There is absolutely no excuse to not read Hard Code, the book version of I.M. Wright's (49) columns. Get it. Read it. Now!

Usually, this wouldn't be down my alley, but thanks to VSTS I am a WSS user: all new WSS templates in one download. There are quite a few templates to choose from:

• Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management
• Help Desk
• Budgeting and Tracking Multiple Projects
• Inventory Tracking
• Bug Database
• IT Team Workspace
• Call Center
• Job Requisition and Interview Management
• Change Request Management
• Knowledge Base
• Compliance Process Support Site
• Lending Library
• Contacts Management
• Physical Asset Tracking and Management
• Document Library and Review
• Project Tracking Workspace
• Event Planning
• Room and Equipment Reservations
• Expense Reimbursement and Approval Site
• Sales Lead Pipeline

I highlighted a few that might be interesting to developers.

I just gave StatSVN a try, which compiles statistics for Subversion repositories. For my trial, I used the 2.1 branch of SharpDevelop - which, because only created a month ago - should create a small and manageable statistic to start out with.

What do you need to get up and running with StatSVN (except, of course, StatSVN itself)? Well, the Subversion command line client (get it here), as well as Java. Working with StatSVN is really easy - simply follow the steps outlined in the readme and you can't go wrong - it even works nicely on Windows Vista.

If you don't want to install StatSVN on your box just to see how a report might look like for a real-world project, I have packaged the report generated for our SharpDevelop 2.1 branch:

DemoReport.zip (1.27 MB)

Before looking at the report, check out the LOC and churn rate I have posted below:

This branch was created from /trunk to only contain bug fixes from Beta 2 to release candidates and RTW. That's why there are spikes of activity, with no activity at other days. Also, not all developers are working on the branch, many are concentrating on developing features for the new version which lives in /trunk.

Today I got around to trying CCNetConfig, which provides a UI for editing CruiseControl.NET's ccnet.config file. Thanks to the SharpDevelop project, I have a rather good test case with a couple of continuous integration plus nightly builds:

Our ccnet.config file is maintained by using Notepad (yes, you read that right). As such, I added a few <!-- --> comments here and there, mostly for pointing me to documentation, blog articles or just disabling a feature temporarily. Therefore, you can already guess my biggest gripe: on saving the file, it is auto-reformatted and all my comments are gone.

Other than that, it is a really good way of editing ccnet.config especially because all properties are easy to edit and you are presented the documentation automatically, no more searching around for tag / attribute help on the Web.  Overall: very useful if you don't spend all day being release manager.

The versions 4.1 of MSF for Agile Software Development Process and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement contain updated guidance for Data Dude (VSTE for Database Professionals). In addition to this, be sure to check out David Anderson's interview on Channel9: Thoughts on Visual Studio Team System and "Dark Matter" Iteration Forecasting. In this interview, he is talking about MSF backgrounds, and why he is interested in scaling agile to the enterprise level - and he has a new blog post up on this very topic. So if you are interested on why the software 'guys' should be playing on the team, be sure to check out the interview, really great background information in there (oh, and don't miss out on the lean project management slide deck).

From the "Summer of Books": I just finished reading the book Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System. Great (project management) book, even if you never plan on using VSTS. As there are other reviews online (Mike's and one that includes an interview with Sam Guckenheimer on TSS), I'll simply stick with a "highly recommended".

Get it here

Currently reading: The Security Development Lifecycle

This download contains the agile process guidance that will be shipping with Visual Studio Team System.

Next week, I will be in Rosenheim, Germany for the ADC 2005. I'll be teaching the Visual Studio 2005 Team System Hands-on workshop (Tuesday as well as Friday), plus doing two talks during the main conference: IIS 7 and ASP.NET 2.0 Health Monitoring. See you there!

