VS 2010: Add Work Item to Model Elements

Question: “Can I add work item to model generated with Visual Studio, like Sequence Diagram? Because someone told me it’s possible but I did not find the way.”

Answer: “Yes, but you need to install Feature Pack 2 from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ff655021.aspx”

Once installed additional items are available on the context menu of model elements like shown in the picture below:

 

Hope this helps,

Ivan

TF208002 error during editing of Product Planning.xlsm

Product Planning.xlsm of my project was corrupted. At the opening it gave me the error: TF208002: “The name that you specified for the column header is a reserved name for this work item list. Choose a different name and try again.”

Clearly I have tried everything but without success

Solution:

• Take the file directly from Agile 5 Process Template from Microsoft (MSF for Agile Software Developmentv5.0 \ Windows SharePoint Services \ Shared Documents \ Project Management) and copy it to your Project Portal
• Open it and press Edit Workbook
• Go to the Team tab and select Configure -> Server Connection
• Press OK on the popup
• Select your project and press Connect
• Press List and select New Query Product Planning pressing OK
• Save and you have your file again!

Assigning a work item to a group in TFS

During ALM can happen that a specific work item can’t be assigned directly to a single person. A typical sample can be a bug before triage. In cases such this the best is being able to use a group like "BugKillers".

The procedure below enables you to assign work items to groups or to their users.

In order to enable this you have to:

1. open work item type Bug in the specific project
   
2. modify Assigned To field adding ALLOWEDVALUES rule with the list of all TFS groups containing users that can receive a work item assignment. be sure to leave Exclude Groups unchecked
   
3. remove VALIDUSER rule, because this is responsible for not showing groups in the dropdown list of values for Assigned To field
4. save and close

Now if you open a new bug you’ll be able to assign it to groups or directly to their users

I’m now a Microsoft Certified Trainer!

Finally I did it I’m a Microsoft Certified Trainer and on Monday I will deliver my first course: MOC50430 related to TFS 2010 administration!

Team Foundation Server 2010 SP1 Final

SP1 for TFS 2010 has been released together with SP1 for VS 2010 and it contains a lot of bug fixes. For more details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2182621

Reconfigure Lab Management on TFS 2010

When you configure TFS to use a new SCVMM server with another name (for example in case of failure of previous or move to another location), you have to remove the old server on Project Collections previously configured.

If you try to do it from the GUI administration of TFS, when you delete Library or HostGroup and press OK you will receive the error below:

 

To solve this issue you have to delete references from command line with following command:

TfsConfig.exe lab /collectionname:DefaultCollection /Delete

Team Foundation Server Administration Tool 2.1 released

Version 2.1 of Team Foundation Server Administration Tool has been released :http://tfsadmin.codeplex.com/ 

Now it uses TFS 2010 object model, therefore no more need of Team Explorer 2008 + SP1 + Forward Compatibility Update!!!

To be downloaded immediately

Error TF31002 when publishing TFS 2010 web access in SSL using fqdn

If you try to publish externally TFS through https using a fqdn, you may run into problems related to the Web Access:

TF31002: Unable to connect to this Team Foundation Server: https://serverxyz/tfs. Team Foundation Server Url:https://serverxyz/tfs. Possible reasons for failure include: – The name, port number, or protocol for the Team Foundation Server is incorrect. – The Team Foundation Server is offline. – The password has expired or is incorrect. Technical information (for administrator): The request failed with HTTP status 404: Not Found.

This problem can be easily solved modifying web.config in TFS Web Access in order to make it use fqdn instead of server name (default).

1. Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\Web Access\Web\
2. Open web.config
3. Change
   <tfServers>
   <!– <add name=”http://serverxyz:8080” /> –>
   </tfServers>
4. in
   <tfServers>
   <add name=”https://externaltfsname.domain.com/tfs” />
   </tfServers>

 

Note: remember to add /tfs, because in the sample web.config it’s not present, but it’s needed, otherwise it does not work.

Beta of TFS 2010 and Project Server 2010 integration is out!

Finally beta of this highly requested integration is out! You can find more information direclty on Brian Harry’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2010/12/07/portfolio-management-tfs-lt-gt-project-server-integration-in-beta.aspx

Workaround for “Invalid value specified for AFTER parameter” During TFS 2010 Restore

I was really excited by the release of a backup/restore tool for TFS in the last Power Tools release. But after serious usage I have to admit that it has many flaws in it as already mentine directly by Brian Harry in its post http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2010/09/29/known-issues-with-the-backup-restore-power-tool.aspx.

The showstopper for us has been #5: You receive the error “Invalid value specified for AFTER parameter.” when restoring the transactional backups.
The solution mentioned in the post is to set the dateformat in sql to year/months/days format by executing this command: set dateformat ymd
But this did not work.

The real solution has been to simply change regional settings for the logged on user to English American and it worked perfectly

Hope this helps