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[Also see http://blogs.blackmarble.co.uk/blogs/rfennell/archive/2010/08/13/how-to-edit-a-tfs-2010-build-template-when-it-contains-custom-activities.aspx ] A couple of months ago I wrote and published a custom activity for Team Build 2010 to allow Typemock tests to be run within the build process. Whilst setting up a new build need to use this activity so I though I would see if there was an easier way to use it in a build without all the branch and fuss required for development. This is what I had to do ...

Thanks to everyone who attended my session last night at the West Yorkshire BCS on Agile and Lean development process. The projector failing after only a few minutes meant I had to adopt a good agile approach to the session. It was nice that so many people came up afterwards to say they enjoyed the lack of PowerPoint. This got me thinking, as I enjoyed not having it as well. All I really missed was a couple of slides one that showed a Kanban board and another that diagrammatically showed the Scrum process, I got round the lack of both of these by pointing wildly at the blank projector screen and asking people to imagine. So if I run that session again I think I will just have that pair of slides and lose the rest. I just need to find a nice means to let me see the text slides, which I used as my speaking notes. I have never been a fan of postcard style notes when presenting, too much to drop, and when I tried using my phone in the past it was awkward, but maybe time to try again now my phone has a larger screen. ...

Just a reminder I am speaking at the West Yorkshire BCS meeting this Wednesday on the subject ‘Agile is so old hat all the cool kids are doing lean now’. The meeting starts a 5:45 for refreshments, and 6:30 for my session. The venue is the Old Broadcasting House, 148 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9EN (www.ntileeds.co.uk) Hope to see you there

My fellow UK ALM MVP, Martin Hinshelwood, is running a Professional Scrum Developer course in London at the end of next month. I understand there are still some places left, and some good discounts available. So if you was looking at wanting to implement a Scrum process on TFS it could be well worth a look If you want to know more about the whole PSD programme have a look at the Microsoft site ...

Whist upgrading a TFS2010 Beta2 server to RTM I saw the following error when I ran the verify step of the upgrade. TF246062: Two or more databases are in conflict because they are each designated as the owners of the following schema: Framework. The schema is for the host with the following name and ID: CollectionName, 8aace481-2471-49c8-da74-77ee3da4ce29. The databases with this conflict are: Data Source=SQLInstance1;Initial Catalog=Tfs_CollectionName;Integrated Security=True, Data Source=SQLInstance1;Initial Catalog=Tfs_Production_CollectionName;Integrated Security=True. You must specify one and only one database owner for the schema in the searchable SQL Server instances for this deployment of Team Foundation Server. ...

Gil at Typemock has been posting about some ideas we discussed over breakfast at the Typemock Partner conference a while ago, I have been a bit slow at commenting, so I though I better add to the conversation. Though Typemock is an excellent mocking framework, for me basic mocking is not its biggest win. All the ‘classic auto mocking’ of interfaces to speed TDD style working is great, but I can do that with any of the .NET mocking frameworks. All they do is mean I don’t have to write my own test stubs and mocks, so saving me time, which is good but not the keep win I was looking for. ...

What a great event the Norwegian Developers conference is. It is a nice size so there is a good selection of tracks, but no so big you feel lost, also the speakers and attendees were all mixing freely which I think always makes for a good atmosphere. This was all enhanced by the excellent organisation of the event, what can I say the wifi worked faultlessly, the food was good and the overflow screens (so from one place you could view the video and audio of any current sessions) was a brilliant idea, so much I know some people took to using this in preference to going to the actual session. You can see the overflow screens at the top of the photo below. ...

When travelling aboard what I hate most about Windows Mobile 6 is that I have no idea if the phone is going to trying to use a local WiFi or 3G. Mobile Outlook seems the worst culprit, it loves 3G over everything else!. On mobile 6.5 there are just too many places where you might need set which data connection to use. This means, for fear if a nightmare phone bill, I tend not use us my phone for data. And just just don’t realise how much you use it at home until you are away. ...

I have sorted all the bits for my presentations so am ready for my trip to NDC 2010 in Olso tomorrow. Really looking forward to it, the agenda looks great.

I had not checked the site for a while, but my Microsoft Techdays session on Lab Management is now available as a video I cannt make it embed here, some Community Server issue I assume, so look for it on the developer track on the second day. It is called ‘Putting some testing in your TFS build process"