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If you have implemented Scrum for Team System v2.2 in a TFS 2008 environment with SQL Server 2008 as the database, then you will find that you get the below error when viewing the Team Project portal

“Client found response content type of '', but expected 'text/xml'. The request failed with an empty response.No Reports”.

This occurs because SQL Server 2008 has a different web service URL to SQL Server 2005 and the component that lives on the WSS/MOSS server formulates the wrong URL.

I’ve attached a fixed assembly that will work with both SQL Server 2005 and 2008, this needs to be dropped into the GAC of the server running WSS or MOSS with Scrum for Team System.  Future versions will likely not take this dependency on the TFS server.

As part of work recently to improve how we test the Scrum for Team System template and tools across different platforms, we have discovered there are a few additional manual steps to take when you are installing the template in a distributed environment (i.e. you are using a remote WSS 3 or MOSS 2007 server to host your Team Project Portals).

First of all, when WSS is not installed locally on the TFS App Tier machine, Integrated Windows authentication is not set for the Default Web Site.  This then means that Applications created under Default Web Site inherit the ‘Enable anonymous access” authentication setting.  Unfortunately this affects the correct operation of the services that underpin correct operation of Scrum for Team System v2.x.

You may also see in a Team Project portal a message that states that an account IUSR_<machinename> is not authorized or licensed to connect to the TFS server (the message may be different according to the version of TFS you have installed):

To fix this issue with the IIS 6 Management tool:  On the TFS Application Tier server, navigate to the IIS Manager, Default Web Site.  Right click on the ‘ScrumforTeamSystem’ application and click on Properties.  On the Directory Security tab, click Edit within the ‘Authentication and access control’ region.  Untick ‘Enable anonymous access’ and tick ‘Integration Windows authentication’.  Press OK on all dialogs.

We will be making a fix to a future version the installer to set this explicitly but we wanted to get the information out there now so people with this issue can set things up correctly.

The second issue is that when you have a remote WSS/MOSS set up, you cannot access the Report List in a Team Project created by Scrum for Team System v2.x.  Instead you receive a message as follows:

The reason for this in most cases is that the TFS Report List web part hosted within MOSS/WSS relies on passing through the user authentication to the Reporting Services server (typically hosted on the TFS App Tier).  In a dual app-tier environment where MOSS or WSS is on a separate server, this means that Kerberos delegation must be configured, as NTLM authentication does not allow you to make cross machine calls as that user once authenticated.

As a domain administrator, using the “Active Directory Users and Computers” tool on a domain controller, find the MOSS/TFS server in the AD, and in the Properties > Delegation tab, select ‘Trust this computer for delegation to any service (Kerberos only).  Your own network policies may dictate a finer set of delegation settings than listed here.

No restart of any services should be required by this change.  Refresh the Team Project portal page in your browser.

Once this step has been completed you may encounter a message similar to the following:

If this is the case, it is most likely that the permissions to browse the reports have not been set correctly.  Please visit the Microsoft documentation on this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb558971.aspx and follow the instructions “To add a member to the Browser group in Reporting Services”.

If symptoms persist, you can review the Scrum for Team System support forum at http://www.scrumforteamsystem.com/forum to see if your issue has been resolved there, or raise a new topic there.

I remember attending the keynote at TechEd 2007 and being disappointed that ASP.NET applications will not run on Windows Server “Core” 2008.

Well today I’m happy to learn that ASP.NET and a “subset of .NET 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5” (whatever that means) will be optional components in Windows Server 2008 R2.

See http://blogs.technet.com/server_core/archive/2008/11/13/server-core-changes-in-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx for more information.

Whilst surfing this morning I found this website: http://browsershots.org 

"Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here."

Once you've submitted the site, you can view the results as they come in, and download all the screenshots in a single file.  Very neat.

• We've finally got rid of our demons and are now using the 'Iteration Path' to define the hierarchy of Project/Release/Sprint. This means that those ambiguous Sprint numbers are not required, and items on the backlog can easily be moved from one release to another (especially easy with the Excel integration).  It also means that when you 'Add Related Work Item' - the Sprint name is copied to the new work item.
  
  

• We've added support for using User Stories and associated terminology in the backlog, for example you can specify 'Conditions of Acceptance' in the Product Backlog with an estimate in Story Points or Days.
  
• We've added a 'Ready for Test' state to the Sprint Backlog Item to allow for better workflow between developers and QA on the project.  This should minimise the number of bugs/defects that aren't related to tasks for this sprint.
  
• A new work item type 'Bug' is modelled on the Product Backlog Item and allows for capture of bugs/defects that are raised 'out of sprint' - such as those raised by a UAT cycle, or a bug that isn't critical that the Product Owner can help prioritise.  The Bug work item type also allows for input of Replication Steps and other details you would associate with bugs (and of course you can add your own fields to capture more if you desire).
  
• The project portal has been updated, and we allow management of the 'Teams' and 'Environment' lists using this interface.  This means there are no longer any client tools required to setup the project.  The Project Portal now only runs on WSS 3.0 and we've included some WSS 3.0 features such as the Wiki and Team Discussion by default in the template.
  
  

• Backend services have been completely rewritten for efficiency.  We still have the service running to keep the Work Remaining in sync between the Product Backlog Item and its related Sprint Backlog Items, and have added a service that automatically sets Product Backlog Items 'In Progress' when related Sprint Backlog Items are being worked on.

We've selected a subset of the refreshed reports for this early release, including the Sprint and Product Backlog, Product Backlog Composition and Sprint View (aka Sprint Wall). We've also incorporated a large number of community suggestions from our Feature Request forum, and will continue to do so where we have the capability within the platform.

It has been a busy time here at Conchango as we've been making plenty of changes to get Scrum for Team System working on Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server and also incorporating changes driven by community feedback and usage of the plugin on our own development projects.

We should be ready to release after we have tested all the components on the RTM of Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server and Team Suite.

I'll be writing more about the release in the coming weeks but here's a press release, going out today to whet the appetite:

At the Scrum Gathering this week, Conchango is announcing that Scrum for Team System v2.0 Standard Edition will be made available to download free of charge from http://www.scrumforteamsystem.com to coincide with the general availability of Visual Studio Team System 2008.

Community feedback has driven much of the enhancements, which builds on the success of the first version.  The enhancements include:

• A new Release and Sprint model.
• Sophisticated bug resolution workflow.
• Multiple release views of the Product Backlog.
• Day by day Release Burndown report.
• Support for User Story format in the Product Backlog.
• Support for estimates in Story Points or Days in the Product Backlog.
• Improved reporting functionality and performance.
• Compatibility with Visual Studio Team System 2008.
• Compatibility with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

We are still working on tasks for release, and will make further information available as soon as the template is released publicly.

I'll hopefully be demoing Scrum for Team System v2.0 at the Agile Development Practices conference in Orlando on December 6th 2007.  Watch this space for more information.

This one comes up frequently in our development teams, especially those who have transitioned a project off VSS and into Team Foundation Server.  The question usually goes something like:

 "Someone has installed VS 2005 + Team Explorer on an existing Windows XP box.  They login using their domain credentials open VS 2005, they have access to TFS via Team Explorer. When every they try to view the source control everything is grayed out?
 
Source Control Explorer has not created an work space but on their Vista machine they have access and an work space, do you know what can be the problem?"

Well, the most likely problem is that their VS is not setup to use Team Foundation Server as the source control plugin.  To resolve this, visit Tools > Options > Source Control and select "Visual Studio Team Foundation Server" from the list.