Although the files for this TechTalk repeat are identical to the TechTalk downloads, I noticed that the download location has been moved. For your convenience, here are the direct download links to the three respective files:

• Aktuelle Linkliste für alle Teilnehmer des TechTalks (Microsoft Word-Datei) (50,69 Kb)
• PowerPoint-Slide zum Vortrag (162,09 Kb)
• TechTalk Demo Files (6142,77 Kb)

Found in the El Reg Shop Cash'n'Carrion:

The following dates and locations have been announced for my TechTalk Tools zur erfolgreichen Softwareentwicklung mit .NET:

06.06. Karlsruhe
07.06. Stuttgart
08.06. München
09.06. Nürnberg
14.06. Dresden
15.06. Hannover
16.06. Berlin
20.06. Frankfurt a.M.
21.06. Düsseldorf
22.06. Bremen 

See you!

Following is an installation recipe for Subversion (a free and very powerful source code control system) plus additional files for a post commit hook (so you know immediately when someone else checked something in; currently implemented as a batch file) and a backup script (so there are no excuses for not backing up your installation!). Assumptions for this recipe:

• We are creating a new repository named Corsavy
• c:\repositories is your repository root
• Backups will be located in d:\subversionbackups

Now for the recipe:

1) Install Subversion (WIN32 download). Modify the PATH environment variable so that it contains the path to your Subversion installation (usually c:\Program Files\Subversion\bin).

2) Create a repository

mkdir c:\repositories
svnadmin create c:\repositories\corsavy

Details can be found here.

3) Edit svnserve.conf (do not forget to uncomment [General]). Details see previous link, however, svnserve.conf does come with plenty of instructions itself.

4) Install Subversion as a service using the SVN Service Wrapper (Note: you have to place it in the bin directory where svnserve.exe is located)

SVNService -install -d -r c:\repositories

5) Optional: a commit hook, post-commit.bat

Put it into c:\repositories\corsavy\hooks, it will be picked up automatically

SET REPOS=%1
SET REV=%2

SET LOG_FILE=%TEMP%.\svnfileR-%REV%
SET LOG_FILE1=%TEMP%.\svnfileR1-%REV%
SET LOG_FILE2=%TEMP%.\svnfileR2-%REV%
SET AUT_FILE=%TEMP%.\svnfileA-%REV%

svnlook info -r %REV% %REPOS%>%LOG_FILE1%
svnlook changed -r %REV% %REPOS%>%LOG_FILE2%
copy %LOG_FILE1%+spacer.txt+%LOG_FILE2%+spacer.txt+%LOG_FILE%

svnlook author -r %REV% %REPOS%>%AUT_FILE%

REM SET THE AUTHOR FROM THE FILE.
FOR /F %%A IN (%AUT_FILE%) DO SET AUTHOR=%%A

blat "%LOG_FILE%" -to "toaddr" -f "fromaddr" -server localhost -s "[svn-corsavy] rev %REV%, %AUTHOR%"

DEL %LOG_FILE%
DEL %LOG_FILE1%
DEL %LOG_FILE2%
DEL %AUT_FILE%

Note that I did remove toaddr and fromaddr in this script (put in the ones you'd like to use instead), and you need a file named spacer.txt (mine simply contains four newlines). For mailing out the change log, blat is used (Note: the line with blat must not wrap). I placed blat into the bin folder of my Subversion installation, so it is automatically in the search path.

6) Optional: backup, a VBS script

Set objWsh = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

strCmdLine = "cmd /c rmdir d:\subversionbackups\current /s /q"
nRetVal = objWsh.Run(strCmdLine, 1, True)

strCmdLine = "cmd /c mkdir d:\subversionbackups\current"
nRetVal = objWsh.Run(strCmdLine, 1, True)

strCmdLine = "svnadmin hotcopy c:\repositories\corsavy d:\subversionbackups\current --clean-logs"
WScript.Echo strCmdLine
nRetVal = objWsh.Run(strCmdLine, 1, True)

strFilename = """d:\subversionbackups\"
strFilename = strFilename &  Year(Date) & Month(Date) & Day(Date) & ".zip"""
strCmdLine = "zip -r " & strFilename & " ""d:\subversionbackups\current\*.*"""
WScript.Echo strCmdLine
nRetVal = objWsh.Run(strCmdLine, 1, True)

The Zip component in use is Info-ZIP, which is free. The VBS file is run from a scheduled task each night.

