Site: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jmeier/ Link: http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/rss.xml
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 12/15/2011 4:14:01 PM
As we get ready to turn the page for a new year, it's a great time to reflect on what you achieved, and an ever better time to set fresh goals. This is a short story on how I changed my approach for goals and New Year's Resolutions. A few years back, as New Years was approach, I decided that I would do a deep dive on how to set and achieve goals. I wanted absolute clarity on goals. I wanted to know the distinction between goals and objectives. I wanted to really understand ho ...
[ read more ]
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 9/19/2011 3:42:54 PM
“I think it is one of the foundations of the next generation of computing." -- Tim O'Reilly While putting together lessons learned from our Cloud-related Enterprise Strategy engagements, we consolidated a set of recurring IT scenarios and themes. You may find these useful if you are thinking about cloud opportunities from an IT perspective, and are looking for some common patterns and perspectives. IT scenarios for the Cloud are technical scenarios that can ultimately be linked back ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 9/15/2011 3:16:21 PM
While putting together lessons learned from our Enterprise Strategy cloud engagements, we consolidated a set of recurring business scenarios and themes. You may find these useful if you are thinking about cloud opportunities from a business perspective, and are looking for some common patterns and perspectives. The following business opportunities reflect common motivation for Cloud migration: Achieve cost-effective business continuity Create new revenue streams from existing capa ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 9/13/2011 3:41:47 PM
While putting together business scenarios for the cloud, one of the scenarios that came up is “create new revenue streams from existing capabilities.” The business opportunity, solution, and benefits are summarized as follows: Opportunity Monetize business capabilities as a revenue generator. Leveraging a cloud platform to achieve a business capability can prove profitable through extending the implementation for others to consume on a subscription basis. ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 9/12/2011 3:50:29 PM
While putting together business scenarios for the cloud, one of the scenarios that came up is “achieve cost-effective business continuity.” The business opportunity, solution, and benefits are summarized as follows: Opportunity Business continuity risk can be transferred to vendors by leveraging cloud solutions. Cloud providers can provide robust and less expensive business continuity solutions than businesses can achieve alone. Solution ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 8/18/2011 6:21:48 AM
I don’t do a lot of interviews, but I like what Carl and Richard do for the .NET developer community at large, so I agreed to shoot the breeze … Check out the .NET Rocks Interview on Getting Results the Agile Way. Carl and Richard were curious to learn more about the system and what it’s all about. I warned them up front that it’s not about agile development, and that it’s actually a system that anybody can use to get better, faster, simpler results. That said, if you are a develo ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 8/2/2011 3:33:13 PM
A code sample is worth a thousand words. Here are a few projects to take a look at that go beyond just code snippets to show you how to put key technologies together in the form of sample applications. (Note, if you are looking for just code snippets and focused code samples, you can check out the Microsoft All-in-One Code Framework project site on CodePlex.) Layered Architecture Solution Guidance Project Site - http://layerguidance.codeplex.com ”Designing and creating layered ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 7/19/2011 5:55:23 PM
It’s always great to see how technology can help make the world a better place. You might remember Ed Jezierski from his Microsoft days. In his early years at Microsoft, he worked on the Microsoft Developer Support team, helping customers succeed on the platform. These early experiences taught Ed the value of teamwork and collaboration, extreme customer focus, and the value of principles, patterns, and proven practices for addressing recurring issues, and building more r ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 4/9/2011 6:28:30 PM
While researching some cloud topics, I came across a nice resource on TechNet called How Microsoft IT Does It. It’s an insider’s look showcasing how our Microsoft IT department plans for, deploys, and manages our enterprise solutions across the business lines using our Microsoft product and technology platforms. Here is a roundup of the cloud-focused resources. Videos Cloud Computing: What Customers are Discussing with Microsoft IT How Microsoft IT Built Application Segmentation and M ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 3/8/2011 6:17:16 AM
Jeff Braaten let me know that the MSDN Library Home is now featuring Quick Links … and it’s poetry in motion: The point behind the Quick Links is to help you jump quickly to some of the most popular areas of the MSDN Library. App Types / Platform Technology Clusters The links are clustered around key application types and platform technology areas: Cloud Development Data Development Desktop Development Game Development Phone Development Web Development API Reference, ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/28/2011 4:05:47 PM
“Life is like skiing. Just like skiing, the goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It’s to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.” – Seth Godin It's been a good run. After more than 10 years in patterns & practices, I'm on to my next adventure here at Microsoft. For this post, I wanted to take a stroll down memory lane. During my time at patterns & practices, I learned more about project management, application architecture, software development, proces ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/20/2011 12:29:51 AM
