In case you’re interested in SharePoint technologies and Live in the Denver area, Microsoft is putting on a great event focused on SharePoint 2010.  Why am I, an “ALM guy” interested in SharePoint 2010?  Because the team-development story for SharePoint 2010 has gotten much better – And I’m going to talk about it!

Steve Lange provided the following description of the event.

Follow this link to register.

Event Description

Maximize Your SharePoint Investment: Leverage It as a Development Platform! We invite you to join us at this in-person event that will assist your agencies and organizations in further realizing the return on your existing SharePoint investment via Enterprise SharePoint Development. Enterprise Application Development on the SharePoint Platform enables a multitude of SharePoint benefits to be coupled with the power of the .NET platform. This combination allows the creation of flexible, integrated and secure line-of-business applications to be built in a fraction of the time of traditional development. So join us at a city near you as we explore Microsoft’s current and long term strategy for the Microsoft SharePoint Platform and supporting Development Tools. Seize this opportunity to immerse yourself in the exciting world of Enterprise SharePoint Development!

Agenda & Speakers

Raffle/Giveaways

• Zune HD (1)
• LiveCam (1)
• LiveChat HeadSet (1)
• VS 2010 Backpack & TShirt (1)

I am and its great! It is must faster, more stable and feature rich than Beta 1.  Not using it?  May I need to remind you that there is a “Go Live” license (nudge nudge).

If you are using it, Microsoft (via Jeff Beehler) wants to know you you think!  Here is the link from Jeff’s blog to a simple survey.

Say what? I looked closely at the press release today with Visual Studio 2010 and… there is NO “TEAM SYSTEM”!?!?!  Yes, it’s true. It appears that Microsoft is killing off Visual Studio Team System.  The press release from Microsoft today and the download of Beta 2 on MSDN both confirm it!  (Note: The public download for Beta 2 will be on Wednesday.)

But what about all the wonderful ALM tools we saw in Beta 1? What about all of the neat stuff I’ve been drooling over in anticipation of Visual Studio ‘Team System’ 2010?

Well, luckily the answer sounds like a rebranding effort. The tools are there but the names were changed.  Instead of “Team Edition” we now have Visual Studio 2010 Premium.  Instead of Team Suite we now have Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.  Refer to press release for more details.

TFS still exists (Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010), so there is still some stability in my world. In fact, now not only is the TFS CAL included with your VS Pro/Premium/Ultimate, but also includes the server itself.  And with the 2010 basic install you can install TFS on a client workstation if you wish (e.g., my Windows 7 notebook).

I have to say I was partial to the “Team System” name, but I’ll survive.  And so, my friends, the king (Visual Studio Team System) is dead…  Long live the king (Visual Studio 2010 Premium and Ultimate).

Just a heads up.  Tomorrow is the monthly online Team System User Group (http://www.tsug-ve.com).  I will be presenting on the new Automated UI Testing features in the ‘EMEA’ meeting at 10AM Pacific time on Thursday October 15.  Chris Kadel will presenting on the cool new Architecture features in the next version of VSTS for the ‘Americas’ meeting at 5PM Pacific time.

There is no cost for these live presentations.  For more information, check out the user group web page: http://www.tsug-ve.com

Another resource for periodic free live presentations on VSTS topics is available on the home page of the Notion Solutions web site:  http://www.notionsolutions.com.  The immediate webcasts offered by Notion include:

• October 15 @ 1PM Central: Webcast - Looking Ahead to Team System 2010
• October 22 @ 1PM Central: Webcast - Improving Development Practices with Team System 2008
• October 22 @ 3PM Central: Webcast - Looking Ahead to Development Practices with Team System 2010

Hope to “see you” there!

The TSUG-VE online Team System User’s Group has meeting archives supporting the recordings from our old meetings for the last several months.  Here is a current inventory in case you’re interested:

• August 2009 Americas: DB Pro, BIDS and Team Build with John Burns
• August 2009 EMEA: Team System Custom Controls with Tiago Pasoal
• July 2009 Americas: Reporting in Team System Made Easy with Steven Borg
• July 2009 EMEA: VSTS 2010 New Architecture Features with Cameron Skinner
• June 2009: Real World TFS with Ed Blankenship
• May 2009: TFS 2010 Project Management with Ian Ceicys
• April 2009 Americas: Advanced Developer Features in VSTS 2010 with Daryush Laqab [Slides only]
• April 2009 EMEA: Lessons Learned through Dogfooding with Brian Harry
• March 2009 Americas: Estimation Madness with Joel Semeniuk
• March 2009 EMEA: Requirements Management with Thomas Schissler
• And More!!!!

