SSW Microsoft Team Foundation Server (VSTS + TFS) Suggestions

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Microsoft Team Foundation Server

1. Embrace the App store

   TFS has the potential to be a better platform for creating apps than SharePoint or CRM. Clearly Microsoft can't give us every feature we need; so we need third parties to fill the gaps. What we need is the ability to:
   • Create TFS Tables
   • Use Linq to TFS (and no, we can't require team explorer to be installed - think about hosting)
   • Create packages (e.g. a .WSP)
   • Create an app store with verification (like Apple)

2. Embrace consistency across Microsoft products

   This one probably goes beyond Brian Harry. We need Steve Balmer to make the teams give us consistent experience when we:
   • Create TFS tables, SharePoint lists or CRM entities
   • Create a TFS project collection, SharePoint site collection or CRM organization
   • Write code using Linq to TFS, Linq to SharePoint, Linq to CRM
   • Create Packages (they should all use the WSP technology)
   • When power users customize using TFS Designer, SharePoint Designer or CRM Designer

3. Embrace components for Applications

   Give us a .dll to include in our apps that help users report problems and help developers know what is important. Functionality should give us:
   • An unhandled exception logger
   • Reports - showing the most important bugs
   • Adding KBs
   • Message boxes updating to include links to those KBs
   • Feature voting from forms
   • Reports - showing the most important features
   • Work items to include field for "web pages/Windows forms"
   • Web pages/Windows forms to show associated work items
   • Examples of when to use "Fix It"
     e.g. When a user needs to change a setting in Tools options

4. Embrace Scrum

   The Agile process template in 2010 has improved considerably. It should be enhanced further so it supports Scrum, without having to read any books on it:
   • Fix the Agile process template. Don't create a new one
   • Help planning prioritization
     e.g. $100 - for stakeholders
   • Help estimating
     e.g. using planning poker- for developers
   • Help the daily scrum - like Telerik's work item manager and burndown - for developers
   • Help the Retro - for the Scrum Team

5. Embrace TFS compare

   Process Templates are very painful to manage. Currently we have a full-time employee helping customers move from process template to another. Give us a way to:
   • Migrate Process Templates automatically
   • Migrate TFS process templates manually (allowing us to build a mapping)
   • Submit to a "Process Template App Store" (that allows a business model of, say, 99c per mapping use)

6. Embrace Versioning and Branching Guidance

   Improve the process template to: (See below for proposed screencaptures)
   • Select and maintain a branching strategy
     E.g. If you are using Scrum you need to create a Sprint branch as the Product Owner can cancel the sprint at any time. You do not want to be left with a half coded Sprint in your baseline code.
   • Select and maintain a release strategy
   • Help create a Service Pack
   • Help create a Hot Fix

7. Embrace web 2.0

   Every Microsoft customer using TFS should have a site called TFS.northwind.com and it should be more important to them than mail.northwind.com. It would be the portal they go to for work and the portal their customers go to. Please improve the Web Access offering (TFSWA):
   • Public and free
   • Do away with Jira
   • Do away with User voice
   • Work with the Silverlight team to replace their Silverlight User Voice with TFS
   • Work with the SharePoint team to implement a User Voice like app
   • Rename TFSWA to TFS Voice
   • Make beautiful, add lots of Silverlight and jQuery

8. Embrace and extend Connect

   • Categorization

9. Embrace KBs and all communication

   Outlook is a powerful tool and should unlock its secrets so everyone benefits. Do this by having:
   • We need an Outlook client. Team Companion is great but it's not from Microsoft and the majority of customers only use stuff that is "out of the box."
   • A Team Project should create a SharePoint KB site
   • A Team Project should create a SharePoint team discussion site
   • Outlook email integration needs to provide easy integration by:
     
     • Public [Team Project] -> Goes into a team discussion
     • Button [Insert Existing KB]
     • Create KB -> Creates a KB

     

     Figure: Outlook emails need a TFS tab to provide easy integration to KBs and making this response public

     
     

     

     Figure: Click Public and the response will be for all to read

   • Only be successful if you can update from the webpage or an email client. That means you need Facebook-style notifications (keeping the same subjects) when entries are made to these pages.

10. Embrace Performance by Piggy-backing on SQL Server

    Two things should be done:
    • Support transactional replication SQL Server (this will allow partial replication)
    • The next version of SQL Server (aka SQl Server 2012) will support reading from the database mirror

11. Embrace Samples and Guidance

    • Create TFS sample project
    • Create TFS project for Tailspin
    • Create TFS sample project for Northwind

12. Embrace a series of Miscellaneous Improvements

    • Deleting projects currently leaves debris that you can see in the warehouse even after rebuilding

13. TFSWA - Allow the world end users to report bugs into TFS

    I want every bug in the world to have a unique URL.

    I want every company that owns TFS to have the equivalent of the Microsoft connect site.

    Today too many feature requests and bugs are discussed in conversations of people's blogs. I have a dream that all companies using TFS should have their current bugs and feature requests on the web at tfs.northwind.com. Then in their blog posts, people should reference the source - the public URL of the bug/suggestion.

