Web Application Development with Microsoft Technologies

Sometime ago I went through a very useful book titled Software Estimation: Desmistifying the black art, and adapted some of the techniques listed in the book to create a standarized estimation procedure.

However, we deal with the fact that almost every month there is a new tool from Microsoft aimed to boost team productivity and reduce the effort required to build each piece of software, so it’s always a new challenge to give accurate estimations to our customers.

A critical thing is to record all the effort spent in every project and task, which can be used to calibrate the estimations and produce better results.

We try to follow the rule: “Count if at all possible. Compute when you can’t count. Use judgment alone only as a last resort.” as much as possible. 

Once we have a good requirements specification we produce a WBS (detailed task list) and we count web pages, sql tables or anything that can help to compute the effort required to complete the task, we compute and then we calibrate with similar tasks done in the past. We identify risks, review tasks checklist and then use a 3 point estimate to be as much accurate as possible. These can be just the first steps of any estimation procedure.

Once we decide which technologies to use (i.e. Dynamic Data, Entity Framework, ASP.NET MVC or any other tool which could help to improve productivity), we calibrate the estimated effort with the results obtained in similar projects using the same technologies, or the results obtained from some pilot using any other emerging technology.

Finally we allocate some contingency (in software development it’s quite needed!). In the past few projects we convinced our customers about having an agile methodology in place (such as SCRUM). One of the various advantages of SCRUM is that the customer will get periodic releases of the software, while paying for the time spent building the features on each iteration. Contingency makes then no sense, and it can help to reduce total cost which is a great way to convince customers.

When following an agile methodology the rule (count, compute and calibrate) is still valid, as the team needs to estimate each story at the begining of each iteration, and the same procedure can be followed on each iteration, also considering team velocity (productivity) and the actual results obtained from the use of the selected development tools.

So far we are very happy with the results obtained from this combination of agile methodologies and a structured estimation procedure, reducing risks and increasing our list of happy customers.

We started using Project Server 2007 in our software development company sometime ago, in order to unify the project management activities. When configured properly, this is a powerful tool, as it integrates into SharePoint to create pre loaded project workspaces whenever a new project is added to the project center.

It also integrates Microsoft Project  which means you would be able to use all its features for schedule, performance, costs and resources management (among many others). Microsoft Project can connect to the Project Server to retrieve the available enterprise resources and schedule for each of them, which is very useful when multiple PMs are working in project management across the enterprise.

A crucial aspect in every company is tracking the effort spent by the employees in project activities. We have been using different web tools in the past, but still not happy enough with the results.

Some months ago we decided to use Project Server features for time management. Project Server exposes a web access interface so resources can create their timesheets to report time spent in the assigned or not assigned tasks.

Managers have the ability to approve timesheets and generate dynamic reports by project, by resource, by task, by period and export it to Excel if needed.

So far the experience with Project Server features for time management has been really good. But configuring it for supporting all these, is not so trivial.

It requires to set up cubes and data views for reporting, build the enterprise resources library, internet explorer configuration, and many other steps. For those who are interested in configuring this powerful tool, visit my post about configuring project server timesheets in the asp.net weblogs.

Microsoft invited us to join a first meeting to discuss about the chance of opening a Microsoft Users Group here in Uruguay.

There are thousands of user groups (communities) across different vendors, technologies and lines of businesses.

Microsoft supports the creation of users groups as a way to promote technologies through the community.In today’s meeting, I enjoyed a great time with my partner and a few talented guys from several software companies from Uruguay, representing the top of the software industry here inUruguay - most of them already well known professionals and friends While enjoying some snacks we discussed different approaches for achieving this goal. There are a lot of user groups like the Argentina one, and it used to exist one in Uruguay too, a few years ago.

The group objectives would be to share knowledge and experiences with the community (forums, webcasts, blogs), organize live events for discussing about different topics related to our industry and microsoft technologies, or whatever we might think is relevant to share.

I think it is a great idea, but it will require different companies to work together sharing resources, ideas and knowledge, which sometimes is not so easy to achieve in such competitive market.Even when UruIT actually encourages collaboration between companies in our market, I know there might be a few who won’t be interested, but hopefully this won’t be a stopping issue for this great idea.If this idea takes off, I will soon post more information about this Uruguayan Microsoft Users Group (we still need to find a good name ).   

Last night I enjoyed a meeting in the Camara de Comercio building, here in Montevideo, with a group of young entrepreneurs from the Junior Chamber International  (JCI), Montevideo Chapter. 

I met with almost 15 young entrepreneurs who have a clear goal: have success in life. The group is organized by roles, and is working in several projects to develop their skills about leadership and entrepreneur. Some of them already have their own ideas and ongoing business and are trying to use the business network formed by JCI +200.000 members, who meet regularly all over the world. 

I was invited by Luciano Varela to spend some time with them talking about my experiences in leadership in my previous company (TCS) and my current challenges now at UruIT Global IT Services.  

Even when I am usually boring when talking about my past experiences, I wish to have added some value to my talk and to encourage this group to move forward. I hope they invite me to some of the trainings they organize to create leaders and CEOs, as I would like to improve my skills and also meet new people.  

Yesterday I met some guys who are currently leading their own projects related to IT (PHP and ERPs development), so overall this was a nice and very productive time.  

I wish this Uruguayan young team all the best in their initiatives !

Marcelo

PS: If you live in Montevideo, and you are between 20 and 40 years old with an entrepeneur spirit, just drop me a line and I will send you JCI Montevido Chapter email right away.