My ALM Blog

Microsoft’s ALM Certification – Part 2 of 3

anthonyborton — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:01:51 +0000

Welcome to the second of my three part series on Microsoft’s new MCSD – Application Lifecycle Management certification. In the first part of this series I provided information about the certification as well as some guidance on how to prepare for the 70-496 exam. In this article, we’ll move on to how to prepare for the 70-497 exam. NOTE: You do not need to complete the exams in a specific order. I’d suggest you start with the one you’re most confident on and then move through the remaining two.

Exam 70-497: Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012

This is Microsoft’s first exam focusing primarily on Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) 2012. While this is the second version of MTM, it is the first time there has been an exam for it.

You can find the specific details of the exam on Microsoft’s exam page for 70-497.

The audience identified for this exam on the exam page is “Developers”. I would question this based on the skills being measured section of the exam page. I suggest that this exam is more directed at full time manual testers more so than developers.

Exam Details

Exam code:	70-497
Exam title:	Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012
Release date:	September 25th, 2012
Pass mark:	700
Questions:	Approximately 45
Time:	Approximately 145 minutes

Exam Preparation Best Bets

Finding a single fast-path to help you prepare for this exam is difficult. This exam focuses on your hands-on knowledge of how to use Microsoft Test Manager. Here’s a list of three options for you to consider.

Practical	One of the best things you can do to prepare for this exam is to use Microsoft Test Manager and become familiar with all of it’s features and capabilities.
eBook	Testing for Continuous Delivery with Visual Studio 2012 from the Microsoft Patterns and Practices group.
Formal training	If you want to get up to speed quickly, may be attending a formal training course might be an option. Take a closer look at this course if this is a path you might consider.

Exam Preparation – a closer look

The 70-497 exam comprised three key topic areas. As I did in part 1 of this series, lets look at each of these areas and try to find some helpful information in the MSDN library to help you study.

Before we look into each of the areas, one thing I will point out is that the majority of the exam focuses on the planning and management of your testing effort. Only 35% focuses on actually executing your tests. Remember this and apportion your study accordingly.

Another tip I will share with you is that at the time of writing this article, both TFS 2012 Update 1 and Update 2 have been released and Update 3 RC1 is available. The first two updates introduced a number of big improvements and new features to Microsoft Test Manager. Eg. the web-based Test Hub, cloning test plans and more. The exam has been written to match the RTM version of the product so you need to “forget” any features added in post release updates.

Create and Configure Test Plans (31%)

This topic covers the following high level areas.

Create test plan properties.
Configure test settings.
Define configurations.
Create Test Suites.
Configure Test Suites.

Much of the information for this topic can be found on the MSDN Library under a topic titled “Defining a Test Plan” (http://examcr.am/14CCryh). Make sure you read all child nodes underneath this topic on MSDN.

Manage Test Cases (34%)

This topic covers the following high level areas.

Create Test Cases.
Create Test Steps.
Define parameters.
Manage Shared Steps.
Manage requirements.

The MSDN Library link for this exam topic is titled “Creating and Managing Tests”
(http://examcr.am/UD8bNY). Remember to read all child nodes underneath this topic on MSDN.

Manage Test Execution (35%)

This topic covers the following high level areas.

Run Tests.
Perform Exploratory Testing.
Manage bugs.
Use Lab Center.
Analyze Recommended Tests.
Perform analysis.
Manage Work Items.

The third and final exam topic area has two primary locations on MSDN for you to focus your study. Firstly look at “Running Tests in Microsoft Test Manager” (http://examcr.am/12DgK0W) and then “Performing Exploratory Testing” (http://examcr.am/10Dh0wW).

Good all-purpose resources

The following three books represent great resources, not just for the exams but for anyone working with or supporting Microsoft Team Foundation Server.

	Testing for Continuous Delivery with Visual Studio 2012 (Free eBook) (Physical book on Amazon) Authors: Larry Brader, Howie Hilliker , Alan Cameron Wills
	Professional Team Foundation Server 2012 Authors: Ed Blankenship, Martin Woodward, Grant Holliday and Brian Keller.
	Professional Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio 2012 Authors: Mickey Gousset, Brian Keller and Martin Woodward.