That concludes the recipe for installing Subversion - well, almost: the port used by svnserve is 3690 (TCP as well as UDP), so you might need to change the IPSec policy of your server to allow those incoming ports. Same thing client-side, but this time outgoing.

I think I can safely assume that everyone knows about SourceForge.net, where first-class .NET projects such as NUnit, NAnt, NProf as well as many others are hosted. Much less known is GForge, which is a fork that you can host yourself based on the GPL version of SourceForge before it was made closed-source by VA Linux in 2001.

Since that time GForge was improved, and it has reached version 4 just recently. To give you a really high-level idea of what it is, a short quote from the project page itself: GForge has tools to help your team collaborate, like message forums and mailing lists; tools to create and control access to Source Code Management repositories like CVS and Subversion. GForge automatically creates a repository and controls access to it depending on the role settings of the project.

Additional Tools:

• Manage File Releases
• Document Management
• News announcements
• Surveys for users and admins
• Issue tracking with "unlimited" numbers of categories, text fields, etc
• Task management

Tool-wise, this package can come in handy when you want to get started on a development process in your company, covering the entire lifecycle. For free.

Ingo recommended the book to me during the Connect Event in Barcelona. Because I had read Peopleware, I was game to get another book from Tom DeMarco. Over the weekend, I easily managed to get through The Deadline. Why? Because it is a really great book (even hilarious at times) and the “resulting” Mr. Tompkins journal is a treasure-trove of project management advice.

Definitely worth checking out too is the Tom DeMarco interview done by his publisher, Dorset House Publishing.

Bijan Javidi, Senior Principal Consultant at Microsoft, held a two-day Trainer the Trainer (TTT) event in Augsburg for the GLS Development Process Best Practice training. In the audience: Alexander Zeitler, Peter Koen (soon to be Softie), Bernhard Spuida, Hannes Preishuber, Achim Oellers and others (no specific order, just to name a few).

As rehashing the entire two days would be a tad lengthy, I only pick two items that are important to understand why anyone would attend such a training:

• Why Development Process?
• Definition of Development Process Best Practice

Let's start with "Why Development Process?"

• Make development
  • Predictable
  • Repeatable
  • Manageable
• Reduce costs
• Streamline application construction
• Establish standards
• Reduces risk in .NET projects

After those incentives to have a process at all, let's dig into what DPBP is - here is the definition:

• Process based development methodology
  • Ultra light-weight, pragmatic and prescriptive
  • End-2-end development process model
    • From requirements to deployment
• Minimum set of documents
  • Small number compared to UP
• Step-by-step guideline
  • How to create these documents
• Uses Office and Visio formats (UML)
  • DOC, XLS, and VSD templates
• DPBP is agile
  • Leverages many XP features
• End of prose text in development process
  • Minimizes text
  • Uses structured information
• Lazy modeling
  • Model only if you have to
    • Architecture metaphor (XP)
  • Uses minimum of everything to do the job

Bascically we are talking initialization, analysis, design, implementation and deployment. And that was then the contents of the two-day workshop in Augsburg.

Networking was commenced at the evening event on Monday, in the Welser Kuche with a medieval meal:

Want see more fotos? Look no further (German titles and description though)

The last week was slow with regards to book reading, too many things got in the way (including good weather for race cycling, which is rare in October here - I already have winter tires on my car...). Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister nonetheless was a highly interesting read; you get prescriptive advice, which can be start for you on a project or even a higher level.

They are also talking about a topic close to my heart: teamicide - I have seen that way too many times myself. They present a list of sure-fire "techniques" to inhibit formation of teams and disrupt project sociology:

• Defensive management
• Bureaucracy
• Physical separation
• Fragmentation of people's time
• Quality reduction of the product
• Phony deadlines
• Clique control
• Those damn posters and plaques
• Overtime: the unanticipated side effect

Agreed, 100%. Experienced, 100%.