Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - May 13, 2010, 11:48 pm
Due to the damage caused to the Opryland Hotel from Nashville’s severe flooding this month, the location for the Agile Alliance’s Agile 2010 conference has been moved to The Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The dates will remain the same (August 9 - 13th). You can find more d...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Apr 11, 2010, 11:45 pm
I became involved with the Nashville Agile User Group a few years ago, first as an attendee and then helping out as an organizer. As with most groups with volunteer leadership, the group’s activity rises and falls with the free time of those organizing it. Both my self and Jeff Mikres have tried t...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Apr 11, 2010, 11:11 pm
You can replace “Architecture Documentation” with any kind of artifact used to describe the design or implementation of your application. This can also apply to requirements, but for this article we’ll stick with technical documents. This happens quite a bit in shops that have a heavy waterfal...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Mar 24, 2010, 1:45 pm
On March 10th, the board of the Agile Alliance held a reception here in downtown Nashville at B.B. King’s Blues Club. They were in town to tour the Gaylord Opryland Hotel where they will be hosting the Agile 2010 conference in August. The reception gave local Agile enthusiasts the chance to sit ...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Mar 2, 2010, 4:47 pm
Last week was Microsoft’s MVP Summit in Redmond, WA and this was my first year to attend. The week was packed with tons of content and events and it was hard to decide what to go to at times. The Team System MVPs (now known as the Visual Studio ALM MVPs) basically sequestered ourselves in a room o...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Mar 2, 2010, 4:47 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Feb 8, 2010, 11:14 pm
You hear them all the time in software development shops, these common phrases that always get a laugh in my presentations because people are so familiar with them. And while we hear them and maybe even say them ourselves, we seldom take a closer look at the underlying issues with our software devel...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Feb 8, 2010, 11:14 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 24, 2009, 2:40 pm
If you don’t want to click on each download link for the 12 files for each of the VSTS 2008 and VS 2010 Beta 2 VPC image files you can use the free download manager and these two text files (download them from here) that have all the URLs and you can import them to make it a bit easier.
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 24, 2009, 2:40 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 24, 2009, 9:08 am
Microsoft has released a series of virtual images with Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 and 2010 Beta 2 for educational purposes. These images contain all you need to get started and are great for learning and demos (which is what I use them for). The VSTS 2008 versions expire in Jan 2011 so you have a whole...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 24, 2009, 9:08 am
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 22, 2009, 11:13 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 22, 2009, 11:13 pm
I’ve been lucky enough to have been invited to speak at the Lap Around PDC event here in Nashville on Jan. 20, 2010. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, will be delivering the keynote. I will be doing a 70 minute session on Visual Studio 2010. The event is free but seating is limited so click here to...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 1, 2009, 8:32 am
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Dec 1, 2009, 8:32 am
Conchango has released the second beta of their Team Foundation Server process template for Scrum. This version works with the current beta 2 release of TFS 2010. Click here to download.
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Oct 26, 2009, 2:20 pm
Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN are BIG – and they are getting bigger!  In this session, we’ll explore all the changes to the Visual Studio family of products, including Team Foundation Server as well as recent upgrades and changes to our MSDN line-up.  Please join us for a 60 minute “CA...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Oct 26, 2009, 2:20 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Oct 14, 2009, 10:04 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Oct 14, 2009, 10:04 pm
When I talk to clients about adopting the basic values from the Agile Manifesto, I tell them to imagine sliders between the four entries on the left and right. A good adoption is like mixing a band and as the band plays you adjust the mix constantly to get the best sound. Purists may claim you must ...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Oct 13, 2009, 8:46 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Oct 13, 2009, 8:46 pm
Last week I had to opportunity to visit with the team working on Team System in Raleigh, NC. I contacted Jason Barile via Twitter a few weeks before and asked if I could stop by and he went all out to accommodate me and a few coworkers. I was pleasantly surprised when the meeting started and most of...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Sep 11, 2009, 11:49 am
I am working on a new presentation entitled "Software Craftsmanship for Working Class Developers" where I want to talk about this movement and the difficulties most of us have implementing its ideals in the average work place. The last exercise I want to do in the presentation is a group refactor of...
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Sep 11, 2009, 11:49 am
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Sep 6, 2009, 9:48 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Jul 23, 2009, 11:00 am
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Jul 9, 2009, 2:05 pm
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Tommy N. posted an article on Tommy Norman - Jul 9, 2009, 12:22 pm
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