The EMEA meeting earlier today featuring “Build Automa5tion in TFS 2010 with Martin Woodward” will be posted soon.  If you’re interested, the links are posted on the user group archives page: http://www.tsug-ve.com/Archives/2009Archives/tabid/62/Default.aspx. 

You need to sign up and log in to gain access to the page but the sign-up is free, and the only thing we use your email address for is to send monthly meeting announcements and to let you know if you win a raffle prize.

Of course nothing beats being there and being able to ask questions of the presenter.  If you’re interested, Omar Villarreal will be presenting an “Introduction to the TFS Programming API” in a few hours.  (See the TSUG home page for details: http://www.tsug-ve.com.)

For those of you who read my blog and don’t know (anybody out there?) I work for Notion Solutions.  Today Notion announced v1.1 of the Notion Tools for Team System. In addition to a few bug fix, support in the primary tools (e.g., Timesheet and the Work Item Control Library) for VS 2005, we’ve added a new tool targeting prioritizing work based on business objectives and a web version of Timesheet for the non-Visual Studio users.

Development and testing of this new release has been one of our team’s primary focuses over the past few months.  We do all of our time tracking and much of our other planning and work item activities using it.  If any of this sounds slightly interesting, check out the formal release: http://www.notionsolutions.com/Products/Pages/NotionToolsforTeamSystem.aspx

It is relatively inexpensive and you can get free trials if you’re interested.  Hope you enjoy the fruits of our labor!

If you attended the “VSTS Big Event” in Phoenix last week, I promised anyone interested a copy of the slides.  So, here they are!  If you’d like the complete day’s contents, check out Steve Lange’s blog.

The Team System User Group (TSUG) is proud to welcome the TFS Product Unit Manager, Brian Harry.  You may have read Brian’s popular blog or seen him present on the big stage.  This is the opportunity to hear him speak and ask him questions in a more intimate user group setting.

Brian will be presenting on Visual Studio Team System Internal Adoption at Microsoft during the online EMEA TSUG-VE meeting.  Come hear how one of the largest software companies in the world is using VSTS from one of the biggest names!

TSUG-VE is a free online user group catering to Visual Studio Team System.  Participation is through Second Life and/or Live Meeting, so you can attend from your desk, your house, or even your local coffee shop.  All that is required is a compatible computer, a decent Internet connection, and membership at TSUG-VE.com.  You may have noticed that this specific meeting is in our EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) time zone.  That doesn’t limit attendance to that geography…  it just means that the meeting is held after work for EMEA participants, during the work day for the Americas and in the middle of the night for Asia/Pacific.

Feel free to email info@tsug-ve.com if you would like more information.

Effective this month, the TSUG-VE monthly meetings targeted at Europe / Middle East / Africa (EMEA) participants is being moved from Saturday to Thursday.  This should make it easier for Team System enthusiasts across Europe and through related time zones to more easily attend and participate.  Even if you aren’t able to participate, sign up to gain access to the recorded Live Meeting presentations portion of the meetings.

The meetings for this month include:

For both meetings, the pre- and post-meeting participation will be available in Second Life. Meeting presentations will be simulcast on both Second Life and Live Meeting. Demonstrations will be provided solely in Live Meeting. The Live Meeting content will be recorded for future review by TSUG members.

Sign up for future TSUG at: http://www.tsug-ve.com

Install Live Meeting from: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90703

Install Second Life from: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Microsoft%20Island/190/73/22

“See you there!”

If you’re interested in Visual Studio Team System and you live in the western United States, you should consider attending the Team System Big Event!  Steve Lange and other Microsoft Tech Specialists, Microsoft Evangelists and community specialists are coming together to bring a great full-day event at several locations, including: Denver CO, Mountain View CA, Irvine CA, Portland OR and Phoenix AZ.  I’m planning on attending and speaking in one or more of the different events.  It should be a great time to learn more about Team System and ALM.  Registration is being handled through Microsoft events.  See Steve’s blog for more information, to download the related PDF and for the registration links.