    The portal must:

    • Have a unique URL for every bug
    • Allow you to subscribe to be notified when a fix has been released
    • Have voting

    Note: An Internet connector license costs approximately USD $15K which is too costly for anyone who wants to make TFS use, as ubiquitous as blogs are on the Internet.

    

    Figure: Atlassian have it right with their feature requests portal

14. Work Items - Paste images in the description (use Silverlight or Click Once)

    In TFS OWA give us a real "edit" button. Give us a rich client experience using Silverlight. (Or Click Once - like Report Builder inside SQL Reporting Services) and you can give us a great Windows Forms Control for Text Editing.

    Here is some free .NET code for a Windows Forms based text editor with HTML output

    Or use a 3rd Party editor. Here is one Aspose.Editor (doesn't appear to be anything better)

    

    Figure: TFSWA needs a HTML description field. E.g. the Aspose.Editor allows you to paste in an image. See it in action yourself

15. Work Items - Paste images in the description

    (Just like the above suggestion) We need VS.NET to also give us a great HTML work item.

    There needs to be an easy way to embed a screenshot into the details of a work item instead of having to attach it to the work item - ideally it should be as easy as a HTML email in Outlook.
    
    It must have 100% parity with Outlook - that is I should be able to copy from outlook and paste into a work item (complete with exact formatting and images).
    Note: If you can't do that, then show an IE control with a preview of the .msg file.
    
    Figure: We also need the same in VS.NET. The Work Item description field needs to support HTML and images. That is 100% parity with Outlook so we could copy from an Outlook email and paste into VS.NET
    

16. Work Items - Embed videos in the description (like you can with Live Writer)

    Please embed videos in the description like you can do this in Live Writer.

17. Create project Wizard - Give Guidance

    Note: This idea was conceived over a few reds with Adam Cogan and the strategic thinker Richard Hundhausen
    
    Get the New Project Wizard to help developers avoid common mistakes e.g. labeling, versions, patching after release. This great new Wizard should help those who have not read a book about SCM (source control management) design patterns.
    
    

    

    Figure: Enter your features and it will create your iterations

    
    

    

    Figure: Enter your promotion levels and folder structure will be created - it will also create a document that developers/IT admins are to follow when they complete coding

    
    

    

    Figure: How do you isolate your work?

    
    

    

    Figure: How do you do Hot Fixes?

    
    

    

    Figure: How do you do your version?

    
    

    

    Figure: Finish

    
    

18. Build Alerts - When a Build breaks - send an email that shows all changes since last successful build

    When a developer starts work at your company, and you want to watch what they code for a few days, the easy thing to do is this.

    

    Figure: You don't want this. A mail for every check-in, so when the build breaks you can look back and see who broke the build. Even the great Grant Holliday used this approach.

    Instead we need an option that sends us an email that includes the change sets as part of that build, with either:

    • Links to the diff in TFSWA, or
    • .diff attachments

19. Explorer Integration* Fixed by Microsoft TFS Power Tools 2008 *

    Explorer integration please:

    • The explorer integration of what state things are in (modified, committed, etc)
    • Who is the latest author who has worked on each item
    • What was the last revision the file was modified in

    Note: Scott Hanselman has got this working with the CodePlex TFS Bridge - see How To: Use the SVNBridge to get TortoiseSVN working with CodePlex

    Note: The CodePlex team at Microsoft is rumoured to unleash a Subversion to TFS Bridge. Essentially, it's Subversion on the outside, creamy TFS filling on the inside. If it works, it's quite an interesting technical accomplishment - see CodePlex To Roll Out TortoiseSVN Support

    Note: Ben Day has a commercial third party add - see explorer integration with TFS

    
    Note: this screenshot is from Subversion.
    
    
    Figure: Subversion has a very nice explorer integration which we need in TFS (especially when using it for projects that don'tused VS.NET)

20. VSS we need the backend to be SQL Server? * Fixed by the release of Microsoft TFS *

The speed is so slow it is unusable over a VPN.

21. Backup - Backup and a restore option?

    We do not have any backup and restore option in TFS. I would like it to be consistent with SQL Server.
    Therefore I would expect it to go to a Team Project, right click, and choose "Backup".
    PS: Of course I want everything, Source Code, SharePoint, Reporting Services reports etc.
    

    
    Figure: 'Back Up' and 'Restore' options should exist under a Team Project right click menu (and ideally for on Server menu too)
    
    
    Figure: SQL Server databases have 'Back up' and 'Restore' option - so should TFS
    

    I want to right click "Back Up" and put the file on the web.

    Someone else should be able to download and restore. Just like SQL Server :-)

    It should include:

    • Work items
    • SharePoint docs

    Note: Before archiving it should check for linked work items + checkins across multiple projects, and deal with it, or give validation.

22. Source Control - When comparing differences between two versions, you should be able to edit in place

    TFS's differences comparison utility is pretty much the same like VSS's. It is still a read-only UI.
    
