Praise for
Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System
“Fascinating! This book is packed with details about VSTS’ capabilities, and the reason behind why these capabilities were included in the VSTS product—information that only an internal team member could provide. Perhaps more importantly, each technical capability or how-to instruction is encased in the explanation of why the functionality is critical to you. The book discards the pitfalls within processes of the past while amplifying the sweet spots within those same processes. In so doing, it defines the methodology direction of the future and identifies the metrics for refining and customizing that methodology within your own projects.”
—Mark Michaelis, author of Essential C# 2.0
“This book is a must read for anyone hoping to embrace Visual Studio Team System and Microsoft Solutions Framework 4.0 as intended by their creators. One of its key themes is ‘agility with accountability.’ It explains the paradigm shift to a value-up project approach, and describes how Team System enables this shift. The many examples of how this approach was applied to the development of VSTS bring the message to life on a meaningful scale.”
—Aaron Kowall, EDS Applications Portfolio Development, Innovation Engineering
“Sam Guckenheimer ushers in the era of trustworthy transparency that will revolutionize the way we manage software development projects. Don’t just buy Visual Studio Team System; learn how to use it to drive change and reap the rewards. Sam shows you how.”
—David J. Anderson, author of Agile Management for Software Engineering
“In 250 pages, Sam has captured the essence of Visual Studio Team System. If you are involved in the process of making software or managing software projects—as a developer, tester, project manager, architect, or CIO—you’ll want a copy for everyone on your team. The book both makes modern software engineering practices approachable, and does so with clear examples of how to implement them with Team System tools. Unlike previous books on software methodology, this one does not shy away from putting the principles into practice. Whether you already have VSTS, are considering it, or just want to improve your software productivity and business alignment, you’ll find this full of insight. The book is enjoyable, approachable, and easy to read in a weekend.”
—Rick LaPlante, general manager, Visual Studio Team System, Microsoft
“Sam Guckenheimer has been one of the intellectual powerhouses and mentors for the software testing community for years. It is a pleasure to see a book from him at last, especially one that illustrates his vision as well as this one does.”
—Cem Kaner, J.D., Ph.D., professor of software engineering, Florida Institute of Technology; lead author of Lessons Learned in Software Testing and Testing Computer Software
“In Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, Sam Guckenheimer captures the gestalt of Team System and the emerging software process paradigm of value-up. Measuring the value delivered, instead of the long-held paradigm of measuring work accomplished, is core to Team System’s design and implementation. As a result, you will find that the unprecedented project transparency Team System provides improves team interaction and project predictability. Moreover, it does so without burdening team members with time-robbing overhead. You must read this book to appreciate fully the vision behind Team System and the virtuous cycle of value-up software development it makes possible.”
—Rob Caron, content architect, Microsoft; author of Team System Nexus
“Sam Guckenheimer is a technical diplomat. In a world where the guerilla forces of agile methods are aligned against the armored legions of CMMI, Sam provides a path for coexistence. This is first and foremost a book about software engineering. In discussing flash points such as planning, documentation, governance, auditability, and organization, Sam presents the case for both agile and more formal practices, as well as describing the optimal conditions for each. Even though the material is presented in the context of VSTS, the guidance is universal. Sam writes to each of the roles on a project, providing them with sound advice regardless of the ‘weight’ they have chosen for their practices. The material is current and timely, with discussions of service oriented architectures, Test-Driven Development, and design techniques developed in the user interface community. Sam’s book is a Very Superior Text on Software.”
—Dr. Bill Curtis, chief process officer, Borland Software Corporation; lead author of People Capability Maturity Model
“Sam Guckenheimer is a true advocate for the user. Buoyed by Team System, a platform that provides process in a way that is automated by tools, managed by metrics, and nearly transparent to the user, he presents an approach to software engineering that is practical and achievable without ignoring the fact that we have hard problems to solve.”
—James Behling, Accenture Delivery Methods lead architect, Accenture
“Sam Guckenheimer and I have always walked a common road to improving support between development and operations teams. Sam’s book delivers an easy to understand, process-centered approach to the best practices of software development embodied in MSF and delivered through Visual Studio Team System. The ‘waterfall’ is a failure, but Sam’s book can guide you through the use of Visual Studio Team System to rapid development with just enough process to get the job done.”
—Brian White, senior director of product management, iConclude, Inc., author of Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational ClearCase: A Practical Introduction
“Transparency is a critical element in today’s agile environment. Sam was and still is instrumental in creating the overall architecture that provides the level of integration and transparency in Team System necessary to scale agile projects to larger teams. This transparency, if used in an environment fostering trust and personal safety, can create more productive development teams while propagating the discipline of agile methods. Reporting information such as velocity becomes effortless. Now the entire software development team, including business analysts, architects, and testers, can join in the agile process.”
—Granville “Randy” Miller, co-author of A Practical Guide to eXtreme Programming and Advanced Use Case Modeling
“Can you imagine having a Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) tool for software engineering (SE)? A tool that could actually help the IT industry get leaner? This is what this book is all about! It’s an eye opener: a door to a new era of SE. The question at stake in this book is simple: Could MSFT VSTS empower our IT industry to become more of a science and less of an art that it has been up to now? Sam Guckenheimer explains not only why this could be the case, but also gives many tips on how an entire SE team could evolve to be more productive and efficient, without manual overhead.”