Agile Project Management Tools

What is Agile?

After reviewing the multitude of Agile Tools, Pivotal Tracker appears to meet the requirements.  The online Project Management tool is free for personal, small project management and it completely web based.  Other tools included:

• QuickWick on Github
• APMT for Scrum Open Sourced on CodePlex
• Agile Planner 
• Review site Agile Tools
• Airgile
• Other CodePlex solutions
• The Agile Scout tool review site
• Smartbear
• PlanThatApp

And a tool called Bug Genie for tracking bugs.

Jargon: Iterations Sprints Self-Organizing Scrum Agile Cross-Functional Generative-Rules Daily-Meetings Scrum-Manager Project-Owner Team Backlogs Tasks Iron-Triangle Velocity

Azure

Steve Sanderson gave fabulous presentation on Single Page Applications at TechDays.  Bart Jolling shows how to publish this application to Azure.

I was able to get the Delivery Tracker demo working on Azure after a few tweaks.  I've outlined the details below.  I believe the main problem was that the database gets created on the fly in code.  The Azure version never creates a database and this may be due to the "cluster index" on primary key issue.  Azure SQL requires a "cluster index" and the Delivery Tracker doesn't create one.

Issues to overcome:

• System.Net.Http version problem on my development system
• Get code working locally on the development system
• Preparation on Azure - create empty web site with database
• Change the Firewall settings on Azure to allow MMSM access
• Database is created in code, which did not work on Azure
• Connect to the Azure database in MMSM using server name and user account
• Export database from development to Azure will fail with Cluster Index error
• Primary Key needs a Cluster Index for Azure using MMSM script
• Download the proper publishing profile after all this is done
• Use "Publish to Azure"  in Visual Studio and load Azure profile

Working with Microsoft WCF

In working with the Microsoft .NET WCF Services it does require a bit of a learning curve, along with trial and error.  Here are some of my notes on the topic:

• I found it works best to create my WCF Service stand-alone with a new WCF Service Library.  That way I could use the WcfSvcHost from F5 to unit test the Service before including it on my SilverLight application.
• I open the IIS manager and select the top level web site, then perform a right click "open" to locate the proper place to insert the clientaccessproxy.xml (which I test with a wide open version)
• I used the WCF Configuration Editor instead of editing the XML by hand.  However, for some reason the WCF Editor doesn't always appear in the right click context menu for the *.config file.  In those cases, I had to actually go to the "tools" menu and specifically select the WCF Editor, then simply close it.  Afterwards, it appears in the context menu (weird).
• I had to always remember to update the "Web Service Reference" frequently, as changes to the WCF Service aren't reflected in the Reference.vb/Reference.cs file until an update is performed.
• DNRTV.com has wonderful videos to help you learn the tricks and techniques for .NET development, including WCF and SilverLight.
• I would run the debugger from both the client side in the XAML code and on the server side with the .XAP and WCF code.
• For some reason the MIMETYPE for all the SilverLight file types need to be specified in the root web site.
• I used the EventViewer and IIS log files quite frequently for debugging.
• I used the commandline "aspnet_regiis" from the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework version folder to verify proper ASP.NET configuration.

I've run into many, many gotchas during my recent dive into the WCF/SilverLight world.

Some of these links help with examples and explainations:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818364?wa=wsignin1.0

https://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Microsoft_.NET_Web_Services_Client_Examples

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xb5th1ba(v=vs.80).aspx

http://petarvucetin.me/blog/2008/06/7-hidden-gems-tools-everyday-wcf-wf-developers/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332338.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb924407.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericwhite/archive/2010/05/11/getting-started-building-a-wcf-web-service.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347733.aspx

http://carvingcode.blogspot.com/2010/04/creating-wcf-web-service-with-vs2010.html

http://www.tugberkugurlu.com/archive/getting-started-with-asp-net-web-api-tutorials-videos-samples

 dgp

YQL for Web Data

The web is your own personal database.  All the information is out there, you simply need an efficient way to access it.  YQL is the Yahoo Query Language and goes a long way toward bring your data directly to you in a well structured format.

So how do you get started in YQL and do you need to be a programmer?  Let's start here: try grabbing some stock quotes.  Sure, it looks a little imposing with angle brackets and keyword tags, but play around with it -- test it, give it a go.

Yes, the data is out there and someone might already have your data in a YQL table -- check it out.

The old way of downloading web information used what is called a screen scrapper or some other form of parsing the HTML from a web page.  The problem here, if the web page changes, the data access is broken.  Or you could grab a spreadsheet like format, like the Yahoo stock quotes in CSV format and use a programming environment like the Windows .NET framework to parse the data in a proprietary fashion.

Now you can get the stock data using a standard YQL approach.

Other sources of information:

• Gurchet-rai.net
• YQL on StackOverflow
• Andy Edinborough's Post
• Jarloo here and here.
• And the old way on CodeProject.

OData

Understanding OData and Getting Started

David Chappell blurb on OData

Building Internet Apps with OData

Producing and Consuming OData in Silverlight and Windows 7

Channel 9 Tutorial

Hanselman's 30 Minute API

Video Tutorial

OData in a NutShell

http://www.odata.org/

Related:

Semantic Web 

My May Podcast Highlights

Software Engineering Radio had a very interesting interview with Andrew Brownsword on Modern Game Design and Development.

Very poignant and brusk interview with Ayende Rahien on the topic of Criticism on This Developer's Life.  Then I went back to episode 1.0.9 on Management to hear about leaving the developer's mindset and enter the world of meetings.