    Figure: Team Foundation Server's differences comparison utility should allow in place editing

    Note #1: Until they fix this, you need to configure VS.NET to use Beyond Compare - the best one (or another one like WinMerge or one of the many other diff/merge tools)

    Note #2: Consider DiffDog for XML.

23. Source Control - Annotate should enable to edit in place

    Annotate should allow us to:

    • Edit (expect to see it fixed in 2010)
    • Show deleted lines (not likely in 2010)
    • Have a slider to go back and forth in time (I am dreaming!)

24. Show file sizes in source control explorer (useful when on a slow connection)

    The "Get Progress" dialog has been showing for the last 5 minutes. It would be nice to know how big the file is that I'm getting.

    The dialog should show the progress as a % of the file size transferred and show how many megabytes to go.

    

    Figure 1 - Bad Example - The user can't see how long they have left, before the "Get Latest" is finished

    

    Figure 2 - Good Example - TeraCopy shows the user which files are completed, how much has been transferred and how much to go

25. Source Control - It should automatically merge offline edited files * Fixed by Microsoft in TFS *

    It should automatically merge offline edited files. Currently when you come back onto the network it doesn't merge, instead it asks "Which file do you want to keep?" e.g. If you edit one function online and edit another function one offline why not just merge them?

26. VSS - It needs to able to accept connections over the Internet * Fixed by Microsoft in TFS *

    I want to use my source control system over HTTP.

27. VSS - Update File Dialogs * Fixed by Microsoft in TFS *

    The file dialogs are very old and badly need an update. Currently even UNC's are time consuming to access.

28. VSS - make it scalable * Fixed by Microsoft in TFS *

    Update: It is good to see the new Microsoft TFS has solved most of the big problems I had with VSS, the ones left are much smaller issues in comparison. Today Visual Source Safe (aka VSS) is only targeted towards the needs of individual developers or small developer teams. Microsoft has created a new source control system named Team Foundation Server, a part of Visual Studio Team System. This product has addressed just about all of VSS's shortcomings and make it suitable for larger, disconnected teams.

    
    Until Microsoft makes a version of SourceSafe that works with SQL Server, we have to rely on alternative, 3rd party tools for source control.
    
    

29. SharePoint Site - Make the Project icons clearer (little one)

    The project icons need to be clearer.
    
    
    Figure: The icon for project document and excel document are too similar
    

30. SharePoint Site - Support different colors for visited links (little one)

    The SharePoint site should support different colors for visited links.
    
    
    Figure: The visited links should be in different colours
    
    We have a rule about this in Rule to Better Website - Navigation: Do you make sure users can see Visited Links?

31. CRM Integration in TFS

    Work items should be able to have a link to a Customer in a CRM system.
    If you are using Microsoft CRM then it should work out of the box, if you aren't, then it should be able to work by providing just a connection string and SQL query to the customer's table (in the Team Project Properties).

32. Work Items Alerts - Get notified when a bug is fixed

    Customers should be notified with all details which:

    • Can be read offline in an email
    • Informs them when a bug is fixed
    • Informs them when the release comes out

    This needs an Outlook client, see Rules to Better Project Management with TFS: Development & Reporting

33. Other - TFS Version

    In SQL Server I run SELECT @@version to get the version number. In TFS it's too hard to find out whether the SP1 is installed. Users should be able to run a command line to get the version.

    E.g. "devenv.exe /version" or "tfs.exe /version"

    Plus it should return the type eg Standard, Enterprise

34. Timesheets - Solution for Time Sheets that kills off Project Server

    

    Figure: Almost every company I have visited has a 'home brew' solution to timesheets, with a long list of things they need.

    The time sheets solution that Microsoft supplies should:

    • Be able to be generated automatically from the work items
    • Not just for developers. The solution should be able to be used by accountants and lawyers if they want timesheets.
    • Work inside VS.NET + TFSWA (but use Silverlight)
    • Integrate with CRM (or a SharePoint web part) so a user can enter timesheets here if they choose
    • Kill off the timesheet part of Project Server

    P.S. If you won't fix this and want us to use Project then help us. I have spoken to many, many developers and I can say that most don't know what MS Project is or anything about the integration with TFS. It would be nice if there is a video showing us how to use it for timesheets

    It would be great if it can cater for consulting companies (e.g. software firms, engineering firms, accounting firms) and require everyone on the team to enter 40 hours.

    The goal should be that all developers on a project enter their 40 hours a week into TFS?

    Developers will hate you for it. Many companies outside the Microsoft world will love you for it... Plus you will get great reports

    There are a couple of 3rd party solutions today:

    

    Figure: Timesheet solution #1 - Chris Menegay's http://www.notionsolutions.com

    

    Figure: Timesheet solution #1 - Chris Menegay's http://www.teamexpand.com/product/tx-chrono

35. Build - A built in workflow to deploy a version to staging/production

    There needs to be a work flow integrated in TFS so you can send a 'test please' email with a link to "Test Passed" or "Test Failed".
    Then you could remove the permission for a developer to put a version into production without a "Test Passed" confirmation.
    The workflow would mean that once the tester 'approves' the test, it moves it from 'Test' to 'Staging/Production'. No developer involved...

