naked Agility with Martin Hinshelwood - Latest Comments

Re: Getting a service account for VSO with TFS Service Credential Viewer

Muhannad Ali — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 10:05:08 -0000

I know it's been 3 years since you this but Mail2Bug config file still reference this page. It doesn't work for me neither. @Simon S : die you find a solution for this?

Re: Do you have MSDN at work? Use Visual Studio Ultimate for free at home?

David Straley — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 17:22:01 -0000

OK, I'm 8 years late on this blog. My bad. However, let me point out that Microsoft's legal team has been the most unreasonable group ever. But it sounds like they've changed their tune, thank God. And here's why I say this:

I was an MSDN professional subscriber for several years back in the 1990's. I paid for that out my own pocket by the way. I spent hours reading the legal documentation, I know for fact that for *years* Microsoft made a really big deal about using MSDN software for personal use and that it was *not acceptable*. I could go on and on about this. Here's just one example: for *years* although Office was included in MSDN, the Microsoft legal docs were excruciatingly harsh on Office's use, saying that the Developer (human being) was only allowed to use Office so as to either *develop* with it or *test* with it, such as writing VB Script code in MS Word. But it could *positively not be used* for personal reasons, such as having your own copy of Word for your private use on your computer. This was also the case for *everything* included in MSDN -- *everything* mind you. In fact for this exact reason, I finally decided to stop renewing my MSDN license. The greed of Microsoft's legal department was truly over the top. And this went on for at least a decade that I know of. So yes, it's shocking to hear that they are now allowing developers to actually use their software. I'm still suspicious of it.

Re: Many organisations are lured to SAFe by the song of the Sirens

Nagesh V — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 15:33:14 -0000

Well said Martin. Implementing SAFe may not be a right thing to do especially for those organizations where the culture is not set in the direction towards innovate and create.

Re: Many organisations are lured to SAFe by the song of the Sirens

Martin Hinshelwood — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 10:25:53 -0000

This post was only about SAFe, since it is a prescriptive and un-agile framework.

I consider Nexus, LeSS, and Scrum at Scale to all be a valid part of that journey towards agility. The all provide the minimum framework required to maintain an empirical process control system at scale and are not prescriptive.

Indeed in the Scaled Professional Scrum with Nexus training we don't really spend that long on Nexus as it has do little prescription. The vast majority of the time in the 2 day class is talking about the complimentary practices that are just as applicable to LeSS, and Scrum at Scale.

Re: Many organisations are lured to SAFe by the song of the Sirens

IanC — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 10:10:21 -0000

So what about the Nexus framework? How is that different from LeSS or Scrum Scale or SAFe? Patterns can be followed and best practices can be adopted like the Toyota Production System. C-Suite executives just have to think really hard about what will work for their organizations..and that’s why they are paid the big bucks.

You can’t pay someone else to do your thinking for you.

Re: Live Webcast: The Tyranny of Taylorism and how to detect Agile BS

Arjun Ram — Mon, 04 May 2020 01:47:48 -0000

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Re: Why I think VB.NET is a better choice than C#

Biff Henerson — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 08:16:55 -0000

I have been using CASE tools and fourth generation languages for 30 years. I have been creating major business applications such as entire ERP systems for 30 years. I have learned that the higher level the language, the better. Its all about productivity. Major business applications have nothing to do with twiddling with bits.

It is very simple.

Do you work to make life easier for the compiler or does the compiler work to make life easier for you?

C# syntax makes things easier for the compiler. In other words, you perform lots of extra work to make things easier for the computer. Don't forget that semicolon or upper/lower case.

In contrast, VB.Net syntax makes the compiler work harder and, as a result, makes things easier for you. In other words, the computer works for you, you don't work for the computer.

Labor is expensive. Compute is cheap.

Its an EASY decision. Using VB.Net is way more productive than C#. That equates to saved dollars. VB.Net is the best choice.

If that is true, then why is C# so popular?

Professionals know that Beta is a better format than VHS and HD-DVD was better than Blu-ray. It didn't matter to the consumer. VHS and Blue-ray won the market simply because it was cheap. In this case C++ developers were looking for a better solution and thus C# was created. C# exists, not because it is good but because millions of developers were using C++. As such, the majority of developers transitioned from C++ to C# thus quickly outnumbering the VB developers. In the old days, C# wins over VB. Not because it is better but because of the millions of developers who use it. Assembler and C++ were used because we had to. Compute was expensive. Compute is cheap today. Throw those old tools away. Your wasting time and money.

Millions of foolish people wasting time and money when they should be using VB.Net. Or, better yet CASE or code generation tools. Its ALL about productivity. Our staff uses 1/4 of the developers that we used to using those old languages. The computer works for us.

C# is the wrong path. But millions are on that path. Low level bit twiddling money away.

Re: Microsoft Surface 3 unable to boot from USB

Soniccrash — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 13:20:14 -0000

Thank you so much I spent an hour on YouTube just to find out from your site in two mins you have to release the Vol button after logo

Re: Teams without areas using a team field in TFS

Martin Hinshelwood — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 10:50:30 -0000

It is a conundrum! I believe it has something to do with the underlying architecture.

