David J. Anderson and Associates

Channel 9 Revisited

2008-04-01T23:09:40Z

It’s been almost 2 years since I did my last interview on Channel 9. Recently, I was reminded of these gems when I was at QCon and Microsoft were giving away these Channel 9 dolls (pictured) on the Visual Studio Team System booth.

It occurred to me that many newer reader may not be aware of my earlier video interviews. The first interview is with Robert Scoble in my office in Building 25 and we mostly talk about FDD, Theory of Constraints and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement. The second interview was done on my last week with Microsoft at my new office in Building 5 when I’d moved in to the Patterns and Practices group. In the second interview, I talk about the future of the MSF process and the TFS process framework under Alan Wills leadership, metrics and objective management in MSF, as well as my new approach to agile change transition and the kaizen culture that I intended to (and later did) create at Corbis.

Channel 9
David Anderson - Writing Agile Software
David Anderson - Thoughts on Visual Studio Team System Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, Microsoft, VSTS, MSF, Channel9

Team Frustration Server

2007-10-03T10:37:01Z

I thought I’d continue my short series on first year job frustrations, with my thoughts on Team Foundation Server and MSF. [At the severe risk of upsetting a bunch of my buddies across the lake in Redmond. ]

TFS has been an agent of change for me. But implementing it was painful. It comes with so much inertia that the team struggled for 5 months prior to my arrival and got nowhere. When I arrived I put some management weight behind it and supported the rollout with resources and political capital. In addition, I focused the efforts of my own direct line management team, by announcing that our first operations review would be held in December and therefore, we needed TFS in place by November 1st in order to have data to present. That gave us three months to complete the rollout. Using a date as a forcing factor really focused folks attention and the work got done. But, think about it - 3 months to roll out version control, work item tracking and reporting! That’s a long time and major management investment. For me it was one of my major “First 90 Days” initiatives.

Since then TFS has become an essential part of how we do our day-to-day work. We also use the TeamLook plug-in for Outlook and the former TeamPlain web client access now available from Microsoft directly. We have well over 100 users on the system. In fact so many non-technology folks now have access that I’d don’t actually know precise numbers. We have vendors using the system and storing their work items and test cases on our servers. We’ve developed a replacement user interface that simulates our kanban white boards. And that user interface has become the client of choice for many of the technology folks working on projects. I hear people refer to “Digital White Board” far more often than I hear “TFS” when I attend stand-up meetings. TFS has become part of the fabric of how we engineer software. [And now… here it is… drum roll please…] But…

Maintaining and supporting TFS has proven hugely expensive for us. We’ve had to invest heavily. While we value the investment - the team lives and breaths on the utility it provides - for an IT shop of our size the investment is non-trivial. We’ve had to invest in supporting work item type definition and process template customization, and in configuration management and Team Build expertise, but most of all we’ve had to invest in report authoring. Currently we have probably 3 headcount dedicated to TFS - one on reports, one on process templates and one on build and config management. Each of those folks but especially the process template and report guys have a long backlog of work.

TFS just isn’t a very agile tool and it doesn’t support so well, the kind of agile/Lean environment and culture, that I’ve built at Corbis. We find that our highly empowered teams are making process changes weekly. Kaizen events that change a process happen too often for a middle-manager like me to keep up with them all. Each time a process change is implemented, there is a work order generated for TFS changes - any change to a work item type definition creates a knock-on change to reports. It can be 4 to 6 weeks later before the electronic system catches up with the manually maintained system. This can lead to incorrect reporting and other funky side-effects in reporting.

We are also not using the out-of-the-box MSF process templates - though we do tend to customize from the MSF CMMI template by default. We like the CMMI template because it comes with an Issue work item type and a “proposed” state in many of the WIT definitions that easily enables our triage process. We almost always customize the work item type definitions and consequently break all the out-of-the-box reports. This causes inertia getting new projects spun up and tracked electronically.

We’ve also found that we have to abandon the MDX authored reports as we are unable to maintain them. We can’t afford to train a developer on MDX. This is a pity because some of the more valuable out-of-the-box reports (read some of the more powerful and complex) are authored in MDX.

We’ve also found TFS to be a lousy tool for continuous integration and we’ve had to abandon it and go with Cruise Control.

We’ve also abandoned the use of the MSF process guidance templates and we use our own custom developed Sharepoint wiki for process guidance. While some tooling has appeared from Microsoft as unsupported Power Toy releases allowing editing of process guidance after a Team Project is deployed, it came too late for us. We’d already committed to Sharepoint. The editing and support experience is nicer too. We’ve been able to open our process guidance up as a wiki where everyone on the team can provide edits. This means we can keep guidance up-to-date with process changes as kaizen events happen. If we were stuck with the XML of MSF then we’d probably have dedicated technical writing resources who’d have a 6 to 8 week backlog of process guidance changes to update.