Picking projects purely based on ROI is a narrow lens. Sandra A. Swanson writes about using a broader approach for picking projects in her article, “All Things Considered”, in PM Network magazine. Swanson quotes R. Max Wideman, author of A Management Framework for Project, Program, and Portfolio Integration, on his perspective: “Benefits realization is a much broader concept and encompasses not only financial gain, but all those intangibles such as improved working conditions, ease ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/20/2011 12:08:00 AM
"All projects experience changing requirements. Traditional projects view this as bad. Agile projects embrace it." -- Steven Thomas, BBC Kelley Hunsberger writes about embracing scope creep, rather than fight it in her article “Change is Good”, in PM Network. According to Hunsberger, scope creep can create three key opportunities: Clients can figure out exactly what they want - clients figure out what they really want through the process The project team dis ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/16/2011 6:54:44 PM
"All models are wrong, but some are useful." -- George Box I often see confusion over reference models, reference architectures, and reference implementations. In this post, I’ll share my experience and learnings and observations: Reference Model - A Reference model is a model of something that embodies the basic goals or ideas, and you can use it at as a reference for various purposes. It’s like holding up a diamond and looking at the different facets. It basica ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/8/2011 7:50:17 PM
Early in my patterns & practices days, each time I built a new team, we had a hard time figuring out what level to cater our writing for because we had such a variety of audience, even among architects. After a lot of pain, we finally adopted a three-level system that serves us very well. It helped us focus our writing and nail problems in an incremental way. You’ll never see this in our docs, but it shaped how we prioritize our docs. We used three levels … Three Levels o ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/5/2011 8:12:20 PM
What proven practices have you seen are vital behaviors that significantly contribute to customer success? … That’s a common question I get, having spent the bulk of my time at Microsoft in patterns & practices. In fact, that’s a question the Windows Azure team asked me last Summer, as a way to boil down my lessons learned from patterns & practices and turn the insight into action. Let me first set the stage that this information is primarily what contributes to a product’s succe ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/5/2011 4:41:06 PM
Here is an example of a simple, but surprisingly effective way to test your product success. Around patterns & practices, a few of us affectionately called this a “consumer reports” view. Whether your product is prescriptive guidance or code, the concept is the same – you’re testing your product against user scenarios. To create a Scenario Scoreboard, simply put together a matrix of scenarios. Next, add criteria. Next, test against the scenarios and rate the criteria. Note – Th ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 2/5/2011 3:09:35 PM
One way to drive more effective product design is to start with scenarios. One way to think of this is “Persona-based scenarios with goals.” You can use the scenarios as test cases. The scenarios can help you evaluate the design and they can help you evaluate implementation. Simply put, “Can the persona or user perform the particular scenario effectively?” You can then use criteria to evaluate. It’s test-driven product design. You can imagine how you can start wit ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 1/18/2011 7:11:57 PM
I saw the Facebook privacy issue on the news. I remember somebody saying, developers should just be responsible. A common practice is to "make it work, then make it right." The problem is, you don't always get a chance to "make it right." That very much depends on what your organization values. The values define the culture. I flashed back to our early values in patterns & practices. The thing to know about values, is that values flow down.& ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 12/15/2010 7:00:06 PM
I put together a trends map in my trends for 2011 post. I took a look across consumer trends, Enterprise trends, market trends, and what's on the minds of CIOs, CFOs, and CEOs. I also drew from my experience from talking with key folks on what's going on, including many customers and what they're focused on. I included a round up and distillation of many sources, so you can drill into even more. The post is long, but I've saved you several hours, if not days, of research and bubble ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 12/14/2010 4:03:06 AM
This is an updated Windows Phone 7 Developer Guidance Map. I’ve updated it to include a map of some of the key resources available from the App Hub Content Catalog. The App Hub Content Catalog includes several articles, code samples, tutorials, and tools. For the purposes of this map, I didn’t include the articles. I kept the focus on code samples, How Tos, videos, and training (but I did add a tools section this round.) Microsoft has an extensive collection of de ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 12/7/2010 7:15:02 PM
I promised my readers to share ways to read faster. One key note up front – I read for pleasure slowly, but when I read to learn or for work, I read very quickly. I only use these techniques when I’m reading non-fiction, to learn, or as part of the job. I've learned to read faster out of necessity. I get a lot of email, and I don't like to spend time in my email. I do a lot of research while creating prescriptive guidance, and reading comes with the turf. I r ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 11/10/2010 7:56:46 PM
I’ve originally shared this in other places and other ways, but I’m consolidating here to make it easier to share a link. As more teams ask me about Customer-Connected Engineering (CCE), it’s easier to just point them here for a quick overview. Customer Connected Engineering is a practice we’ve used across our patterns & practices teams for engaging customers throughout the life cycle. We involved customers during the planning, development, and release of our deliverables. Basically, ...