Buck Woody gives an insightful interview on Deep Fried Bytes.

Glenn Block of MEF fame is interview on .NET Rocks about his work in the WCF Community on CodePlex.  He clarifies the definition of the word RESTful.

Freeman Dyson is in his late 80's, yet is mind is sharp while his speech is slow.  He discusses a range of topics on science and economics with the host of EconTalk Russ Roberts.  And don't forget the see The Fight of the Century rap video.

April Podcast Review

The Microsoft podcast sites are currently all about LightSwitch.

• .NET Rocks with Jay Schmelzer
• Codecast with Beth Massi

And other non-podcast outlets like Code Magazine.

LightSwitch is touted as the lightweight developer's tool for rapid CRUD design.  It fits in between the free Visual Studio Express and the workhorse Visual Studio Pro.

The future - one of the must interesting talks this month was the discussion on EconTalk with Gavin Andresen on BitCoin.  The virtual replacement for our troubled currency.

The history - Robert Martins is odd, yet interesting on IT Conversations.  He tells the story of coding and computers.

The Neuro Oriented podcasts have been very "Conscious" of how the brain works.  Joseph Ledoux is both a neuroscientist and a rocker who talks to Natasha Mitchell on "All in the Mind".

Book 'Em Dano

1. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman
2. Numerical Recipes by Saul A. Teukolsky,William T. Vetterling and Brian P. Flannery
3. The Art of Computer Programming by Donald E. Knuth

Little Green Men

Robert Martin can sound like a Martian at times, but his words and insight are quite interesting and relevant.

Async has arrived

Tasks are the new Thread.

Stephen Taub describes the new parallelisms in C#.

• Await Keyword
• Multiple CPUs
• Task.Run
• Chain tasks together
• Throttle
• Action Blocks
• Similar to Iterators in C#
• Buffers
• Data Flow Library
• IEnumerate thread safe collection
• Concurrent collection uses snapshot
• System.Threading.Tasks.Dataflow
• No more WaitHandle, SyncRoot or Thread
• Task - Sync Holder and Results
• Tour

TPL Dataflow Preview

PowerShell

Adam Driscoll talks PowerShell on .NET Rocks.

• Modules and Providers
• Powered by .NET
• The return of the command line
• Inline Help
• Registry and other resources at your fingertips
• StudyShell for writing extensions to PowerShell in VS
• Hooking into debugger - sample debug engine product
• API based approach as with IIS
• Nice for Unit Testing
• SCEM

JavaScript on .NET Rocks

Kent Alstad has some keen insights into Javascript on .NET Rocks.

• Field Stories - event handlers
• Understanding the DOM; Parsing the DOM
• Minification, Compression, Beautification and Obfuscation
• Tools for splitting up the Javascript code like Closure from Google
• Pre-publish bug locating
• Optimization - waiting for the DOM to load (main bottleneck in Javascript)
• HTML5 - Websockets, Canvas and Videos
• MVC paradigm for Javascript has the Viewer on the browser
• Less on server, more on client
• Tricks - if you can scroll, the DOM is ready
• jQuery - build on the shoulder of giants
• Great distribution system and language of the browser

LightSwitch

We all know what a Light Switch does, but we may need a reminder of its power.  LightSwitch is also Microsoft's newest turn key web/data development tool as Jay Schmelzer explains on .Net Rocks.  Easy of development is the focus using boiler plate code.  Read Beth Massi's article in Code Magazine.

• 5 data access stacks at your finger tips
• Visual Studio/MVC based
• Coding is required
• .NET/Silverlight

Faking It

Do you ever just fake it?

In the day, I wood fake it in Fortran.  Then I learned to fake it in Perl.  Now I fake it with PV-Wave.

March Podcast Review

The Project Management Podcast had a special Pulse review of Project Management bloggers.

Refactoring, In other words...

Refactoring: coding metrics, extracting methods, patterns, factory...or in other words "making my code better in small increments".

Refactoring is not a solution, rather a mindset.  While you have the hood open to check the oil, why not polish and clean up a bit.

HTML5

Ian Hickson, editor of both the W3C and WHATWG.  I can only imagine that his insanely ugly website is a parody of the fact that he is the keeper of the HTML standard.

• Widgets
• Canvas
• Webforms
• Polyfill
• XHR
• Content editable
• Drag and Drop
• Web storage (local)
• Webkit (open source)

Resources:

• Official W3C
• WHAT?
• Diff
• The doctor is in.
• Cheatsheet

IDEs

• WebStorms

ClickOnce

ClickOnce deployment solves a number of maintenance and logistics issues, while adding a few new concerns.  No longer does a warm body need to run around updating PCs.

But how do you update and track various versions?  The manifest contains information about a specific version of a ClickOnce application and the various supporting assemblies in a human readable XML format.  The "assemblyIdentity" element specifies the primary assembly for the application while the "dependency" element lists all the prerequisites assemblies.

The manifest is also accompanied by a precompiled manifest named *.CDF-MS.

Walkthrough: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xc3tc5xx(VS.80).aspx


Look into using MSBuild to publish the ClickOnce to the Web.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165431(v=vs.80).aspx

For concurrent deployments, make sure to change the assembly name and product name.

http://robindotnet.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/clickonce-installing-multiple-versions-concurrently/

Stencils

The UML Stencils for Visio: http://www.softwarestencils.com/uml/index.html