1/11/2010
I have been selected once again as a trainer for the Microsoft Metro Early Adopter Program. This program is all about getting the information out to Independent Software Vendors (ISV's) and Software Developers regarding soon to launch products. For the next 3 months I am instructing on the new features found in SharePoint 2010.
The Metro program is worldwide and allows me to travel to varied places to conduct the trainings. My training schedule so far has me going to California in January, England and South Africa in February, Finland and China in March.
I've also been selected as a trainer for Silverlight 4.0 and am expecting these trainings to start up in the 2nd quarter of the year.
Here is the mission statement for the Metro program.
"The Metro Early Adopter Program is designed to assist developers with specific projects involving pre-release Microsoft products and technologies. There are specific benefits associated with participation in the program surrounding training, labs, and pre-release technical support. Participants are asked to commit to a specific early adoption project. Applications are reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis."
If you are interested in joining, send an email to metroreq@microsoft.com or check with your local Microsoft Developer Platform Evanagelist. 11/13/2009If you are in charge of yours or an enterprise’s software development training approach and have invested in online and printed courseware, you are most likely wondering why your investment in these type of courseware materials materials are not showing any return. From my experience, 95% of investments in online and printed materials are simply wasted resources. You should be looking to instructor led training to get that critical first step in the learning process, that can then turn your online and printed courseware investment into a useful tool.
Competent instructor led training is by far the most cost efficient method to acquiring skills in highly technical subjects such as software development. The biggest hurdle to learning new software development techniques is the all important first step in understanding the high level capabilities of the specific skill set. So many times in our classes during the introductions we hear that “there is a plethora of training materials available online and in print, however, I simply don’t know where to start”. A good instructor can take complex patterns and give a high level understanding of the goals of a specific technique and thereby give the student a “boot” in the right direction. Once given a high level understanding of the complex technique, it is amazing how quickly software developers can drill into intricate scenario’s regarding the complex system. All of a sudden that mass of online and printed content now becomes useful.
To achieve this crucial first step in knowledge transfer it takes a skilled instructor interacting directly with a student that has the prerequisite skill set to understand the complex pattern. This can be done remotely; however, face to face is the preferred method, so that students can more easily ask questions as they arise.
Beyond the critical first step there are a couple of other benefits to instructor-led training. The first relates to simply setting the time aside to commit to learning. This is another crucial piece of what is missing in online/printed types of courseware, the scheduled time to focus specifically on the subject at hand. We actually prefer to hold the classes at our site since this even isolates the commitment to learning even more; however, onsite training is certainly highly successful in the knowledge transfer process. Another benefit is a comprehensive approach to the subject matter. A constant realization that we hear during our classes is that “wow, I’ve been doing this operation in a certain way, however, there is a feature available that makes it much easier that I didn’t know about!” When software developers are self taught, they will usually find a single approach to get their application development effort going. They then branch off all future efforts off of that single type of approach until exposed to a better method. Instructor led training gives this comprehensive approach.
If you really want to make your investments in online and printed educational materials pay off, start the training process with competent instructor led training.
10/19/2009
Microsoft has just announced several items regarding Visual Studio 2010 and the .Net Framework 4.0.
My guess of an October timeframe for the release of VS 2010 BETA 2 has panned out, as it is available today on MSDN for subscribers. It will be available to the general public on the 21st, check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio for public download and breaking news.
An “official” launch date of March 22, 2010 has been announced. Where it is going to happen is still a secret (they haven’t figured it out yet? :-)), however, this is the official launch, so expect to see final bits ahead of it.
There is a simplified packaging scheme for VS 2010 with a new licensing paradigm for MSDN and Visual Studio 2010, highlighted by something known as the “Ultimate Offer”. As part of this, MSDN is being redesigned for a better online knowledge transfer experience and Azure compute hours are going to be part of the MSDN subscription. This should spur more use of Microsoft’s Cloud Computing platform.
Now that BETA 2 bits are available and a final release of the product will take place in March, you should start considering using VS 2010 and the .Net Framework 4.0 for developer projects being delivered in the first half of next year.
9/29/2009
Microsoft announced late last week a program to help small companies jump start (Spark) their web development efforts using Microsoft technologies. The concept is to help web development companies of 10 personnel or less with free server products and tools along with training, support and marketing efforts. A company, once accepted into the program, receives free software tools Visual Studio Professional along with Expression Studio 2 or 3 (1 user) and Expression Web 2 or 3 (up to 2 users). The server software includes Windows Web Server 2008 or R2 (when available) and SQL Server 2008 Web Edition for both developement and production.