Re: Teams without areas using a team field in TFS

Eoghan O'Neill — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 02:57:45 -0000

Hi Martin, thanks for great content that has supplemented the MS docs and helped us configure Azure DevOps. I am curious why MS are resistant to adding a Teams field to DevOps. Using AreaPath to define both system areas and responsible team for a work item conflates two concepts and is a real blocker from having multiple agile teams work across areas of a large product. It forces the users of the system to choose between having Backlogs that make sense at a Product level (if I use Area Paths to define hierarchical system areas) or Sprint Boards that make sense at a delivery team level (if I use Area Path to represent Teams), but never have both working in the system. If I modify Area Path to now have Team names in there, then I will be forced to use Queries to simulate Product Backlogs for POs.

Re: Upgrading to TFS 2015 in production – DONE

Varalaxmi — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 18:26:14 -0000

hello everyone

We are migrating from TFS 2010/ WS 2008 R2 to TFS 2015 .4/windown server 2016, So I went with upgrade option and followed above steps . after all the configuration is done, in the application tier I am not able to see web access URL in overview and also when I am trying to hit the server URL in the IE the page in not able to load properly , I can only see my name on the top of the page remaining every ting is blank.

Please kindly help me with this issue,

Thank you,
Laxmi

Re: Upgrading to TFS 2015 in production – DONE

Varalaxmi — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 18:25:17 -0000

Hello Martin,

Please kindly help me with this issue,

Thank you,
Laxmi

Re: Teams without areas using a team field in TFS

riix — Mon, 20 May 2019 15:32:23 -0000

I'll keep my fingers crossed though not expecting much progress on this; thx for keeping it alive Matrin, btw may of the code fragments above don't show (at least not in chrome or edge). cheers, Rick.

Re: Teams without areas using a team field in TFS

Martin Hinshelwood — Sun, 19 May 2019 05:59:45 -0000

I have it on very good authority that it will never make it into Azure DevOps Services.. But there has been a change on the team, so I'll ask again..

Re: Teams without areas using a team field in TFS

riix — Fri, 17 May 2019 15:32:21 -0000

Hello Martin, its been a few years later and this technique is still well documented by MS (https://docs.microsoft.com/.... Still great for in-house, but do you know if/when this will make it to Azure DevOps?

Re: VSTS Sync Migration Tool Update and Bugfix

Martin Hinshelwood — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 05:34:23 -0000

Its posible that the API has changed, can you provide a screenshot?

Re: VSTS Sync Migration Tool Update and Bugfix

Sherrill Darby — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:19:20 -0000

When I migrate a project from on prem TFS 2017 Update 3 or TFS 2018 Update 3.1, when I try to access a Test Plan I get an error stating "The parameters dictionary contains a null entry for parameter 'planId' of non-nullable type 'System.Int32' for method 'System.Web.Mvc.ActionResult.GetTestSuitesforPlan(int32)'

Re: I do continuous deliver, why should I Sprint?

Martin Hinshelwood — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 03:56:38 -0000

@SoMoS The Sprint Review is not about a Demo, its about feedback. Its part of your core inspect-and-adapt cycle and critical to creating a empirical process control system.

**Sprint Review Event**

Inputs: Sprint, Increment, Product Backlog, Current business conditions
Process: Review, discover & rearrange info
Output: Updated and Ordered Product Backlog

**Example Sprint Review Flow**

1) Product Owner presents what was done and what was not
2) Development Team presents the Increment and key decisions points that affected stakeholders
3) Product Owner presents the current state of the business, competitors, and the market
4) Stakeholders work with the Product Owner and Development Team to adapt the Product Backlog based on new learnings, new market info, and Stakeholder desires

Reference: https://www.scrumguides.org...

Re: I do continuous deliver, why should I Sprint?

SoMoS — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 03:33:30 -0000

We are trying to use continuous delivery but the PO is concerted ababout demos. He thinks is useless to demothings that have been already delivered and he has no time to check user history after user history before it is delivered. How do you handle that?

Re: Getting started with a Definition of Done (DoD).

Martin Hinshelwood — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 02:44:33 -0000

Generally before the Sprint starts. I often run an engineering practices event with the team, and one of the excersize is about creating the first DoD. After that it is reviewed and updated at the Retrospective.

Re: Getting started with a Definition of Done (DoD).

Tom Bibin — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 06:32:43 -0000

When is DoD decided? During sprint planning or before the sprint starts

Re: SharePoint 2013 Issue – After migration from 2010 user permission not working

Martin Hinshelwood — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 21:57:32 -0000

It runs per site collection. The user is used for authentication.

Re: SharePoint 2013 Issue – After migration from 2010 user permission not working

Fernando Gómez — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 15:49:02 -0000

Thanks a lot, great article! I have a doubt though, what is the user account that the script needs as a parameter? Should I run this script for every user that had access previously to the SP2010 farm? Thanks in advance!

Re: Upgrading to Team Foundation Server 2013

Martin Hinshelwood — Thu, 31 May 2018 19:29:35 -0000

Whats missing from this post?

Re: Upgrading to Team Foundation Server 2013

Snehit Rahate — Thu, 31 May 2018 02:46:33 -0000

I have read many Doc's on MS site ,but was looking for some short document for reference .Specifically on step by step process ,prerequisite etc..
I will sure let you know once i started .
Thanks @Martin Hinshelwood