While TFS continues to be a drain on our resources, and a ball that we drag on a chain slowing our progress, we really couldn’t live without it. It’s power and flexibility is unchallenged in the .Net space and possibly in the entire market. We’ve been able to develop innovative agile/Lean process solutions and put in place innovative reporting methods to provide feedback and management reporting. Powerful but niche products such as Rally, VersionOne, or FDD Tracker might be easier to use, require less resources, provide better and more powerful out-of-the-box reports but they don’t offer the flexibility and programmability and integration with version control, build and test that TFS can offer. TFS truly has been the enabler of our Lean solution, our Kaizen culture and our Kanban process for development scheduling and prioritization.

So we will continue to invest in TFS and it will continue to be mission critical for us. We have some advantages that we have very close links with Microsoft and we can use that influence to provide feedback and target the future direction of the product. However, as many of you will be aware the release cycle remains painfully slow. The interim Orcas release is delayed until next year and it remains to be seen when we get Rosario. Unfortunately the fix for many of the flexibility issues we have with WITDs, reports, process guidance and process definition probably won’t appear until the one after that, if at all. So I know I need to continue to budget for three people to maintain TFS for at least the next 4 years. This cost is justified as long as we continue to get the productivity gains we’ve seen. But my conclusion is that a full-blown TFS implementation like ours is not for the faint of heart. Go there at your peril!

Related posts: First Year Frustrations, One Year Anniversary, My Approach at Corbis, Digital White Board Technorati tag: TFS, VSTS, MSF, Team+Foundation+Server, Visual+Studio, Microsoft, Lean, TeamLook, Personify+Design, Software+Engineering

Last Hurrah on Channel 9

2006-10-23T11:07:31Z

Last month during my last week at Microsoft I participated in what amounts to an exit interview with Channel 9. In this 1 hour discussion, we talked about my reasons for leaving, my new job at Corbis and some of my recent work on introducing Lean project management ideas in to MSF and VSTS. My slides are posted here on this site. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF, VSTS, Team+System, Channel+9

Lean Project Management

2006-10-02T09:38:26Z

The week before I left Microsoft I was due to give a webcast on Lean Project Management with VSTS and MSF. This was an update to a rather hurried presentation that I gave as the “vendor” talk at Agile 2006. Anyway, the webcast didn’t happen for one reason or another. In the end, I partially presented the slides in a Channel 9 interview that should appear any day now. Here is the full presentation. This material shows how to do iteration planning and tracking, how to identify waste in the process, how to buffer for variation and how to gradually improve.

Download Lean Project Management slides [3MB PDF] Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, Lean, MSF, MSDN+Webcast

What Scenarios in MSF are not

2006-09-15T09:30:39Z

There continues to be some confusion over the definition and meaning of scenario in MSF. We know this is causing some pain for our customers. It’s been pointed out to me that Scott Ambler has a definition of usage scenario in his agile modeling body of knowledge. This is fueling the confusion.

Last Tuesday I offered our new definitive definition of scenario in MSF. Scenario in MSF is indeed short for usage scenario but those usage scenarios have nothing to do with legacy from OOSE and the requirements and analysis technique called use cases. There are no use cases in MSF. MSF does not describe procedures of interaction in the system architecture. And there are no abstract analysis concepts such as actors and the use cases they perform. MSF uses very specific, detailed definitions called personas and scenarios. I hope this helps to clear up any confusion. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF

Report Author for MSF Team

2006-09-13T11:04:40Z

Do you know how to author reports for Team Foundation Server? Are you interested in a temporary position with the MSF team in Redmond that might grow in to something more permanent? Would you like to be responsible for developing the next generation of reports for MSF? If so then drop me an email and I’ll forward it on to Steve Elston the Group Manager for MSF. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF, TFS, Team+Foundation+Server, Visual+Studio, Microsoft

Correcting the Definition of Scenario

2006-09-12T11:30:16Z

We’ve had some problems with the somewhat loose wording that sneaked in to the MSF Glossary in the process guidance. The in-the-box wording has conjured up a lot of use case type imagery and confused a lot of people. We’ll be correcting the definition in the next release of the guidance. In the meantime, here is the new definition.

scenario
A type of work item, describing a specific usage of the envisaged software system by a particular persona. Scenarios should be goal directed. As a persona attempts to reach a goal, the scenario records the specific steps taken in attempting to reach that goal.