In conjunction with the WebsiteSpark announcement, Microsoft also released Web Installer 2.0. This web application allows the developer to install free web development tools onto their computes. Upon launching the Web Installer you are given the opportunity to install the Express Editions of Web Developer and SQL Server 2008 up to date with SP1. Not only are the Express Editions available through the installer, but it also sets up your local IIS with different extensions and includes things like Model Viewer Controller (MVC), PHP drivers and Silverlight Tools projects. Finally, there are a bunch of free web applications that can be used as templates for your projects, you can sort these by different criteria including most popular. For example of what you can get, the first four applications I saw sorted by popularity where in the image below. The image also gives you an idea of the Web Installer interface.
8/31/2009
I have finally gotten around to playing with my SQL Azure token and here are the first impressions.
The big promise of SQL Azure over its predecessor SQL Data Services was that you would be able to work with a cloud database very much like you would with an on-premise one. Sure enough, I was able to create a database, populate it with tables and data through scripts and then change an ASP.Net application to use the Azure database instead of the on-premise one by simply changing the connection string. Very cool.
The idea is that you administer and program against the Azure database using the tools you now know. You can even connect to the SQL Azure database using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) with the CTP, however, you are limited to a query window with the connection sequence being a bit funky. See http://tinyurl.com/mw49ae for instructions on connecting in SSMS and SQLCmd. You can see, though, that this functionality is coming and you should be able to connect to a SQL Azure in SSMS Object Explorer just like any other database you are now working with.
Initially SQL Azure will support only core database capabilities; however plans are in the works to also deliver Data Sync by enabling the sync framework (soon after PDC), additional SQL Server capabilities available as a service such as Business Intelligence and Reporting and new services like Reference Data and Secure Data Hub.
Pricing has been announced and plays into an approach for scaling out partitioning scenarios. Here’s the pricing.
Web Edition
1 GB Database - $9.99 / month
Bandwidth - $0.10 /GB inbound, $0.10 /GB outbound
Server Edition
10GB Database - $99.99 / month
Bandwidth - $0.10 /GB inbound, $0.15 /GB outbound
Pricing notes: Size specified by MAXSIZE on CREATE DATABASE command or portal (post-CTP1), you CANNOT switch between Web and Business Editions and it is a monthly billing period.
You can scale out your Azure database so as increase throughput for massive loads or to increase the relational database storage volume beyond 10 GB or to scale out on low cost commodity hardware. You can imagine scaling out to 10 1GB Web Edition databases as opposed to 1 Server Edition database or multiple databases for huge deployments beyond 10GB.
The Gold Coast Users Group http://GCUsersGroup.org is holding its September 10th meeting on SQL Azure and its October 8th meeting on SQL Server 2008 R2, so stop on by for more information, if you are in the South Florida area. 8/27/2009
Professional Developer Conference (PDC) has become a yearly conference that is now "the" premier event for developers to attend. Growing on it's roots as a future technologies gathering. it's becoming more of an emerging technology conference.
With so many emerging technologies baked or close to coming out of the oven such Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, Azure Services, SharePoint 2010, Office 2010, Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0 this conference is the place to put it all together.
We're seeing a movement where all developer technologies are being consolidated into the Visual Studio (VS) development environment, so no matter if you are a pure Microsoft technolgies developer or also work with HTML/Javascript, PHP or MySQL, VS is becoming your tool of choice.
With this expanding "Power of Choice" for developers, early access to these emerging technologies is critical. Because of dwindling travel and conference budgets, choose wisely in selecting the conference to attend. For my money this is the PDC taking place November 17-19 in Los Angeles, check it out at http://microsoftpdc.com.
8/3/2009
The SharePoint (SP) team has released a series of videos discussing many of the features that will be in the upcoming SharePoint 2010 release at http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/sneak_peek. The three videos are broken down between a general overview, for the IT Pro and for the Developer feature set.
Really cool integration between Visual Studio and SharePoint are shown with debugging of features and web parts possible. Additionally, there is LINQ for SharePoint for easier data programmatic access and the new Business Connectivity Services, creating a visual and powerful next generation BDC operations. Other cool capabilities relate to Business Intelligence (BI) and paired with the SQL Server 2008 R2 BI new features, there is an awesome BI delivery system coming.
Something that is very encouraged is that I heard that SharePoint Online will be almost 100% feature compatible with MOSS (or whatever the for pay version will be called) including being able to put code up on the server!
