact that partners have in the technology marketplace, and delivers more value to help partners’ businesses be successful.

Northwest Cadence specializes in Visual Studio Team System and Application Lifecycle Management. Deeply committed to the VSTS and ALM space, Northwest Cadence is committed to ensuring its clients have an exclusive advantage based on the company’s product expertise and ability to bring it all together. Northwest Cadence is involved in the current and future Microsoft product development of VSTS and employs a team of consultants and trainers who are designated as Microsoft VSTS MVP’s, VSTS Advisory Council Members, and Certified Trainers. Northwest Cadence is proud to be a part of Microsoft’s respected VSTS Inner Circle program.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information, press only:

Lori Borg, Northwest Cadence, (206) 947-0967, Lori.Borg@nwcadence.com

Compelling TFS Features to Upgrade from 2005 to 2008

The 2008 release of Team System provided several compelling features and upgrades over the 2005 release.  Most of these were in the Visual Studio client editions.  In fact, many people feel that Team Foundation Server itself did not see substantial improvements.  I disagree.

I’d like to take just a few minutes to bullet point a few of the many improvements at the Team Foundation Server tier of the 2008 release.  Some of these come from the October Power Tools release, which I consider a “must have” download!

·        Team Build

o   Multi-threaded builds

o   Built in continuous integration and scheduled builds

o   Dramatically simplified build creation

o   “Toaster” notifications

·        Version control improvements

o   Windows Shell integration – perform version control operations directly from Windows Explorer!

o   Destroy – permanently destroy version controlled files

o   Drag and Drop from the Windows Explorer to the Source Control Explorer

o   Search for specific files in version control

o   Annotate – this shows who authored every line of code in a file, plus the date the line was added or modified and a direct link to the changeset containing the modification

o   Merge improvements – big improvements in usability plus some long awaited improvements in baseless merge support (i.e., identical files no longer trigger a “merge”)

o   Single click navigation between Version Control Explorer and Windows Explorer

·        SharePoint 2007 support, including easily using an enterprise SharePoint portal implementation.

·        Alert subscription UI to simplify the creation of advanced email alerts

·        Work Item Web Access – a web based interface to TFS work items allowing people without Client Access Licenses (CALs) for TFS to create, track and update work items.

·        Team Member view – information about the development team at a glance from within the Team Explorer.  Find out who has what checked out, and what team members are working on.

·        Instant Messenger integration – rapidly communicate with members of your team

·        Team Foundation Server Manager – an improved tool for managing Team Foundation Server

·        SQL Server 2008 support – rebuild indexes online, improved Reporting Services and Analysis Services, and a whole slew of relational database improvements

·        Plus much, much more, including offline experience improvements, performance and scalability improvements, and Power Shell integration

If you haven’t upgraded to Team Foundation Server 2008, I encourage you to strongly consider it!  If the above list doesn’t convince you, remember that you’ll need to upgrade to TFS 2008 to get to TFS 2010, even if only for a few minutes.  So do it now, and get the benefits now.

To read more of this newsletter visit:

http://www.enewsbuilder.net/nwcadence/index000331069.cfm

 

Steve Borg knows, for now – the 5th year in a row, Steve has been awarded this prestigious award from Microsoft. This award is given annually to outstanding members of Microsoft’s technical community and it is based on contributions made during the previous year. In order to receive this award, the nominee undergoes a rigorous review process. A panel that includes MVP team members and product group teams, evaluates each nominee’s technical expertise, community contributions, and commitment to the MVP code of conduct. This panel considers the quality, quantity, and level of impact of the MVP’s contributions and presents the award based on their findings. Not only has Steve undergone this rigorous review for the past five years, but did you know – he was in the very first group of MVP’s for VSTS announced the day VSTS was released!

Steve is part of this amazing group of individuals who are considered exceptional technical leaders in the community. And indeed, this is an elite group for there are only 3,500 MVP’s worldwide. Northwest Cadence is very fortunate to have Steve as part of our team. Congratulations!