First/Alpha release of my Scrum for Team System Quickboard Project (Think “10 foot SfTS Dashboard”)

CodePlex - Scrum for Team System Quickboard

In my day life, my team uses the very cool Scrum for Team System (SfTS) TFS template. While it does almost everything we need, the one thing I wanted to see was a very quick dashboard like screen with some general Sprint summary information. The Sprint Burn down, PBI and SBI counts and hours, that would auto update every XX minutes, etc. Something I could keep up and running in the Team room next to our Build Status screen...

So I wrote one.

This is a work in progress and is very tightly coupled to the SfTS. I am using this project as a tool to help me and my team manage our Sprints, as means to learn WPF, MVVM, and the TFS API (with a little SQL Server Reporting Services fun mixed in).

THIS CODE IS FUGLY! Due to all the “firsts” for me (i.e. WPF/XAML, MVVM, TFS API, etc) in this project I’m hacking and slashing away just trying to get the darn thing to work. Yes, I know the WPF isn’t “right”. I know my MVVM – Models are not “right” yet. I know the UI is BUGLY. I know there are no unit tests yet. I know the code is fugly… Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But it fricken works and since I’m doing this on my time, on my dime, “working” is the goal. I’ll be improving, refactoring it over time, as I “INSERT WPF/MVVM INTO Greg.Brain”…

Dev/Tech Notes

• Model-View-View Model (MVVM) based WPF application.
• Consumes the TFS API.
• Written in Visual Basic 8

Standing on the shoulders of giants, here are some sources that without which this project would have been much harder (and I’d have lost even more hair … ;)

WPF

• Adventures in .NET - WPF: What happened to InvokeRequired/Invoke? (Also: Timers) "System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer()" - http://adventuresdotnet.blogspot.com/2008/11/wpf-what-happened-to.html
• How to create an attached property in WPF using a ComboBox - http://blog.fossmo.net/post/How-to-create-an-attached-property-in-WPF-using-a-ComboBox.aspx

Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM)

• Via Tweet from @huseyint, Jason Dolinger on Model-View-ViewModel - http://blog.lab49.com/archives/2650, http://www.lab49.com/files/videos/Jason%20Dolinger%20MVVM.wmv
• Code for "WPF Apps With the Model-View-ViewModel Design Pattern" - http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mag200902MVVM
• WPF Apps With The Model-View-ViewModel Design Pattern - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx
• Implementing Model-View-ViewModel in WPFImplementing Model-View-ViewModel in WPF - http://pixel8.infragistics.com/Default.aspx#Episode:11933
• pixel8 - Implementing Model-View-ViewModel in SilverlightImplementing Model-View-ViewModel in Silverlight -  http://pixel8.infragistics.com/Default.aspx#Episode:11927
• WPF and MVVM Links - http://geekswithblogs.net/dtotzke/archive/2009/03/31/130554.aspx

TFS API

• VS2008 - VS2008 SDK - Team Foundation Server SDK - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb130146.aspx
• Visual Studio 2008 SDK Version 1.0 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=30402623-93ca-479a-867c-04dc45164f5b&displaylang=en
• Programming Team Foundation Server with the TFS SDK - http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/40739/0/page/2
• Scrum Dashboard - http://www.codeplex.com/scrumdashboard
• TFS Project Template - http://msmvps.com/blogs/vstsblog/archive/2009/01/14/download-visual-studio-2008-project-template-for-tfs-utilities.aspx
• TFS Spotlight - http://www.codeplex.com/tfsspotlight/SourceControl/changeset/view/18140#89646
• Team Foundation Server observations bucket, How to deal with areas or iterations using API - http://teamfoundation.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-deal-with-areas-or-iterations.html
• TFS API Examples - http://www.tfsexamples.com/default.aspx

SQL Server Reporting Services

• SQL Server 2008 Books Online (January 2009)
  Using URL Access Parameters - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms152835.aspx
• Specifying Device Information Settings in a URL - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155046(SQL.90).aspx
  Image
• Device Information Settings - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155373(SQL.90).aspx

Special Note
To reemphasize the point, I, and this project, are not directly associated with Conchango or the Scrum for Team System project in any way. I'm just a consumer of the template, trying to add a little value and give a little back... (i.e. this is “Fan-ware… ;)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Scrum Resources
Scrum for Team System 2.2 Released – More Reports, bug fixes, SQL Server 2008 and new Report Slide Show feature