Author: Jason St-Cyr

  • Profiling Integration Performance on a Tight Budget

    Application performance is heavily dependent on the performance of the communications between the primary application and all other integrated systems.  Even the tiniest of changes in a connected system can suddenly cause a huge performance hit.  For example, a small web service retrieving data about a user when they log…

  • Dungeons and Dragons TFS Process Template

    There was no way that I could resist downloading the D&D process template posted by the TFS product team on their blog.  I absolutely NEEDED to see what had been done inside here.  The blog post was very bare on the details, but it seems that with a few configuration changes…

  • TDS: So you’re deploying Sitecore to a new environment…

    TDS: So you’re deploying Sitecore to a new environment…

    If you’ve been using TDS to do automated deployments for Sitecore, you’ll eventually need to start deploying to a new environment.  Maybe you’ve set up your local environment, and now you want to get that process working in a daily build environment.  Maybe you want to automate deployment to a…

  • Scrum. Difficult Conversations. Start with Prioritization.

    Mike Vizdos’ post on having difficult conversations at the strategic level about Scrum and Agile is a few months old but always relevant. Whether we are trying to make the change to Agile in our own companies, or whether we are trying to work with a partner and get on…

  • ALM Summit Videos now posted

    For those of you that have been following my series on the ALM sessions at the end of January in Redmond, Microsoft has posted the videos from the summit over on Channel9. I’ve updated my own posts to include video links, so if you prefer to read through the posts…

  • Integration Testing with Unit Tests and MSTest

    In many of the projects that I have worked on, the application we’re building needs to integrate with a back-end system or a web service layer that is maintained by a third party or by another team.  In these cases, we shouldn’t assume we’ll have the ability to ensure that…

  • Applying Parameter Templates to the Sitecore Sublayouts

    I recently got into a discussion on LinkedIn on how to let the Sitecore authors style their pages more easily, and it seems like folks out there are still a little confused on how to use parameter templates for your sublayouts. I guess the first thing that everybody should know…

  • ALM Summit: Day Three

    The conference is all done, and I’m finally home from Seattle wishing there was more, but also really wanting to get back into the office and share what I’ve learned. I met some incredible people this week, and had some great conversations around the breakfast table, over beers, and in…

  • ALM Summit: Day Two

    Wow, day two is in the books… where to start?  Well, maybe I’ll start at the end:  Free beer and buffet for over 3 hours definitely provided a nice finish to the end of the day.  I didn’t network the way I imagine I was probably supposed to: milling around the room…

  • ALM Summit: Day One

    I’ve never been to a conference like this before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The conference kicked off Tuesday at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, which is a beautiful building, even if I’ve only seen the conference rooms on the bottom floor so far 🙂  The start-time for registration…

  • Automating Sitecore Deployments with TFS and TDS

    Automating Sitecore Deployments with TFS and TDS

    During development, your team makes a lot of changes to fields, templates, presentation details, and various other elements that need to be tracked, verified, and deployed.  You need a way to source control those database changes, and then make them available to your team to test.  Here’s how to accomplish…

  • Fixed Price: Is it Agile?

    If you’re like me, you’ve dealt with clients who want to make sure their budget is fixed, and their scope is fixed.  They want to know “what am I going to get for my money”.  Setting that commitment up front on an agile project can be difficult, but Ken Clyne…

  • Automating Sitecore Deployments with TeamCity and TDS

    During development, your team makes a lot of changes to fields, templates, presentation details, and various other elements that need to be tracked, verified, and deployed.  You need a way to source control those database changes, and then make them available to your team to test.  Here’s how to accomplish…

  • Source-controlling Sitecore: TDS Project Configuration Basics

    Your Sitecore content changes are just as important as the code you are writing for your solution, and that means you should be tracking those changes in source control.   Your team will be making a lot of changes to fields, templates, presentation details, and various other elements for which you…

  • Managing the Agile Process

    Aaron Bjork made a great presentation at ALM Summit 2011.  I’ll be providing my insights into using TFS 2012 on projects in some upcoming posts, but I think Aaron did an awesome job of explaining some of the agile management issues, as well as showcasing some of the new features…

  • Firing Your QA Team is a Bad Idea

    So you want to transition to agile, and have started reading about how there are only a few roles in an agile team: Scrum Master, Product Owner, or Team Member.  In particular, you may be getting thrown off by this line from the Scrum Guide: Development Teams do not contain…

  • Hinshelwood’s “new normal”

    Not my own words, but I think that Martin Hinshelwood’s posting on the new normal of the modern application lifecycle is a very important read for anybody interested in getting ALM and agile processes working in today’s industry.

  • What type of agile superstar are you?

    In a world of deadlines, tight budgets, and high expectations, sometimes we need that superstar on the team that can “get it done” so we don’t make our clients look bad.  On the many teams I have led, this superstar has shown up in a few different incarnations: The Hare…