TFS Admin Reports delivered to your inbox daily

I came across a TFS cube error while troubleshooting another issue that was reported to me.  Now if every TFS Admin had the TFS Admin Reports emailed to them daily, then they would have seen the cube status error and responded accordingly.

It's really easy to setup Reporting Services to automatically email you the TFS Admin reports so that you are proactively managing the TFS server.

1. Navigate to Microsoft SQL Server > Configuration Tools > Reporting Services Configuration Manager
2. Fill out the Sender Address and SMTP Server
3. 
4. Go to the each one of the TFS Admin Reports and select Subscribe
5. 
6. Enter your email address and time of day you would like to have your report emailed.
7. 
8. The TFS Admin Reports will be emailed to you (now if you set up an Outlook rule and ignore these emails, it kinda defeats the purpose of proactively managing the TFS server, just saying)

BTW, this also works for any of your other TFS SSRS reports that you would like automatically emailed out .

Anna Russo

Application Lifecycle Management Consultant 

Imaginet

Web Test Management & Runner coming to a browser near you

The most exciting part of the ALM Summit was when Brian Harry announced that they were releasing Web Test Management and Runner.  It was a great moment when the audience clapped for joy!!

This is currently in CTP(Consumer Test Preview) for TFS 2012, but here's the sneak peak.  Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the genius simplicity to connect to a web based app and get some serious work done.

The Test Plan and Test Run menus are co-located - this is what super tester's need to be efficient!

Double-click to edit the Test Case work item or right mouse click to Open Test Case.

The Test Runner displays all actions/expected results so that you can execute and Pass/Fail test steps.

I love that the Test Runner automatically uses my test steps to create the bug and also indicates the failure point in red (for those developers who don't read thru the entire bug - you know who you are).  Just enter a Title, Assign it to a developer to fix it, select Severity and Save.

Take a look at all the testing that has been completed and give yourself a pat on the back!

Stay tuned more to come!

Anna Russo

Application Lifecycle Management Consultant 

Imaginet

NEW TFS Tester Power Tool - Auto Create Test Cases from PBI Acceptance Criteria

Happy New Year everyone! I really can't think of better way to ring in the new year than with another tool to help MTM testers Auto Create Test Cases from PBI Acceptance Criteria(ok maybe there are some other ways, but another year passes and it's still so hard not to think like a geek).

TFS users put a lot of great information in the Acceptance Criteria field of the Product Backlog Item to ensure that the PBI meets a certain level of quality.  Usually tester's then create test cases manually(boo!) so that they can report on the testing of that PBI.  Well that's all until today, because now there is a tool that auto creates test cases efficiently so that you can spend more time on the most valuable activity - TESTING!

I am releasing this as a Beta here TFS Tester Power Tool - Auto Create Test Cases from Acceptance Criteria, because I would like to hear what you think and any improvements that could be made drop me a line in the comments.

Here's how it works:

1. Click on Connect to TFS Team Project
2. Select Project Collection and Team Project
3. Find Query (e.g. "PBI Sprint 1")
4. Double-click to Run Query 
5. The Query Results of PBI's will be displayed on the right
6. 
7. Enter Delimiter (e.g. "-").  The delimiter is used to separate the acceptance criteria and create multiple test cases.
8. 
9. Click on Create Test Cases and wait for the AnnaBots, I mean tool to do all the hard work for you.
10. 
11. Viola test cases were automatically created and linked to the PBI!
12. 
13. The resulting test case looks like this with the Acceptance Criteria in the Title and Expected Result field and the PBI in the Action.
14. 
15. The resulting PBI has the 2 test cases automatically linked.
16. 

Enjoy!

Anna Russo

Application Lifecycle Management Consultant 

Imaginet

Hello TFS Taskboad on the Microsoft Surface - Goodbye Post-It Notes

With the Microsoft Surface out I decided to give the drag and drop features of the TFS 2012 taskboard a whirl.  What's great about this is that you can use the Surface for your stand-up meetings and connect it to a projector via VGA or HDMI(sold seperately).  Now that's what I call a high tech stand-up meeting!

Connected to TFS

Dragging my tasks from New to Active on the TFS taskboard

So awesome that I can update my work item status with the swipe of a finger

It's neat that TFS has such a portable rich client and the data stored in a database where you can collaboratively work together.

Try to do that with your post-it notes :)  

Anna Russo

Application Lifecycle Management Consultant 

Imaginet

Exploratory Testing - What's new for Microsoft Test Manager 2012 RTM Part 3

So the third part of this series of What's New in MTM 2012 is Exploratory Testing.

Now you are probably thinking automate writing my test cases, I wish.  Seriously this is one of the best features introduced in MTM 2012.

Now let's get your MTM robot to work writing your test cases by capturing your steps while you are testing.  In case your wondering I call my robots "Annabots".