That concludes part 2 of this series. In my final post in this series, I’ll provide guidance on exam 70-498: Delivering Continuous Value with Visual Studio 2012 Application Lifecycle Management.

TFS 2012 Pre-conference workshop at TechEd 2013

anthonyborton — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 03:01:49 +0000

I received some great news a little while ago that I have been selected to present a one day pre-conference workshop at TechEd 2013 in both North America (New Orleans) and Europe (Madrid).

If you’re planning on attending TechEd this year, why not head in a day early and get some great hands on experience using Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2012. The breakout sessions and keynotes are always great but for many, a day spent getting hands-on with Microsoft’s ALM platform might be just what you need.

The pre-conference workshop I am delivering is titled “Kickstart Your Application Lifecycle Management Using Team Foundation Server 2012”. I’ve included the session abstract a the bottom of this blog post.

To attend one of the pre-conference workshop, simply choose one of the registration options that includes a pre-conference seminar. Eg. “Early Bird Pricing + Pre-Conference Seminar”. Even if you’re not attending the full conference, you can attend the pre-conference seminar by itself. [More information]

SESSION ABSTRACT

Frequently Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) finds its way into organizations through well intentioned developers taking it upon themselves to install and configure it. Unfortunately this usually leads to a very ad-hoc usage of the product that fails to deliver the real benefits of an integrated Application Lifecycle Management suite.
In this workshop we start by setting ourselves up with a brand new Team Project on TFS 2012 and then proceed to configure everything required to get our team ready for their first iteration.
This pre-conference workshop is designed to help attendees learn how to get projects started using Microsoft Team Foundation Server. The range of topics covered in this level 200 workshop have been selected to ensure attendees cover the primary areas of value in the product.
Attendees to the workshop receive workshop notes in electronic format which including the hands-on lab exercises, as well as a comprehensive list of resources that they can use after the conference to get up to speed with TFS.

Applying ALM with Visual Studio 2012 Jump Start

anthonyborton — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:12:13 +0000

Fellow Visual Studio ALM MVP, Steven Borg and I will be teaming up to present a free one-day Jump Start online training course on May 1st, 2013. This course will be offered through the Microsoft Virtual Academy, a cloud-based learning experience focusing on Microsoft Technologies and hosted on the latest Microsoft Azure technology.

Applying ALM with Visual Studio 2012 (exam 70-498) Jump Start

This course follows the criteria for exam 70-498 and will provide accelerated preparation for this important exam in the MCSD: ALM track.

Find out more about this Jump Start and register now on the Microsoft website here.

All TFS 2012 courses now updated with VS2012.2 content

anthonyborton — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:28:09 +0000

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 on the 4th April 2013. Like the previous update, this one contained a wealth of new and improved features. During the past few months during the various CTP releases of this update, we’ve been busily updating our course content to ensure it is completely up to date with all new features and changes in this update. Today we’re pleased to announce that all of our TFS 2012 courses have now been updated to include content for the release version of Visual Studio 2012 update 2.

You can download Update 2 from the Microsoft Website here.

Microsoft’s ALM Certification–Part 1 of 3

anthonyborton — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:43:00 +0000

Welcome to the first of a three part series I’m writing to help readers learn about Microsoft’s new ALM certification and the three exams required to gain this certification.

In this article I’ll introduce you to the new Microsoft Certified Solution Developer: Application Lifecycle Management certification and then focus on the 70-496 exam. The second article will focus on exam taking tips and then look closely at exam 70-497. The final article will cover exam 70-498 and how to make the most of your new certification.

Microsoft Certified Solution Developer: Application Lifecycle Management

At the ALM Summit in Redmond in February 2013, Microsoft publically announced the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer: Application Lifecycle Management certification. While the certification has been available for a couple of months, this was the first public announcement. It was also confirmation of the re-birth of the MCSD certification which had previously been retired in favour of the Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) in the 2010 timeframe.

The MCSD: Application Lifecycle Management certification requires the successful completion of the following three exams.

70-496: Administering Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012
70-497: Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012
70-498: Delivering Continuous Value with Visual Studio 2012 Application Lifecycle Management

These exams can be taken in any order but we’ll walk through them in numeric order over this three part series.