    E.g. Today it can be done with TFS Deployer Getting Started with TFS Deployer

    

    Figure: A developer should not be able to select "Production" until this build has been passed

36. Build - workflow events

    Give us a few events.

    So I can build a workflow, to automatically deploy when I change the Build Quality to "Staging/Production".

    Upon that event it would run a WF/MsBuild/Powershell script to deploy it.

    E.g.

    if event(newbuild) compile run tests (the current build process) if event(staging) build ready for staging deploy to staging + send an email

37. Build - be consistent

    I don't want to become good at WF (preferred), MSBuild and Powershell. I can live with 2 but not 3.

38. TFSWA - Federated Authentication - Make TFS use Cardspace for Authentication

    It would be nice if TFS could use Cardspace for authentication instead of using Integrated Windows Authentication.

    This would allow one click authentication e.g. In a non domain connected scenario like hosted TFS.

    Note: Also support Open ID (but this is a low priority)

39. SharePoint - Link the SharePoint Document Library to Source Control

    It would be nice to be able to check a file into source control and be able to have it appear as a document on SharePoint as well.
    The best solution for this is: when a SharePoint user requests a document, SharePoint gets the latest version from Source Control and gives it to the user. In this way, non developers can also access documents in Source Control without having to know about TFS.

    Note #1: Unfortunately this solution gives 2 sources of truth - but I will think of it in TFS - the proper source control system.

    Note #2: I hate this doubling up - the disk space issue - but it is better than only having them in SharePoint

40. New Project - Be able to choose services for a new team project

    When creating a new team project, users should be able to choose what services are available.
    This applies to creating a SharePoint Portal, Reporting Services Portal and Source Control.

    We need to have TFS solve the scenario of creating a help desk system (for a team that only want the work items)

    So this should be a ticketing system - so you need a KB system as well

41. Source Control - Rollback should be available in the GUI

    At the moment, the only way to roll back changes is to run a command line script (See Rules to Better Project Management with TFS: Do you know how to rollback changes in TFS?) It would be nice if we could right click a file and do the same thing. Much like the Get Specific Version command

    Note: I am predicting that Martin Woodward will beat Microsoft to this

    
    
    Figure: We are missing a Rollback choice

    Then we could specify which revision to get based on a changeset number, date or label.

    
    

42. Other - Make TFS support multi-tenancy (almost resolved in 2010)

    Note: Expected to be pretty much done in 2010, but reporting cannot leak out data. Sometimes one team will not want another team to see their work items.

    This is the reason that we don't see Hosted TFS (other than one attempt by Readify).
    Importantly the implementation should be consistent with all other teams that invest heavily in hosting scenarios. So I would like to see a consistent implementation for Exchange Server, WSS and CRM 4

    

    Figure: Work with the CRM 4 team to make both experiences consistent

43. Help me refresh the TFS Cube

    There should be a context menu on the team project to save you learning how to do it the hard way

    

    Figure: We need an option on the right click menu to "Reprocess data warehouse"

    Note: Since I triggered this manually I want to be informed when the Process has been completed.

44. Cube - Add the time it takes to run unit tests into the TFS Cube

    In the test results table there is a start time and a finished time but there isn't a duration. However, duration in the .trx file is the key value users want to know.

    

    Figure: should be able to see a graph like this based on the cube

45. Cube - Add the estimated time into the Data Warehouse

    Need this field in the data warehouse.

    Note: I can live without it not being in the cube.

46. Cub - Sort dimension Date in TFS Cube on key column

    Update: Need to test this in 2010 - Data should be under 'Work item' too

    

    Figure: Microsoft standard TFS Analysis database TFSWarehouse

    

    Figure: Pivot table based on "Team System" cube does not allow sorting on Month (it should be sorted from December to January)

47. Cub - Validate dates in the Date dimension

    

    Figure: Invalid dates in Microsoft cube "TFS System" in the dimension "Date"

48. Source Control - Make Shelving an option when closing a solution or project

    If you have set Visual Studio to check in everything when closing a solution or project as per the below:

    

    Figure: Check in everything option is checked

    The screen shown when closing should also include the ability to shelveset rather than check in (commit) the changed files to the repository. The work may still be in progress and should be saved somewhere accessible by others, not just stored on the local machine.

    

    Figure: There is no option to shelveset changes

49. Reports - Add a report about Created vs Resolved

    I would like a report about Created vs Resolved issues like below:

    

    Figure: The report which shows the created issues number vs resolved issues number. Green are successful days - so you expect lots of red at the beginning, and green at the end. This way you can see when the release is coming to an end.

50. Reports - Add a built in report 'Release Notes'

    

    Figure: TFS should include a 'Release Notes' report that we can include on our web pages

    

    Figure: Also give a 2nd even nicer 'Release Notes' report, with grouping for bugs and features

51. Reports - Add a report that shows developers estimates vs actual (their accuracy in estimating)

    

    Figure: Here is data for Joe Blow. I want to see the best estimator by plotting each task with the estimate vs actual + I would like to see an estimator getting better over time.