Add a Requirement to your Test Plan
Once your Requirement is in your Test Plan, right mouse click and select Explore requirement 

Start your testing
After seeing the commercials on TV, I was testing the Bing search engine to see if I could find my blog.
Then click on Create test case

Test case automagically created
My Annabots hard at work automatically captured my steps while I was testing and inserted them into a test case work item - so awesome!  All I had to do was add a title and Save.

Click on Change steps

By default only the last 10 actions display. You can click on Change steps button to display and select/unselect the additional steps you would like to see in your test case.

To change the default number of actions captured
Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\mtm.exe.config
Look for the following line  <add key="DefaultNumberOfActions" value="20"/>


Talk about efficient, I think I need an Annabot clone army  :)

Anna Russo

Application Lifecycle Management Consultant 

Imaginet

Planning Tests - What's new for Microsoft Test Manager 2012 RTM Part 2

So the second part in this series of What's New in MTM 2012 is Test Planning improvements.

Add test plan
There is a new dialog that allows you to enter in the test Plan name, Area path and Iteration.

Test Plan Results
This is a great new feature that displays Test Plan results at the speed of light - ok maybe it's more like real time.

Filter the Test Plan Results by Test Suites.

This is a good way to see how your End-to-end tests are going or other test suites.

Filter the Test Plan Results by Test Configurations.

This is a good way to see how what test results are like for a particular browser and OS.

Filter the Test Result Details by Tester

This is a good way to see what an individual tester's detailed test results are like.

Filter the Test Result Details by Test Suite

This is a good way to see the detailed results of individual test suites.

Whew that was a lot of work, I'm all filtered out.

Anna Russo

Application Lifecycle Management Consultant 

Imaginet

UI/Navigation - What's new for Microsoft Test Manager 2012 RTM Part 1

There are so many changes that have been introduced with Microsoft Test Manager 2012, I have decided to do a series of blog posts to go over the details.

So the first part in this series of What's New in MTM 2012 is UI/Navigation improvements.

Icons
If you can't tell which icon is for Microsoft Test Manager 2012, don't worry neither can I especially with my horrible old lady vision.  All joking aside though I put the Microsoft Test Manager icons next to the appropriate version of Visual Studio to distinguish the difference(aren't I clever).


Microsoft Test Manager 2010 next to Visual Studio 2010


Microsoft Test Manager 2012 next to Visual Studio 2012



Modern UI Splash Screen
Modern UI = lack of color in this case.  Doesn't it make everything feel shiny, new and welcoming.



















Test Plan dialog navigation shortcuts
If you have accumulated a long list of test plans, you can use type ahead.  If you press 'Enter' on the selected plan it even opens the plan up for you.

Team Project Hyperlink
Shortcut that allows you to switch to another TFS team project quickly.





Test Plan Hyperlink
Shortcut that allows you to switch to another Test Plan quickly.





Close icons on all MTM screens and dialogs
Hooray for an easy way to close things!


















Test Case Work Item WPF screen meets Modern UI
Ever wondered what a WPF and Modern UI child would look like - well here you go.  I asked how much it would cost to have a colored version and well the product team just laughed. :(

Test Case Work Item Modern UI screen
Multi-line steps(Alt+Enter), Rich text formatting, and a re-sizable splitter.  Now like me you can have the last laugh by adding rich text color to this Modern UI.

Build reports and changesets are easily accessible hyperlinks from the Assign Build tab
Now that's the beauty of an integrated system like TFS.  In a click you'll know all the details about the build and changeset(developer checked-in files).

Build reports and changesets are easily accessible hyperlinks from the Recommended Tests tab
Now that's the beauty of an integrated system like TFS.  In a click you'll know all the details about the build and changeset(developer checked-in files)

Assign Testers copy functionality
The assign tester's dropdown now allows you to copy and paste the value into another dropdown.  Watchout super copying wiz on the way.

Configurations dropdown
Wondering where the columns of configurations disappeared to.  Configurations are now simply located in a multi-select dropdown.

Consistent context switching between Plan menu & Test menu
If you select a test suite in the Plan menu, then switch to the Test menu - the same item is selected.  It's almost as if the tool could read my mind.

Copy Link
This creates a pasteable(is that even a word?) special MTM link that looks like this.
mtm://vsalm:8080/tfs/tailspintoyscollection/p:Tailspin%20Toys/testing/workitem/open?id=40

You can share this link and then paste it in Windows Explorer, it will open up that item automagically.

Test menu has moved tabs and added new ones
The Verify Bugs tab moved and Exploratory tabs were added.

Build info moved to the right
It used to be right above the test suites panel.

View dropdowns
A dropdown is much nicer way to display these options.

Anna Russo

Application Lifecycle Management Consultant 

Imaginet