Agile Tips

With the launch of Visual Studio 2010 last week I thought it would helpful to start a series of blog posts on how you can make the most out of the TFS 2010 process templates.

If you’ve been following any of the beta releases you know that MSF Agile 5.0 is a big release as far as process templates go.  I blogged about this late last year after the Beta2 version of the template was released.  In short, the template has been completely overhauled to better match the current trends in the Agile software development community.  From reports, to work item types, to new dashboards, and even process guidance… MSF Agile 5.0 is brand new!

I’ll update this post regularly with a table of contents tips that you can use to get the most out of your projects using the new template.

• Tip #1 – Epics and Themes
• Tip #2 – Simple User Story Titles
• Tip #3 – Story Point Scales
• Tip #4 – Plan Using Velocity
• Tip #5 – Learn to Love Acceptance Criteria
• Tip #6 – Effective Daily Stand-ups
• Tip #7 – Learning From the Past

If you’ve got questions about the template or would like to suggest a future “tip” I’d love to hear from you.

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 13, 2010
  We are currently using TFS 2008 and upgraded recently to VS 2010 and are dying to utilize all the features you've just mentioned above.  We haven't upgraded to TFS 2010 and MSF Agile 5.0 because we heard that migration is difficult and that you lose everything you've put in there to date.  Do you have any suggestions or can you point me in the right direction on how to migrate?Thanks - D.
• Anonymous
  December 13, 2010
  D - upgrading to TFS 2010 is not a problem and you can read more about it here in the TFS 2010 upgrade guide. There is no data loss... all data remains intact. vs2010upgradeguide.codeplex.comChanging your existing process to match the new MSF Agile 5.0 process could be more of a challenge depending on the structure of your current template. To change your process you have two options:Modify your existing project to replicate the changes/features in MSF Agile 5.0Create a new project and migrate your data from the existing project. We do provide an integration toolkit to help migrate data from project to project.  You can read more about it here:  tfsintegration.codeplex.com Let me know if you have more questions, I'm happy to help.Thanks.Aaron