Exam 70-496: Administering Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012

On September 25th 2012 Microsoft released the Administering Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 exam. This is the third release of an exam focusing on administration and configuration of TFS with the two previous exams focusing on TFS 2010 (exam 70-512) and TFS 2005 (exam 70-510).

Microsoft Learning provide a dedicated page on their website for each exam and you can find details of this particular exam at http://examcr.am/TyAYs3

While the specific audience for this exam is described on the exam page, I would summarise this from experience by saying that this exam would be well suited for the “TFS Guru” or “TFS goto person” within your organisation. Remember this exam is not for people that just use TFS to support their development, but rather it suits the person that installs, configures, customises and maintains the health of your TFS server infrastructure.

Exam Details

Exam code:	70-496
Exam title:	Administering Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012
Release date:	September 25th, 2012
Pass mark:	700 (70%)
Questions:	Approximately 45 questions
Time:	Approximately 145 minutes

Exam Preparation Best Bet

If you’ve got limited time or you’re feeling pretty confident, I’d suggest you focus on the TFS 2012 Installation and Administration guides. These are both freely downloadable CHM files, available on the Microsoft website at http://examcr.am/10Ln5E4

Download both CHM files and read them to ensure you understand the majority of the information covered. Look for knowledge gaps and focus in on those areas for your study. For example, you may have a single combined application tier/data tier configuration in your office. You will still need to know how to install and configure a TFS infrastructure comprising load balanced multi-server TFS configurations.

Exam Preparation – a closer look

The 70-496 exam comprised four key topic areas. These areas are well described on the Microsoft Learning exam page but let’s take a look at how we can focus our study using the free, online MSDN library.

Install and Configure Team Foundation Server (25%)

This topic covers the following high level areas.

Install Team Foundation Server
Configure the application tier
Migrate and upgrade Team Foundation Server
Install and configure Lab Management
Install and configure multiple build agents and controllers

Much of the information for this topic can be found on the MSDN Library under a topic titled “Installing Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio ALM”. Make sure you read all child nodes underneath this topic on MSDN.

Manage Team Foundation Server (26%)

This topic covers the following high level areas.

Manage Team Project Collections
Configure for backup and recovery
Monitor server health and performance
Operate Lab Management
Manage security
Manage reporting for Team Foundation Server

The MSDN Library link for this exam topic is titled “Administering Team Foundation Server”. Remember to read all child nodes underneath this topic on MSDN.

Customize Team Foundation Server for Team Use (24%)

This topic covers the following high level areas.

Configure a team build definition
Manage build execution
Modify a process template
Configure a team project
Apply Work Item customizations
Create Work Item queries
Configure client connectivity to Team Foundation Server

There are a couple of MSDN Library links for this exam topic. Try looking at “Define Your Build Process” and “Customize Process Templates”

Administer Version Control (25%)

This topic covers the following high level areas.

Create and manage workspaces
Configure version control proxy
Configure team project version control settings

The fourth and final exam topic area also has two primary locations on MSDN for you to focus your study. Firstly look “Using Version Control” and then “Team Foundation Version Control Command Reference”

Exam Preparation – Online Webinars

My colleague, Nick Hauenstein and I, are running a series of free online exam preparation webinars to help people get ready for the exam. You can find out more about these and register online at http://www.quicklearn.com/exam-cram

Good all-purpose resources

The following two books represent great resources, not just for the exams but for anyone working with or supporting Microsoft Team Foundation Server.

	Professional Team Foundation Server 2012 Authors: Ed Blankenship, Martin Woodward, Grant Holliday and Brian Keller.
	Professional Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio 2012 Authors: Mickey Gousset, Brian Keller and Martin Woodward.

That concludes part 1 of this series. See you next month for the second instalment which focuses on exam 70-487: Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012.

ALM MVP for a 7th year

anthonyborton — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:37:35 +0000

January 1st is one of 4 dates during the year when Microsoft announce their new and renewed Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). As someone that was awarded on the January 1st, it means the year starts off with a regular scan of my emails to see if my community contributions have been sufficient to be re-awarded.

To be clear the reward is in the fact that I can look back over the past twelve months and look at the many contributions I have made to the ALM community. The MVP award is just a nice acknowledgement of this.

