Microsoft officially releases Visual Studio 2013

Microsoft officially releases Visual Studio 2013 and is available now for download (link below):

Personally still haven't installed it myself but planning soon. Here are few highlights as read on MSDN forums and blogs on the new VS 2013 released:

•	New project template for Office 365 Cloud Business App - to enable developers to quickly build modern business applications that can integrate with and extend the Office 365 platform experience. The Cloud Business App template provides a rich set of tools and built-in functionality that make it easy to work with data and leverage Office 365 services such as identity and social.   New MVC 5 web application template and SharePointContext for SharePoint apps - MVC web application template for app for SharePoint has been introduced since Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2013 Preview. In this Visual Studio 2013 RTM release, the MVC web application template in app for SharePoint has been updated based on the latest one for MVC 5.   SharePointContext is a set of classes (in SharePointContext.cs/SharePointContext.vb) that provides a set of APIs to relieve you from the tedious steps of dealing with communication between SharePoint and web application. Need to decide whether your app be authenticated with Windows Azure Control Services or a certificate (high-trust)? SharePointContext makes it possible for you to use the same snippet of code no matter which way you go. Need efficient but safe strategy to cache the access tokens? APIs in SharePointContext provide a good pattern and the default implementation for you. Which APIs can you use for hosting web and which ones for app web? API naming convention carefully designed in SharePointContext gives you an explicit view what you can use in which case. You can also easily extend the SharePointContext helper by subclassing to provide more advanced features to fulfill your scenarios. Apart from the Visual Studio 2013 in-box release, the new SharePointContext helper is also included in App for SharePoint Web Toolkit - NuGet package, which means you can install the package and leverage the helper APIs in any VS 2013 or VS 2012 project that you want to communicate with SharePoint. For the app for SharePoint projects that you’ve created with VS 2013 Preview, you can simply upgrade the SharePointContext helper to the latest by updating the App for SharePoint Web Toolkit NuGet package (which is installed in the web project when you created the app for SharePoint).
•	Support for Windows 8.1 app development: Visual Studio 2013 provides the ideal toolset for building modern applications that leverage the next wave in Windows platform innovation (Windows 8.1), while supporting devices and services across all Microsoft platforms. Support for Windows Store app development in Windows 8.1 includes updates to the tools, controls and templates, new Coded UI test support for XAML apps, UI Responsiveness Analyzer and Energy Consumption profiler for XAML & HTML apps, enhanced memory profiling tools for HTML apps, and improved integration with the Windows Store.
•	Web development advances: Creating websites or services on the Microsoft platform provides you with many options, including ASP.NET WebForms, ASP.NET MVC, WCF or Web API services, and more. Previously, working with each of these approaches meant working with separate project types and tooling isolated to that project’s capabilities. The One ASP.NET vision unifies your web project experience in Visual Studio 2013 so that you can create ASP.NET web applications using your preference of ASP.NET component frameworks in a single project. Now you can mix and match the right tools for the job within your web projects, giving you increased flexibility and productivity.

You can download Visual Studio 2013 here - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=306566 

Thanks - Dipesh

My first interaction with the China team...

My first interaction with the China team...


This was a brief 30 minute leadership listen only call and hence not really active but I am very interested in being active participant moving forward esp. with the DEV team in China.
Time difference really works for me from US pacific timezone, Good live meeting and network connectivity on-premise and no issues communicating. Wish me good luck so that I can be successful in delivery and management. :)

Here are few learnings that I learned from my past offshore experience -
1 Connect the team more (if possible daily standup).
2 Good project management and understanding of all activities/tasks assigned to the offshore team.
3 Having said, that Offshore team being remote and distant away, would do wonders if you give them a bigger picture. Believe me, that would make the team  feel part of the bigger pool and give them a sense of ownership.
4 You may have to give away some of your time and be flexible/agile to work with a different timezone with the Offshore team.
5 You must know the powermap - Supervisors and managers who own/control the team. Trust me, they treat feedback from client/onshore team very seriously and take corrective action.
6 Understand their culture and be empathic while on call/conferences and change your behavior instead of asking them.
7 Typical work that can be executed successfully
8 If none of this work, then please pull out at the right time than later in the game and avoid heart burns :)

Cheers - Dipesh

Agile - mutiple teams & roles and responsibilities

Can Agile be successful in multi site environment OR does it need to be colocated? Frankly speaking, from my exp. i think it needs to be colocated ...as there is so much of tight coupling required between the team members. We can have 2 teams running seperate scrums but does that work? Yes, if they are working totally independent it can be a huge success.

Key to successful team building is creating unity while celebrating the individuality of each team member => Common purpose supported by unique contributions...

Program/Release/Project TEAMS

Program/Release/Project CORE Team consists of:
•Product Owner (aka Product Manager)
•Engineering Manager
•Architect
•QA Manager
•Program Manager (aka Project Manager, Scrum Master)

Representing multiple TEAMS as a Core Team member
•Cannot attend multiple stand ups
1.Scrum team too large and being split
2.New teams being formed
3.One core team member on multiple Scrum teams
•Stagger daily stand ups
•Attend one stand up and send a proxy to the other

Few of these roles and responsibilities will help keep the boat sailing, Check out Agile Team Members – Roles & Responsibilities more @ Aaron's blog - http://aaron.sanders.name/agile/agile-team-members-roles-and-responsibilities