Author Archives: Steven Borg

About Steven Borg

I'm a technology geek with a strong passion for process, teamwork and the "soft" skills that drive excellent software development teams. Over the past few years I've experienced both brilliant and abysmal software teams. My goal, right now, my burning desire is to improve the lot of the coder. Working in a good team is exhilarating, energizing and fun. It is also far more productive than the alternative. No developer should be left in a poor development team, not when they can be turned around. Turned around and made great!

Installing TFS 2010: A Simple Checklist

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Steven Borg

Simple post.  Simple list for installing TFS 2010. Here are the downloads required for the installation of TFS 2010, a few simple steps for installation, and guidance for verification.  Download Update: Grant Holliday has recently posted a far more comprehensive … Continue reading →

Posted in TFS2010, Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Disable Reporting for a Team Project Collection

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Steven Borg

This post describes how to disable reporting to the warehouse and the OLAP cube for an entire Team Project Collection.  It also discusses why you may want to do so.  But first: Bottom Line Up Front: Pass only the Collection … Continue reading →

Posted in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), TFS2010, Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

TFS 2010 SP1 Upgrade Bug May Cause Warehouse Update to Fail with Error TF221122

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Steven Borg

Applying TFS 2010 SP1 may, in rare instances, cause an error which prevents the data warehouse (and, by extension, the analysis cube) from updating work item information beyond the date and time at which the SP1 was installed.  This means … Continue reading →

Posted in Team Foundation Build, Team Foundation Server, Uncategorized, Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server | 1 Comment

Stack vs Queue: My Latest Personal Kanban Evolution

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Steven Borg

I’ve been using a personal kanban board to track my office work ever since reading Personal Kanban by Jim Benson (ourfounder) and Tonianne DeMaria Barry (Sprezzatura). My latest evolution has been to track how much of my work is planned … Continue reading →

Posted in Kanban, Productivity | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Windows Update (KB2468871) interferes with TFS 2010 (w/o SP1)

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Steven Borg

After installing the latest Windows Update related to .NET 4.0 (KB2468871), Team Builds may begin failing (or simply hanging).  Error logs will show an exception raised that a version of ‘System.Runtime.DurableInstancing’ cannot be loaded. Installing TFS 2010 SP1 will solve … Continue reading →

Posted in team build, Team Foundation Server, TFS2010 | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Do Teams of Cross Functional Individuals Hide Dysfunctions?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Steven Borg

I’m struggling with a concept from Toyota Kata, by Mike Rother. The way I’m reading it, teams of cross-functional individuals hide dysfunctions and can slow process improvement efforts. Or, to be precise, allowing cross-functional team members to assist others hides … Continue reading →

Posted in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), Kanban, Lean, Scrum | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Question on Cross-functional Teams in Scrum

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Steven Borg

Bottom line question: Can a Scrum team be made up of two testers, two developers, one SQL DBA and a build engineer, each of whom ONLY do their own tasks and work as separate silos within the Team? I’m doing … Continue reading →

Posted in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), Scrum | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Scrum vs Kanban: The Smackdown

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Steven Borg

Scrum, the grand-daddy of Agile practices vs Kanban the challenger.  Come see Martin Hinshelwood (ALM MVP and Scrum proponent) and Steven Borg (ALM MVP and Kanban fan) will go head to head, mano-a-mano, wit against wit, to persuade you which … Continue reading →

Posted in Kanban, Lean, Scrum | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Can internal competition be considered “Slack”?

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Steven Borg

Tom DeMarco, in his book “Slack” says “There is no such thing as ‘healthy competition’ in a knowledge organization; all internal competition is destructive.” Tom DeMarco is a smart man, and I love the book “Slack”, so I hesitate to … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Team Days–Day 1!

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Steven Borg

Today was Day 1 of our quarterly Team Days, when the whole Northwest Cadence team gets together to work collaboratively on internal projects, eat way too many snacks, and talk about new strategies.  This quarter Lori brought in a massage … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hiring our next great ALM Consultant

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Steven Borg

Northwest Cadence is growing our team and looking for a great ALM Consultant. Something you are interested in pursuing or know someone who should? Please send any inquiries and resumes to careers@nwcadence.com. At Northwest Cadence, we have created a work … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

MS Office 2007 Required for TFS 2010 Integration

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Steven Borg

Quick note: Office 2007 is required for the TFS 2010 / Office integration. So, if you’re using Excel 2003 or Project 2003, and hoping for integration with TFS 2010 you’re out of luck.  The Office integration in TFS 2010 is … Continue reading →

Posted in VS2010 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Slipstreaming TFS2008 on Windows Server 2008

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Steven Borg

If you’re installing TFS2008 using SQL Server 2008, you MUST slipstream your installation.  However, if you’re installing on Windows Server 2008, and using SQL Server 2005, you do NOT need to slipstream. However… If you’re installing WSS 3.0 on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Team Foundation Server | Tagged | 1 Comment

TechEd 2009: We’re #2 (And #3, and #4)

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Steven Borg

We’re all finally home!  Jeff Levinson, Shad Timm, and I spent last week speaking, listening, learning and playing at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles, CA.  Those who’ve been to TechEd, know the fire hose of information unleashed at the attendees … Continue reading →

Posted in Event, Featured, Practices | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

New Radio TFS Episode on Adopting Team System with Steven Borg

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Steven Borg

A few weeks ago during the MVP summit, I had the wonderful experience of hanging out with Martin Woodward of Teamprise and RadioTFS fame.  We chatted for an hour on strategies for adopting TFS successfully, recorded the conversation, and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Event, Process, Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Team System | 1 Comment