52. Build - give me a GUI as good as Final Builder or Visual Build PRO

    Building setup packages is painful. They should generate a MS Build script so they are seen as the best GUI to use.

    I want it like SSIS. I drag items from the toolbox on the left.

    e.g. "Clean Workspace"

    "Get"

    "Run Tests"

    Etc

    On Red - "Send an email"

    Note: I am expecting Buck Hodges to deliver in 2010

53. Source Code - Team Explorer - Give me a context menu

    I want a content menu in Source Control Explorer "Open with..." and "Open with Notepad" and "Copy Local Path" and "Copy Server Path"

    

    Figure: We need 4 additional options

54. Reports - Give me a report that shows the priority and the quality of the current features

    

    Figure: We need a report like this in Excel and Reporting Services (built in or in Power Tools)

    Please add in as a reporting services report - not just Excel. And it needs a legend included:

    Legend:
    Yellow = They're OK
    Red = They don't have bandwidth to do that feature

55. Work Item - Add a hyperlink control so a click takes me to the file **CHECK IF Fixed in Rosario

    Note: Ignore this if you can switch this form to use WPF - because then I can do it myself really quickly

    

    Figure: TFS has better add hyperlink can takes us to the file

56. Work Item - Help me enter time taken + give me a report of Productive time

    I want to resolve a work item, by the work item asking me for the time taken. While I am looking at it, a window under it would be playing what I have been doing since the last work item.

    

    Figure: Help me enter time taken. A quick fix would be to buy TimeSnapper or RescueTime

    

    Figure: I would like to see a report like this across my team

57. Other - Add Users into TFS server, SharePoint server, and SQL Reporting Services server with just one form

    Note: Add one more Analysis Services. In 2010 we might see Excel reports using the cube. If so then these Project managers will need a reader role added too

    • Integrate "Team Foundation Server Administration Tool"
    • So you don't need Team Foundation Server Administration Tool (ignore that pages says beta. Just follow the link to CodePlex)

58. Other - Add the TFS BPA into the default install

    Bill Essary from Microsoft produced the great BPA. It should in on the default install, on the start menu. Do more:

    1. Include it in default install, on the start menu
    2. In 2010 give us a TFS Manager - MMC thing - and make a right click "Check Health"
    3. Make it do more. e.g. you are running over privileged accounts (tfsservice needs the loginasservice right only)

    More info TFS BPA - View 2: Seeing the tool from a PowerTool end-user perspective

59. Microsoft should release an Outlook Addin (for TFS Work Items)

    Or purchase:

    • Outlook TFS Addin from: Outlook 2007 TFS Addin
    • Team Look from: Team Look
    • Team Companion from: Team Companion

    More info on How we use Outlook for completing TFS tasks and sending 'done' emails

60. Build - Project alerts should have a better out of the box experience

    Project alerts should show a diff of what changed + a link to a diff file / web service.

    A .diff file gives you offline. A .diff file is great how it is one file with the result of many changesets.

    

    Figure: This .diff file should be an attachment in the alert email

    Tip: Some people use the project alerts when they have a junior and you want to see all changes... probably a better way is to get this email when a work item is complete.

61. Create Project - UI for no source control and no reports (and no crosses)

    

    Figure: I don't want these crosses if I didn't create a WSS or RS

62. Reports - Add a report evidence based scheduling

    

    Figure: Show me the Probable Ship Date

    I want the probability date + to see if I am adding work to a release, faster than they can do them. More by someone who knows how to do it right Evidence Based Scheduling

63. Other - TFS needs to include a unit test runner

    TFS needs to include a unit test runner like NUnit: NUnit Home Page

64. TFSWA - Add a new option "Send as email with .msg attached"

    In TFS Web Access, when we complete a work item, we send an email via the "Tools" menu. The problem is the images are lost. We use TeamLook to put the work item here (from an email) and the original email is attached (a .msg file lives in "File Attachments" of the work item).So we would like an option of 'Send as Email (with attachments)'.

    

    Figure: Add option to Tools menu - 'Send as Email (with attachments)'

    In Team Explorer, we would like this functionality as well.

    

    Figure: Add context menu - 'Send as Email (with attachments)'

65. TFSWA - User Experience - SharePoint, CRM and TFSWA Web UI

    CRM, SharePoint and TFS (Web Access) are inconsistent to end users. The different user experience might make users confused.

    See our CRM suggestion User Experience - SharePoint, CRM and TFSWA Web UI

66. TFSWA - Add to the Web UI the ability to give a URL to any file?

Team System Web Access (aka TFSWA) is good, but needs for support for Source Control and nice URLs.

I want to be able to right click on a source code file and select "Copy URL to clipboard (so I can IM someone else)?
Figure: I can give a URL to a specific email in a public folder - I want to give a URL to a specific code file in a TFS project

67. TFSWA - Alerts should include the history (like an email)

    We want the alerts to respond with the history like an email, because of this we had to add this functionality into Extreme Emails.
    We would have preferred Microsoft to solve this problem.
    