The Visual Studio ALM MVP community is an awesome bunch of people and I’m looking forward to meeting up with most of them at the MVP Summit in February.

Power Tools are your best friend

anthonyborton — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:46:12 +0000

Power tools are an awesome way for Microsoft teams to release out-of-band utilities and tools that can really help round out rough edges and missing features from a product. Here are a few of the Power Tools you should really consider installing if you use any of these products.

Productivity Power Tools for Visual Studio 2012 (NEW)

The Productivity Power Tools for Visual Studio 2010 were both very popular and very useful for any developer using Visual Studio 2010. The long wait for the updated 2012 version of these great power tools is now over.

Read the full details on The Visual Studio Blog

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 Power Tools

These great power tools are a set of enhancements, tools, and command-line utilities that increase productivity of Team Foundation Server scenarios.

You can download the TFS 2012 Power Tools on the Visual Studio Gallery.

SQL Server Data Tools Power Tools for Visual Studio 2012

Not to be forgotten, the SDDT team also have their very own Power Tools for anyone using the SQL Server Data Tools.

The SSDT Power Tools can be found on the MSDN website.

New first-run testing course heads to Sydney

anthonyborton — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:52:56 +0000

January sees one of our new TFS 2012 courses running for the first time in Sydney. This new course is focused on Test Automation, Web Performance and Load Testing using Visual Studio 2012. This is a completely new course that was created when we split the existing TFS 2010 testing course into two courses for 2012. We have increased both the breadth and depth of content in the courses to provide even better learning outcomes.

You can download the courses outlines for the courses from the ALM Training website.

If you’d like to attend this new course in Sydney on 15th January, book before 25th December to receive our 15% early bird discount. Register online.

You can also check when these course are running using our online schedule.

Becoming a Microsoft Quality Enablement Specialist

anthonyborton — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 22:26:58 +0000

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sit for Microsoft exam 70-497: Software Testing with Visual Studio 2012. Having successfully passed this exam (my 56th MS exam), I am now officially a Microsoft Quality Enablement Specialist. Here’s a copy of the certificate.

From the Microsoft Learning website, they state the audience for this exam is software testers. Typically those people that manage the process of running tests, creating and monitoring bugs, and managing and mitigating issues that a software organization has in controlling test coverage for project requirements. In short, basically it focuses on Microsoft Test Manager 2012.

What’s the best way to prepare for the exam?

Option A: Self-study

The Microsoft Learning website has information about the exam including the Skills Being Measured. This is a checklist of the topics you need to know well before attempting the exam. If you learn best by researching yourself and using the tool, this is your best option.

Option B: Classroom based training (including remote online)

How I personally prepared for the exam was to update a course I had written for TFS 2010 to the latest 2012 release. While you could always write your own training course to help you get ready for the exam, it might be a lot quicker for you to attend one of my courses. (View course outline | Download PDF)
Upcoming courses in the United States (More info)
- December 3rd & 4th, 2012
- February 7th & 8th, 2013
- April 15th & 16th, 2013
Upcoming courses in Australia (More Info)
- 17th & 18th January 2013 (SYD)
- 4th & 5th Mar 2013 (MEL)
- 6th & 7th Mar 2013 (CBR)
Enquire about having this course run onsite for you anywhere in the world
- Email enquiry@alm-training.com

Microsoft exam 70-497 preparation

anthonyborton — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 19:17:34 +0000

Microsoft has recently release three new exams for TFS 2012. This is a big change from the single exam that has been available for previous versions of TFS.

As the author of 6 comprehensive training courses for TFS 2012, I wanted to let anyone studying to take the 70-497 exam know that the following 2-day course is a great way to prepare yourself to take the exam.

Software Testing with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012
(View course outline | Download Course outline – PDF)

The course pre-dated the release of the exam and the primary purpose of the course remains educating people how to use Microsoft Test Manager 2012 effectively. That said, the course covers the majority of topics listed in Microsoft’s official exam preparation guide.

The course is offered in a variety of formats including public classroom based, onsite and remotely online training. Find out more about where and when the course in running at http://www.alm-training.com If you’re interested in an onsite training course, please email enquiry@alm-training.com.