Just as with SP 2007, there’ a lot to the new feature set in the 2010 version. To start getting a handle on these new features there is a SharePoint Conference coming October 19 in Vegas, see http://MSSharePointConference.com. Additionally, the Gold Coast Users Group http://GCUsersGroup.org will be having a meeting on the new features coming up on November 12. 7/20/2009
Scrum is an Agile process framework that implements the concept of delivering software through a Sprint (Iteration) cycle lasting from 2-4 weeks. By breaking down releasable deliverables into these short Sprints, it is amazing how much can be accomplished by the software teams.
A Scrum Coach is a critical component to consider when implementing Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and Team Foundation Server (TFS) with the Scrum template offered by Conchango at http://scrumforteamsystem.com. The Scrum Coach requires a varied skill set beyond the prerequisite understanding of the Scrum process. Starting with training/mentoring skills, the Scrum Coach also needs to have a holistic understanding of the Microsoft architecture and tooling options. Beyond the software understanding, the key to implementing a solution that makes business sense is a solid business background.
Training the Team
Deliver training using the Scrum template with VSTS and TFS. This training can be just for implementing the Scrum process within VSTS for those familiar with VSTS or a full blown training on Scrum and the entire feature set of VSTS and TFS
Preparation for the project
The Scrum Coach can help in the creation of a business case and vision for the project. A solid business background is required to properly assist in these very important steps in preparing a project. The Scrum Coach also can assist in building the initial product backlog that goes into defining the initial release plan along with assisting in evaluating potential Team members for the project.
Ongoing involvement during the Sprints
The Scrum coach can assist the Team by participating in the Sprint planning, review and retrospective meetings. Another valuable position for the Scrum Coach is as a mentor for any impediments that arose during daily scrum meetings. Impediments are Work Items that the team members come up with daily that are stopping them from completing their task. The Scrum Coach needs an extensive background on Microsoft architecture and tools to assist the Team members in getting over these “hurdles”, so the Sprint goals can be met.
The Scrum Agile process framework is really catching momentum as a way to deliver software projects, especially with its integration into VSTS/TFS. Take a look at it when planning for your next project and don’t forget to include a Scrum Coach in your project. 6/25/2009I was recently asked to do a guest blog regarding a study commisioned by Microsoft on IT spending attitudes. The complete article and links to the study can be found at http://tinyurl.com/mkqfqp, please check it out.
I discussed the need for a hybrid approach to infrasturcture and education expenditures. Two areas that need to be addressed if innovation is to be attained, even in a restricted budgetary time. Here is my discussion of the Azure Cloud Value Proposition.
Cloud Computing is quickly becoming a reality with major investments by Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Cloud Computing allows you to efficiently extend and scale your IT infrastructure into a shared internet environment and overcome two major investment concerns when an enterprise invests in new technology. The first of these concerns is the Cash Flow Curve of Costs to Utilization for new technology investments. The typical curve for private cloud cash expenditures is as follows:
 Typically there are large cash expenditures for infrastructure well before there is utilization related to revenue/efficiencies to be realized on the private cloud investments. As utilization of the infrastructure takes place there is typically a period that occurs where over utilization of the resources occurs, which results in another capital expenditure to give greater capacity than is needed until once again utilization out strips capacity and the whole process of underutilization/overutilization takes place again. The Cloud Computing approach smoothes this Cost/Utilization by allowing the enterprise to only purchase the amount of computing power that they need to meet utilization requirements. Another issue that Cloud Computing addresses is daily Periodicity of Demand. The typical demand curve in a fully utilized system looks like the following:
 The Y axis shows a measure of infrastructure capacity based upon simultaneous users while the X axis shows time within a day. As can be seen, the system is underutilized (yellow) through the majority of the day with a couple of spikes of overutilization (red). Of course, the overutilization spikes carry the added inefficiency of a not optimal computing environment. The Cloud Computing platform with its on demand scalability and pay as you go pricing model address both the cost curve and periodicity of demand concerns related to IT infrastructure expenditure. 6/7/2009It is now public that Windows 7.0 and Windows Server 7.0 (aka Windows Server 2008 R2) wil be Released to Manufacturing (RTM) during the second half of July and will be on shelfs in boxes on October 22. I've been predicting that July 19 would be the RTM date for a month now, let's see how close I come to the actual date.
RTM date means that MSDN/TechNet subscribers will be able to download the software at that time.
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