by JD Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 11/2/2010 6:57:29 PM
Developer Guidance Maps are treasure maps and guided tours of our developer content collections. They are consolidated and organized views of content collections spanning Channel9, MSDN Developer Centers, MSDN Library, Code Gallery, CodePlex, the All-in-One Code Framework, www.ASP.net, www.Silverlight.net, WindowsClient.net, etc. I’m creating these as part of our “IA” effort. One of the things I’ve been tasked with is creating an IA, or "information architecture," for ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 10/2/2010 7:12:38 PM
“Agile Results” is the name of the “personal results system” inside Getting Results the Agile Way. People that have tried every personal productivity system under the sun tend to ask me, what’s so different about this system or why does it work? Here are the key things I usually say: It’s a mindful approach. It’s not about doing more, and it’s not about doing less. It’s about doing the right things, at the right time, the right way, with the right energy. It’ ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 9/27/2010 1:37:35 AM
As part of creating an "information architecture" for developer guidance at Microsoft, one of the tasks means mapping out what we already have. That means mapping out out our Microsoft developer content assets across Channel9, MSDN Developer Centers, MSDN Library, Code Gallery, CodePlex, the All-in-One Code Framework, etc. You can browse our Developer Guidance Maps at http://innovation.connect.microsoft.com/devguidancemaps One of my favorite features is the one-click access tha ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 9/26/2010 10:09:23 PM
As part of rounding up our available developer content, one area I can’t ignore is code samples. Code samples are where the rubber meets the road. They turn theory into practice. They also help eliminate ambiguity … As Ward Cunningham says, “It’s all talk until the code runs.” This post is a quick rundown of how I’m looking at code samples. Code Snippets, Code Samples, and Sample Applications I’ve found it useful to think of code samples in three sizes: code snippets ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 12/22/2008 10:18:47 PM
I tested Evernote with my time management system, The Zen of Results. Evernote is like ITunes for knowledge. Check out how easily The Zen of Results fit with Evernote: It took me under 5 minutes from start to finish. It was intuitive and friction free. One of the keys to effective time management techniques is getting rid of friction, otherwise it's death by a 1000 paper cuts in the long run. I expected some learning curve or some issues, so I was pleasantly sur ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 10/21/2008 2:26:37 PM
As part of our patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide 2.0 project, we've been hunting and gathering our patterns from across our patterns & practices catalog. Here's an initial draft of our patterns & practices Patterns Catalog at a Glance: Cheat Sheet: patterns & practices Patterns Catalog (CodePlex) Pattern Catalog To collect the patterns, we first identified the key projects that focused on patterns: Composite Application Guidance for WPF (MSD ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 5/25/2007 3:42:00 PM
Today we released our Beta 1 of Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications Guide. It shows you an end-to-end approach for implementing performance testing, based on lessons learned from applied use in customer scenarios. Whether you're new to performance testing or looking for ways to improve your current approach, you'll find insights you can use. Contents at a Glance Part 1, Introduction to Performance Testing Part II, Exemplar Performance Testing Approaches Part III, Ident ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 5/23/2007 6:33:00 PM
Today we released our Beta 1 of Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Guide. It's our Microsoft playbook for TFS. This is our guide to help show you how to make the most of Team Foundation Server. It's a distillation of many lessons learned. It's a collaborative effort among product team members, field, industry experts, MVPs, and customers. Contents at a Glance Part I, Fundamentals Part II, Source Control Part III, Builds Part IV, Large Project Cons ...
by J.D. Meier via J.D. Meier's Blog on 4/21/2007 9:02:00 PM
One technique for pointing your Web services and database references to alternate locations during development is to use a user.config file. Although you could change your app.config references directly, using a level of indirection keeps your production settings intact while carving out just the references to your Web services and database connections. To use this approach, you point your app.config file to a user.config file. You then store your user.config file with ...
The content of the postings is owned by the respective author. CSharpFeeds is not responsible for the contents of the postings. This site is automatically generated and cannot be reviewed for abusive content. If you find abusive content on CSharpFeeds, please contact us. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