    Figure: WorkItem alert notifications should include the history like an email
    

68. TFSWA - Add a Team System Process Template Editor

    Microsoft should provide a GUI to modify or customize the process templates. Here is an example of editor:
    http://www.gotdotnet.com/Workspaces/Workspace.aspx?id=812a68af-5e74-48c6-9623-1a4469142a84
    
    Figure: Sample software for Process Template Editor.
    

69. TFSWA - On the Alerts attach a .diff file

    On alert email it should attach .diff file to show the difference between original and the changed file.

70. TFSWA - Give us the ability to Customize the Work Item UI in VS.NET

    We should be able to modify or customize the WorkItem GUI in VS.NET according to our need.
    
    
    Figure: WorkItem UI in VS.NET should be customized so I could remove these 2 fields as an example
    

71. TFSWA - Add a way to delete a Bug/Task

    We should be ableto delete the unused/fake WorkItems.

72. TFSWA - Why is there no Rollback?

    There's no easy way to rollback to an earlier change set. You have to do some copy and paste jobs manually.
    Or you can use TFS Power Toys. TFS Power Toys provide a few functionalities like Unshelve, Rollback, Get Changeset, etc...
    The latest TFS Power Toys can be downloaded from Microsoft.
    Now the question is... why are all these basic source control functionalities missing from TFS?

73. TFSWA - Add a "Search box" to search for work items

    Users should expect:

    1. it to work like outlook.
    2. it to display like outlook

    should it support the 3 things I use on an hourly basis?

    For example: From:brian "work item" -randell

    PS: Not important, but if you get time, add one clever thing. When I type 'May', give me a list of work items where the work item's start date is in that range e.g. 30/5/2000

    PPS: Until we get this feature, Corneliu's (the smartest Romanian in the world) VS Quick Search plugin: TFS Quick Search Plugin 1.2 (for VS2005 and VS2008)

    

    Figure: The current way of finding work items is not good enough.

    

    Figure: We need Work Item Text Search to support the 3 most filters.

74. Work Items - Add standard Work Items to an iteration

    Any software iteration has a bunch of standard items (such as testing, administration etc). It would be great if these could be included with a simple click, rather than having to enter them all in manually.

75. Add estimate time on the UI when user fire up a get or deletion

    The server should know how long it takes, so the user know then they won't cancel the task (TFS 2008 doesn't have server cancelation right now, will add in 2010).

76. Work Items - Improve Work Item "Links"

    Basically you should link items together when you think they are the same bug. When you solve one - it might indicate that the related bugs are fixed too.

    So it's nice to have

    • Add a column in the "Links" tab that shows the status of the other work items.
    • If a work item is resolved it shows as a strikethough.
    • When you change the "State" to "Resolved", pop a messagebox saying "This task has 2 links which are not resolved."
    • When you open an existing work item and some are now resolved, pop a messagebox saying "Since you last looked at this item, 2 related items have been resolved, which may indicate that this bug is also resolved."

77. What are the alternatives to TFS?

    There might be a lot of things the team need to do, but I haven't come across a source code solution close to as good as it is today. These are the alternatives I see:

    • Source Safe - non scalable
    • CVS - was good 7 years ago
    • Subversion - the 2nd best option
    • SourceGear Vault
    • IBM Jazz
    • Perforce - a terrible cryptic interface
    • StarTeam
    • Source Integrity

78. How can they do this?

    It is not easy, but one small thing I would suggest is, reducing the testing matrix by supporting:

    • SQL 2008 only
    • Windows Server 2008 only
    • 64 bit only - see James Manning supports 64 bit only too

79. Give us task tracking for the masses

    >I know a college sophomore who used her father's TFS to keep track of a semester long research project (with three other students) that had nothing to do with programming at all. They simply loved the ability to keep revision controlled copies of all of their work, and to have a means of tracking the status (especially who was responsible for what, and when).
    David V. Corbin

    Enough said...

    Add a bit of nice integration with SharePoint and then we would have a great solution to offer many teams inside organizations.

80. Project Templates - Help me deploy my changes to all team projects

    The problem: Currently when you change a report (or work item definition etc), you need to manually deploy to all existing team projects.
    This is a complicated process for a developer, as they need to work out what the various command lines, they will need to successfully deploy.

    Solution #1: (simple)
    

    1. Add a field to a project 'TemplateName'. This stores the template it was created from (and gets updated from)
    2. Add a DeployChangesToAllTeamProjects.ps (a powershell script that iterates through projects and updates the relevant ones)

    Solution #2: (ideal)
    

    1. Do the above
    2. Then add UI to the 'Process Template Manager'
    3. When you make a new report (or work item definition etc), you would press an "Upload and Deploy" on the 'Project Template Manager'

    

    Figure: Need an "Update and Deploy" button

81. Improve the About Box

    I instructed one of my guys to tell me what a client's environment is (for upgrade purposes). He says:

            They have TFS 2008 SP1. That is the latest version. So nothing to do.

    He got the info from here...