This new definition is intended to underline the origins of personas and usage scenarios from the human computer interaction and user experience design community. MSF is intended as a methodology that encourages good user experience and interaction design and is founded on requirements techniques from the user experience community. Specifically, personas originate from Alan Cooper and Kim Goodwin and Usage Scenarios from the HCI department at Virginia Tech. [As an interesting footnote: Alan Cooper was the creator of Visual Basic and by incorporating some of his work on user experience and interaction we are re-connecting with an old friend.] Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF

Implementing a Virtual Kanban System with VSTS

2006-09-11T20:30:37Z

Eric Lee from the VSTS marketing team has been busy building a demo that shows some neat integration between VSTS and BizTalk server. He has chosen to show how to implement a virtual kanban system similar to the one Dragos Dumitriu implemented with the XIT Sustained Engineering team at Microsoft. This is very cool. It is clear evidence to me that I had a positive influence on the direction of MSF and VSTS and that it will be live on after my departure next week. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, Eric+Lee, Kanban, MSF, VSTS, Visual+Studio+Team+System, BizTalk

My Trip To Taipei

2006-09-09T13:29:46Z

In my tradition of bringing you old news in an untimely fashion, here are a few shots of my trip to Taipei. I was there from August 12th to 17th and on the 16th I was part of a Software Engineering day event organized by the local Microsoft office. The event at the Grand Hyatt in Taipei attracted 450 visitors. I gave the keynote speech and then appeared on a panel with some local experts to talk about CMMI, agile and software engineering in general. You can read all about it in this press release (PDF, traditional Chinese).

This is me opening the proceeding in the morning with the keynote speech.

And later on the panel session with Nien Chen (NC) Liu and Peter Hu from Microsoft to my left and the panel of local experts to my right: Professor Cheng, Professor Chou and Mr. Hu (the first CMMI Lead Appraiser in Taiwan.)

A few empty seats in the front row but otherwise it was a full house at the Grand Hyatt.

As you can see better from this angle.

We got quite a few questions from the floor.

Here I am giving a press interview earlier in the week. Everything involved eating. I put on 5 lbs over the 3 week trip to Asia. So lots of biking to work for me to take it all off again, now that I’m back in Seattle. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, Taipei, MSF, Microsoft, Software+Engineering

MSF Now Part of Patterns and Practices

2006-09-05T11:24:54Z

I’ve been a bit slow to get this news out. Over the summer we reorganized the MSF team in to the Patterns and Practices team and moved our offices to building 5 on the Redmond campus. We now share the beautiful new collaboration space that the PnP created. The plans for this were laid when Ward Cunningham and Jim Newkirk were on the team.

Before I share some photos of the new space, I want to be clear that MSF is still part of Visual Studio Team System. What actually happened was PnP was merged in to the VSTS team. After that was completed it made natural sense to move MSF in to the PnP team. I joked that we were putting all the non-revenue generating things together in one bucket but actually what we did is put all the practices and guidance and methodology things together in one team in the one collaborative space.

As part of the reorganization, Steve Elston takes over as the Group Manager for MSF and Sanjeev Garg is our new Program Manager. There is a slightly modified role for Randy Miller who becomes the Product Planner for MSF. Meanwhile, my title was changed to Process Architect.

I’m also incredibly excited to announce that Alan Wills has joined the team as Software Architect. Alan has a strong background in methodology with his work on Catalysis with Desmond D’Sousa in the 1990’s. Adding Alan adds some significant intellectual horsepower to our team.

Mean while we have collocated the team in one of the flexible collaboration work spaces in building 5. Finally, the MSF team gets to be agile. This will greatly enhance our productivity and quality and I’m very excited about our next release of MSF - which is being targeted to coincide with the launch of the Database Professional version of VSTS (sorry, I won’t talk about dates ).

Here are a few pictures of the new flexible work space in building 5. It’s a PnP experiment to show how Microsoft can build a work environment for agility and agile practices.

This is the entrance to the wing of building 5 where the new space has been built.

This open collaborative space is mostly reserved as “hot” or “jump” stations for contractors and visiting staff.

This is my new office. The offices are smaller than traditional Microsoft personal offices. However, they have sliding doors to save space. They also have glass walls and doors to let light through in to the central collaborative working spaces.

Notice in this second one, how the walls can move.

And here is one of those. The space can actually be configured in to different sized rooms. This is one of the larger ones.

And here is another one. Note the different layout in the room.

The tables are designed to take two flat panel monitors using these flexible brackets.

Many of the walls are glass to allow light to penetrate deep in to the building. Some of these are opaque and double as whiteboards.

There are also some small rooms for private meetings, conference calls and brainstorming sessions.

We also have a social area with a big screen - ideal for watching World Cup Soccer games.

The collaboration spaces have sliding glass doors again to save space and allow light in to the room. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSFT, Microsoft, Patterns+Practices, MSF

Next Generation Agility

2006-08-08T11:39:22Z

Here is a link to a great review of Sam Guckenheimer‘s new book on software engineering with VSTS written by my good friend Brad Appleton.

