Mike Azocar

Scrum-tastic MVP TV

Mike Azocar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:44:06 GMT

A while ago (before I joined Microsoft) I did a session on the Light Weight Scrum process template for MVP TV. It is a good overall discussion on Scrum as what that mean in the LWS process template in VSTS.

Check it out when you get a chance.

Happy Coding!

UX and ALM? Really?

Mike Azocar — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:51:23 GMT

Yes that is not a mistake. One of the interesting things we are doing at Microsoft is bringing the User Experience folks into focus for our application development platform. One of my good friends has started a blog to cover this emerging area. Check it out when you get a chance.

Happy Coding!

Coolest Team System Gadget Contest Winner!

Mike Azocar — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:05:24 GMT

Sorry this is so late, but we have a winner for the contest!

Our winner is Matthew Rowan whose gadget is called TFS Working. This gadget allows you track your time against work items in a very useful manner.

Go check it out when you get a chance!

Congratulations Matthew!!!

Happy Coding!

Microsoft Developer Conference

Mike Azocar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:01:00 GMT

If you weren’t able to make PDC a few weeks ago, we are now taking some of the show on the road!

These day long events are great for keeping your skills sharp and also you get a chance to take a look at Windows 7 and Windows Azure!

You will need to use an RSVP code when you register. So choose one of the following:

Audience	RSVP Code
Developers	MDCDEV
Architects	MDCARC
Designers	MDCDES
Students	MDCSTU
User Groups	MDCCUG

The event is $99 and includes lunch and some cooool giveaways.

Happy Coding!

Presenting at the Houston Dot Net User Group in October

Mike Azocar — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:00:25 GMT

In case you missed me at Tech Ed, I will be doing the popular "Scrum-tastic Development with Visual Studio Team System and Light Weight Scrum" presentation at the Houston .Net User Group tomorrow night (October 9th).

Come and see me if you get a chance.

Happy Coding!

M. Night Shyamalan should be ashamed!

Mike Azocar — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:52:46 GMT

This is clearly the direct result of the movie The Happening. These people are so afraid that the trees will kill them that they are begging for their lives. Shame on you Shyamalan. Shame on you.

Happy Coding!

Houston TechFest

Mike Azocar — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:01:41 GMT

The second annual Houston TechFest is coming up on September 13 at the University of Houston. If you are in Houston on the surrounding (huge) area and would like to come and geek out you should sign up. Last I heard from the organizer, there were 500 signed up to attend.

This year there is a great cast of speakers including my buddies Christian Thilmany (Microsoft), David Walker (SharePoint MVP), John Cook (Virtualization MVP and SQL Guru) and Tim Rayburn (Biztalk MVP).

I am doing two sessions this year one on Scrum and the Light Weight Scrum Process Template and the other is an update to the session I did last year "Making your Test Lab Obsolete: Part Deux."

I would love to meet you if you can make it out.

Happy Coding!

Data Dude GDR CTP 16 Available!

Mike Azocar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:53:40 GMT

Sorry this is a little late.

Two important things about the GDR for Data Dude.

1. No more design-time databases.

2. There is now a provider model for databases. This is how they will support DB2 when then GDR is released and how they will also support Oracle in the near future.

From Gert Drapers:

The team is happy to announce that we just released CTP16, of the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR release. ...

This release adds the following features:

VSDBCMD.EXE
- We added independent commandline deployment and reverse engineer, which can be used on machines that do not have Visual Studio installed, in order to deploy the results of a database project build (.dbschema file), or if you need to generate a .dbschema file so you can for example compare it, this commandline tool will let you do that as well.
Database Project (.dbproj) Upgrades
- CTP15 enabled upgrade of project files, but did not included updating Data Generation Plans (.DGEN files), which now be upgraded when they are opened the first time inside the DGEN designer.
Schema Compare
- You can now choose the SQL Command Variables (SQLCMD) to use during a Schema Compare session by clicking the “Specify SQLCMD variables” button on the Schema Compare toolbar. This will allow you to compare projects that are using SQLCMD variables and provide the contextual information via the variable values.
- You can now set the Schema Compare options at the session level, in addition to Tools->Options, by clicking the Settings button on the Schema Compare toolbar.
- And you can now save your Schema Compare session and reopen it again. We also added an item template for this, name "Schema Comparison"

Extensibility
- We finished the namespace and assembly naming cleanup. As a result all assembly names and namespaces have been changed. This means if you have code leveraging our extensibility mechanisms you need to update the assembly references and namespaces in your code.
- We added the ability to add your own refactoring types! So now you can create your own refactoring command and have it change all the required references inside the schema. This is above and beyond the ability to create your own refactoring targets (the sources your want to change by an refactoring type), static code analysis rules, data generators, data distributions and test conditions.
- We now also offer public access to our TSQL parsers for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, including the script generator functionality.
And then there are many more enhancements in the parser, interpreter, validation, build and deploy.

Pre-requisites:

CTP16 requires the following components to be installed:

Download location:

You can download CTP16 from the following location:

NOTE: If you have a previous version of the GDR installed, you will have to first uninstall this and then install the latest CTP16 bits.

...

Check it out when you get a chance.

Happy Coding!

Want to Learn WPF?

Mike Azocar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:53:28 GMT

MSDN Unleashed

Session 1: Demystifying WPF

Today’s applications need to do more than simply work. They need to draw in the user, and provide a differentiated experience. This means moving beyond battleship gray forms, boxy UIs, and providing a positive user experience. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides powerful capabilities to develop a compelling user interface, the kind that makes an application stand out. In this session, we’ll examine the core concepts of WPF such as layout panels, data binding, styles and control templates, and we’ll use them to develop an application UI from the ground up.

Session 2: Developing Applications with Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 and Visual Studio 2008 introduce a wide variety of new features for targeting Windows, Office and the Web. This includes more controls, a streamlined setup, improved startup performance, fresh graphics features, improved AJAX support, and much more. We’re also introducing the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services, which are designed to simplify application data access by providing an extensible, conceptual model for data from any source, while enabling this model to closely reflect business requirements. Don’t miss this lively session and learn how to use these powerful new features in your applications.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Anyone who designs, develops, or debugs code. If you are an architect, developer or just enjoy curly braces, join us.

WHERE ARE THE EVENTS?

Events are held in 12 cities across Central Region. To register for this event, please select a link below.

9/10/08 Nashville TN

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9/16/08 Downers Grove IL

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9/17/08 Indianapolis IN

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9/23/08 Irving TX

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9/23/08 Waukesha WI

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9/24/08 Houston TX

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9/25/08 Austin TX

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9/30/08 Southfield MI

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10/2/08 Columbus OH

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10/7/08 Chicago IL

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10/7/08 Mason OH

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10/9/08 Cleveland OH

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WHAT TIME ARE THESE EVENTS?

1:00pm – 4:00pm

Happy Coding!!!

Steve Andrews on MVP TV

Mike Azocar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:45:24 GMT

Last week was the debut of MVP TV. The idea behind MVP TV is to use Live Meeting to allow for a lot of user interaction with the presenter and create a recording for others to view. The presenter last week was Team System MVP Steve Andrews. Steve covered Team Build 2008 and MSBuild 3.5. I lurked for a bit to get an idea since I think I am the next one to present.

Check it out when you have a chance.

Happy Coding!