    

    This is incomplete, so I would like more shown so he could tell me something like this:

    

    So you need:

    1. More information on all the components
    2. A 'Check For Update' button
    3. A hyperlink to 'Upgrade Instructions'

82. Finding all my data via web service

    I want to loop through all the data I have in CRM4 to implement proper search in SharePoint.
    There is a web service http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/library/cc151047.aspx

    How do I do this today for my TFS data? It would be great to have a consistent offering from TFS.

83. How should I know what my current machine is in the list of workspaces?

    In VS 2008 go to "Source Control" | "Workspaces"
    

    

    Figure: Select list of Workspaces from VS 2008

    How do I see what my current machine is?

    

    Figure: Add an indicator (CURRENT MACHINE), and a column called: "Last time accessed this TFS"

84. Add a search filter for team projects

    I like that the UI for this dialog is consistent between Visual Studio, Team Web Access and Test and Lab Manager. However, the UI is consistently bad!

    It is a pain to scroll if you have lots of Team Projects. The dialog needs to have a search filter so you can quickly type a few letters in the Team Project name and narrow down the list.

    

    Figure 1 - Bad Example - Connect to Team project from Team Project becomes difficult when there are a lot of projects

    

    Figure 2 Bad Example - Connect to Team project from Team Web Access becomes difficult when there are a lot of projects

    

    Figure 3 Bad Example - Connect to Team project from Lab and Test Manager (aka Camano) becomes difficult when there are a lot of projects

    

    Figure 4 - Good Example - Quickly search and select the items you need - no need to scroll 100 items!

85. Test and Lab Manager - Prompt to create a bug on failure

    The test recoding features of the Test and Lab manager are fantastic; however, the ability to create a bug is rather hidden.

    

    Figure 1 - How do I create a bug?

    

    Figure 2 - The performance graph icon is the button you use to create a bug

    

    Figure 3 - Creating a bug from Team Web Access

    The icon should be consistent with Team Web Access.

    Also, when a test step fails, and the user presses "Save and Close" they should be prompted:
    "One of your test steps have failed and you have not filed a bug. Do you want to create one now?"
    [Yes] [No]

86. Help me know what 'check-in' is about to do

    Scenario

    1. I browse through a solution
    2. Open files in code view or designer (and those files get checked out automatically... I don't think they should)
    3. Then I do my daily check in
    4. I see a lot of checked out files
       I am scared... I don't want to lose any changes... but...
       So what did I do?

       

       Figure: This dialog should not show files that have not changed. Maybe add a button "# of changed lines"

    5. Then I write a comment like: "Not sure what I did, but I did no change at all"
    6. Click on "Check In" - it gives me

       

       Figure: The UI should be changed so this dialog never occurs

    7. AHHHH... WHAT A RELIEF

    Suggestion
    

    

    Figure: The UI should be changed so this dialog never occurs

87. Do you use the term "Iteration" instead of "Sprint" or "Release"?

    It is important that we are consistent in how we call bundles of work. TFS uses Iteration by default and that is how you should also refer to a grouping of work items.

                  Hi Peter, 
                  
                  Can I get you to approve the following tasks that will be in the next Release 02?           
                  - Order Form - Mockup
                  - Order Form - Database Schema 
                  - Order Form - UI
                  - Options Form - Mockup
                  - Options Form - UI  
                  
                   Regards,
                   Andy  
                  

    Figure: Bad example - some customers think a release is a module or particular feature set

     
                Hi Peter,
    
                Can I get you to approve the following tasks that will be in the next Sprint?
                  - Order Form - Mockup
                  - Order Form - Database Schema
                  - Order Form - UI
                  - Options Form - Mockup
                  - Options Form - UI
    
                Regards,
                Andy
                    

    Figure: Bad example - Sprint is not a common term outside of scrum and customers are not familiar with it

     
                Hi Peter,
    
                Can I get you to approve the following tasks that will be in the next Iteration 02?
                  - Order Form - Mockup
                  - Order Form - Database Schema
                  - Order Form - UI
                  - Options Form - Mockup
                  - Options Form - UI
    
                Regards,
                Andy
                    

    Figure: Good example - Iteration is used to say that the following work items are going to be worked on next

88. Why do we need a pGUID in the URL's in Team Web Access?

    Clean up the links in Team Web Access to make it easier to send to others...

    

    Figure: Even this link has a pGUID...

    Currently the URL's are horrible:

              http://tfs.ssw.com.au/tfs/web/wi.aspx?id=12650&pguid=406b9537-bcff-4f4a-90dc-f1fca88e7d33
              http://tfs.ssw.com.au/tfs/web/UI/Pages/WorkItems/WorkItemEdit.aspx?id=12650&pguid=406b9537-bcff-4f4a-90dc-f1fca88e7d33
             

    Much better:

              http://tfs.ssw.com.au/tfs/web/wi.aspx?id=12650
             

89. Remove spaces from URL's for readability

    Working at TFS I find myself using URLs all the time

    Why are the words "Team" and "Shared" used on the default portal?