I would consider this book to be about the “next generation” of agile development. It has some things in it that pioneering agilists might reject as not agile enough. It’s realistic enough for the current times of scaling to larger enterprises and programs and architectures, while still able to meet the demands of CMMI and the needs of regulatory compliance (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley). And, it does so by establishing the proper mind-set and an environment where the process and tools serve the practitioners instead of making them jump through hoops for the sake of process or metrics. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF, Sam+Guckenheimer, Brad+Appleton

Openings on the MSF Team

2006-06-22T16:14:05Z

We’re looking for some new people to join the MSF team here in Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters. If you are passionate about software engineering and software development lifecycle methodologies and process and you believe that you can be part of team that is inventing the next generation of software engineering methods and productivity then I’d like to hear from you.

If you believe that Team System is a revolutionary product and that with Team Architect, Software Factories, Domain Specific Languages, Patterns and Practices and MSF, Microsoft is taking the thought-leadership position in the industry and you’d like to be part of it then we’d like to hear from you.

We’re looking for a Group Manager/Lead Program Manager, a Process Engineer, a Lead Developer and Lead Tester to join the existing MSF team members as part of the Visual Studio Team System business unit. If you are interested in learning more, drop me an email. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF, Microsoft, VSTS, Jobs

Asian Tour

2006-06-11T10:03:07Z

I’m always concious that I should keep my readership aware of my travel schedule. Too often people have asked to meet me sometime only to find I was in their city only days or weeks earlier. I’m actually traveling a lot this summer. I’m typing this from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport while I wait for my flight to Chicago for the Lean Management Summit. Next week I’ll be in Houston visiting a customer and the following week in Detroit at another customer - keynoting at their internal project management event. I’ll be in Naples, Florida after the July 4th weekend and at the Agile conference in Minneapolis at the end of July. Most of these trips are whistle stop with little time to meet anyone. Though do look for me if you are at the Agile conference.

I know there has been a lot of interest from Asia in my work with MSF for CMMI Process Improvement and the concept that it is possible to build an agile CMMI method. I’m doing a 3 week tour of Asia in support of this. Mainly I’ll be training our channel marketing, sales and consulting folks and meeting with some customers. Here is my itinerary. If you’d like to get together on my tour please drop me an email.

Taipei - August 13th - 18th
Singapore - August 19th - 22nd
Kuala Lumpur - August 23rd and 24th
Hanoi - August 25th - 28th
TechEd Japan in Yokohama - August 29th - September 1st Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF, CMMI, TechEd+Japan

CMMI Webcast

2006-06-05T23:18:48Z

Last week I gave two webcasts presenting the MSF CMMI workshop that I previously presented for CMMI Lead Appraisers at the SEPG conference this past March. The presentation was split in two parts. Check out Part 1 and Part 2. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF, SEPG, CMMI

What I learned this past week

2006-05-24T09:29:49Z

So I’m back in Seattle after traveling to Orlando for VSLive! and Washington D.C. for IRMA. I’ve also been visiting a customer where I’m helping them with a long term case study for VSTS and MSF. I’ve got a single takeaway from these engagements - work item type definition is hard - really HARD! Walking through a workflow, optimizing it and transcribing it in to a state model for encoding in to a Team Foundation Server work item type is hard. I need to think more about this and publish some guidance. For now here a brief description of how I do it…

(1) I start by asking the business owners to sketch the flow of work using stick figures and little stacks of work to be processed. I get them to map the flow with arrows between stations and activities for the stick figures scribbled on to a white board

(2) I then make a statechart model in Visio and create a state for each station in the flow - typically identified by a stick figure performing an activity. I then create a state for each queue in front of each station.

(3) I then map all the possible transitions between states. Remembering to think about return transitions. “Ooops, I didn’t mean to close that, I need to re-open it.”

(4) I then ask for all the reasons that each transition can happen. This activity usually flushes out a few missing transitions and even an occasional missing state. So I then rework steps 2 and 3 and complete the reasons

(5) I then transcribe the Visio statechart in to the WITD XML using an XML editor. It is a good idea to start with the WITDs that are shipped with MSF and edit them.

We’re not done at that point.

(6) Next we need to identify all the data fields required and a form layout for those fields. We need to decide which of the fields will be used in reports.

(7) Now using the XML editor we add these to the WITD file.

(8) Now we need to go through each transition and identify required fields that must be completed as a pre-requisite for that transition.

(9) Finally we edit the subtle aspects of the WITD file to include the required fields for specific transitions.

We’ll be posting some white papers on customization of MSF process templates very soon now and I will alert you when they are on-line. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, MSF, Vistual+Studio