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ALM Readiness Treasure Map v2 about to be published!

Hopefully you've been following all of the hard work invested by the ALM Rangers since version 1 of our ALM Readiness Treasure Map was published back in January 2013.

What is it?

The ALM Readiness Treasure Map is a Windows 8 Store Application that brings all of the sources of Microsoft-produced Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) guidance into a single location to navigate to any content the user wishes to find and read/view.

Check out the overview here: TOC - ALM Readiness Treasure Map

Version 1

We produced the first version of the application and it was beautiful.  It was a great first effort to bring information together in a single application from the ALM Rangers, DPE, PAG, and PFE.  It made it easy to search for content and learn the different topics of interest.

We also produced a paper map matching the app's home screen that was a masterpiece to be framed!  :-)

Finally, we released the source code to CodePlex so that developers could learn from our lessons about how to build great Windows 8 Store applications.

Despite the high quality of the app, the team felt we could make a lot of potential improvements to it.  This lead to...

Version 2

Next week is Microsoft's internal-only TechReady 17 conference.  Anisha Pindoria and I will be presenting the history of the treasure map from concept to shipping app and physical map, the improvements we've made, and soliciting feedback for v3 of the app.

The team has done a phenomenal job enhancing the application with a lot of new features, including:

  1. Semantic zoom with parallax on the home screen,
  2. Progress tracking to determine how much content you have completed,
  3. Favorites
  4. News
  5. Revamped snapped view

There's lots more to talk about, but for now, check out the Table of Contents (TOC) link, above, look for the app to be published in the Windows Store by next week, and for the updated source code to follow shortly thereafter.

Thanks for reading!

Rob