    There is nothing else called "team" or "shared" there, and they really do *not* add any value.
    In fact they *remove value* because they add those horrible "%20" to the URL's that make them less friendly for users.

                http://projects.ssw.com.au/tfs/Conquest/Team%20Wiki
                http://projects.ssw.com.au/tfs/Conquest/Shared%20Documents
               

    Should be:

                http://projects.ssw.com.au/tfs/Conquest/Documents
                http://projects.ssw.com.au/tfs/Conquest/Wiki 
               

90. Why is the selected dashboard still visible?

    When you select a dashboard, the link remains clickable in the menu! This encourages users to click it again and puts extra load on the server. If a user is on a page, they should not be able to click that link again.

    

    A better option:
    1. Have the link completely disappear from the list so that it only shows other dashboards. (Recommended)
    2. Remove the link from the selected page.

91. Help me create fewer queries

    Most people create two queries:
    1. The first to do query the work items they want
    2. The second to query the same + "Active"

    

    Figure: Developers should not have to keep creating copies of queries + "Active"

    Make this easier by adding an "Active" link next to each query (this will auto add "Active" to that query)

    If you are feeling generous, you could add filtering to all of the columns like the Telerik Work Item Manger:

    

    Figure: Telerik gives filters on the column headers - TSWA should do the same

92. TFS SharePoint Portal 2010 (little one)

    

    Figure: Refreshing the Portal - These 2 areas should also have the green icon (a smaller icon), so the user eyes sees all the places the data will be refreshed

93. Help me query my iterations with zero speed bumps

    When we create iteration, you always try to remember the manual step of creating a query to go with it.

    Note: Would also be good for it to send an email... for tracking with the URL to follow... similar to the email that SharePoint sends for a new portal or Facebook sends

    

    Figure: These queries should be automatically created, when you create a new iteration

94. Suggestion - more improvements for Add Reference

    We know how long it takes to load this famous dialog in Visual Studio 2008.

    

    Figure: there are 3 things to make the process of adding references to VS.NET better

    Suggestion #1: Allow me to make a simple _AddMyStandardReferences.bat
    Do this by adding a checkbox above
            [x] Record into a .bat file
    Have it create that .bat file

    Suggestion #2: Allow me to see the popular references
    Do this by adding a column "Popularity"

    Suggestion #3 Why not drag drop references from the file system?
    

    

    Figure: The mouse cursor suggests it is possible to drag a reference onto the project...

    

    Figure: Boooo... But the DLL's get added as content in the project... :-(

    

    Figure: Doesn't work in VS2010 either

    

    Figure: The Result is not a reference :-(

    At least is the "Add reference" dialog in VS2010 is faster and not so painful, but these 3 suggestions would make it great.

95. Subscribe to a User Story in TSWA

    Can I ask the TFS team to add the following user story?

    As an employee
    I would like to be able to subscribe to a User Story
    So that I can track its progress and completion.

    

    Figure: Now I know this is easy to do in Visual Studio with "Alert on Change"

    

    Figure: I mean for customers... Boy oh boy... they too want it in Team System Web Access

96. Stories Overview report need to show totals

    The report needs footer to the table to show "Total Hours Remaining" and "Total Tests".

    

    Figure 1 - Stories Overview Report needs to show the total hours

97. Stories Overview report needs to show tasks

    Looking at your project at a high level is fantastic and great for evaluating the general situation but sometimes it is also beneficial to know about the details as well. The current "Stories Overview" report only shows "User Stories".
    It would be great if there was an extra parameter:
    "[ ] Show Tasks"

    That will show the tasks assigned to the User Story and whether they are completed or not.

    

    Figure 1 - Stories Overview Report

    

    Figure 2 - Stories Overview Report needs to show tasks and total hours

98. Suggestion for TFSWA 2010

    Little one... you never know

    

    Figure: If I click "Refresh", the current tab should be remembered

99. Help me diagnose TFS Administration permission issues

    I was trying to run the TfsConfig tool and I kept getting the message:

            "TF55038: You don't have sufficient privileges to run this tool. Contact your Team Foundation system administrator."

    This message made me think that it was something to do with the Install permissions as it is always recommended to use a single account to do every install of TFS. I did not install the original TFS on our network and my account was not used to do the TFS2010 install. But I did do the upgrade from 2010 beta 2 to 2010 RC with my current account.

    So I proceeded to do some checking:

    1. Am I in the administrators group on the server?

       

       Figure: Yes, I am in the administrators group on the server

    2. Am I in the Administration Console users list?

       

       Figure: Yes, I am in the Administration Console users list

    3. Have I reapplied the permissions in the Administration Console users list ticking all the options?

       

       Figure: Make sure you check all of the boxed if you want to have all the admin options

       

       Figure: Yes, I have made sure that all my options are correct.

    4. Am I in the Team Foundation administrators group?

       

       Figure: Yes, I am in the Team Foundation Administrators group

    5. Is my account explicitly SysAdmin on the Database server?

       

       Figure: Yes, I do have explicit SysAdmin on the database

    Can you guess what the problem was?

    The command line window was not running as the administrator!

    As with most other applications there should be an explicit error message that states:
            "You are not currently running in administrator mode; please restart the command line with elevated privileges!"
    This would have saved me 30 minutes.

Acknowledgements

Adam Cogan

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