Managing Agile Projects Using TFS 2015 or VSTS

This 3-day course provides Project Managers, Scrum masters and Team leads the essential skills required to effectively manage a software development project using Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 or Visual Studio Team Services.

This course focuses on Agile methodologies and includes discussions and content focused on both Scrum and Kanban practises.

In this course, attendees will plan a new software development project and go through the steps to initiate the project using Visual Studio 2015. This includes recording requirements, creating a product backlog and estimating effort for backlog items. We’ll cover planning and running a sprint as well as using the taskboard and burndown chart to track progress.

The course also covers using storyboards to prototype experiences, requesting stakeholder feedback, team collaboration and reporting. The final two modules of the course provide an overview of how testers and developers can work effectively using appropriate tools in the Visual Studio family.
 
This course includes hands-on labs to reinforce practical skills and ensure you’re ready to use the tools on your return to your workplace. All Scrum content adheres to the latest version of the official Scrum Guide and provides helpful preparation for anyone considering gaining Scrum certification.

At the completion of this course, attendees will be able to:

• Describe the full feature set of Microsoft’s Application Lifecycle Management suite
• Understand how Work Item Tracking (WIT) can be used across the entire team
• Create custom work item queries and work item charts
• Use a variety of client tools to interact with team members
• Initiate a new Team Project in either Visual Studio Online or TFS 2015
• Enter requirements into Visual Studio Online or Team Foundation Server including storyboards to illustrate requirements and experiences
• Use the Kanban board to work with the product backlog
• Record estimates in your requirement types
• Plan and run a sprint including tracking progress using task boards and burndown charts
• Understand a number of the quality indicators available
• Use dashboards to view appropriate groups of reports
• Record team capacity and monitor a team’s velocity
• Capture quality feedback from stakeholders
• Configure alerts and notifications for team members
• Understand the out-of-the-box reports and what they can tell us about our project
• Create ad hoc reports using Microsoft Excel 

Audience: This course is designed for Project Managers, Scrum masters, Business Analysts and team leaders looking to effectively manage their development projects using either Visual Studio Team Services or Team Foundation Server 2015.

Pre-requisites: Attendees should have some familiarity with Visual Studio and the basic use of VSTS/TFS.  

Modules:

Module 1: Introducing the Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Family

• What’s new in Visual Studio 2015
• Overview of the Visual Studio 2015 family
• Overview of product features
• A lap around Visual Studio Online
• Project workflow across the Visual Studio 2015 suite of products

Module 2: Initiating a New Project

• Organizing projects in TFS or Visual Studio Online
• Understanding process templates
• Creating a new team project
• Setting team project properties
• Switching between team projects

Module 3: Work Item Primer

• Overview of work items
• Traceability between work items
• Creating custom queries
• Work item charting and pinning charts
• Work item tagging
• Configuring project alerts and notifications

Module 4: Creating Our Product Backlog

• Examining requirement types
• Creating backlog items
• Creating requirement hierarchies using features
• The importance of acceptance criteria

Module 5: Agile Estimation

• Introduction to estimation
• Using story points
• Planning poker and other popular estimation techniques
• Adding your estimates to TFS work items

Module 6: Working from the Product Backlog

• Introducing the Kanban board
• Entering and editing details on the Kanban board
• Customizing columns, including using split columns and limiting WIP
• Recording our Definition of Done (DoD)
• Understanding the cumulative flow diagram

Module 7: Working in Sprints

• Specifying your sprint schedule and your team capacity
• Selecting items for the sprint backlog using forecasting
• Decomposing requirements into tasks
• Using burndown charts to track progress
• Monitoring work using the task board
• Working with unparented work items

Module 8: Retrospectives

• The importance of retrospectives
• Conducting an efficient sprint retrospective
• What you should avoid in your retrospective

Module 9: Working with TFS Teams

• Configuring teams in our team project
• Managing work from a master backlog
• Allocating work to our teams
• Configuring iterations for TFS teams

Module 10: Enhancing Requirements Using Storyboards

• Overview of storyboarding capabilities
• Creating a storyboard to illustrate a requirement
• Linking a storyboard to a work item

Module 11: Getting Stakeholder Feedback

• Introducing the Microsoft Feedback Client
• Using the Microsoft Feedback Client to provide rich feedback to the team
• Adding continuous feedback into your workflow

Module 12: Fostering Team Collaboration

• An overview of the various clients
• The use of email in sharing information
• Using the Team Room
• Choosing the appropriate client tool

Module 13: Creating and Customizing Reports

• Overview of reporting architecture
• Reviewing the out-of-the-box reports
• Adding new reports
• Creating ad hoc reports using Excel

Module 14: Overview of Agile Testing

• The role of the tester in a sprint planning meeting
• A lap around web-based test management
• Creating a test plan
• Creating manual test cases from requirements

Module 15: Overview of Agile Development

• Using My Work to select tasks from the sprint backlog
• Understanding the value of linking changesets to work items
• The importance of unit testing
• Creating a continuous integration build