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ALM Rangers Visual Studio 11 Readiness – Part 2: A small peek at the upcoming TFS Branching and Merging Guidance

  • Artigo

This is part to an exploration of the upcoming ALM Rangers solutions for Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 11. Previous posts:

In this post we are taking a look at the  Branching and Merging Guidance.

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Bill Heys is cooking (merging) a phenomenal solution as usual Smile

Abstract

This project delivers insightful and practical guidance around branching and merging with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. The new release introduces new scenarios, consolidation of existing guidance and a new diagram style as shown below.

Epics

The Epics addressed by the solution include:

  1. I would like to understand the impact of Dev11 on branching and merging
  2. I would like to understand how long to wait with check-ins and merging (reverse integration)
  3. I would like to understand how to merge efficiently between parallel development teams that share a code base
  4. I would like to understand the security on branches and roles that impact branching and merging

What’s new?

In previous versions of this guidance, the branching diagrams used color to distinguish branch types (for example, MAIN was always green, Development was always red, Servicing Branches were orange, and the RTM or RELEASE branch was black as shown in the following diagram on the left <=

image image

In the new guidance the team is changing the color scheme of the diagrams. They will use colors AND labels to distinguish the versions of code being worked in each branch, as shown in the diagram above on the right => … why? We hope this new color scheme will be more useful and intuitive. For example, in the diagram above (on the right) there are four colours used to depict four versions of code, the latest shown in purple.

Another new example:
image

 

What do you think? Is the new diagram colo(u)ring style more practical and intuitive?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2011
    The new coloring only makes it more confusing. See here: http://i.imgur.com/F2Sn0.png

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2011
    I've never liked the colors....It makes it hard to quickly understand and any good diagram shouldn't need a legend.  The coloring also means that printing the diagrams is really costly. Why can't you make the colors feel like RSA Animate (www.youtube.com/watch) and use whiteboard marker colors. Also the images look TOO polished and inflexible. Could you guys do them in a sketch feel like this: blog.accentient.com/.../WouldYouCouldYouWithTFS.aspx. Branching is meant to be flexible and the diagrams make them feel like they have to be rigid and inflexible.

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2011
    Great feedback Allen. It is important to emphasize that what I am sharing is ALPHA content, so the team is looking for candid feedback and that changes are probable :) If, as your graphic indicates, you are confused by the background colour of the comment boxes then you will be glad to hear that the team is already considering a neutral colour or no colour at all for the comment boxes. Another suggesstion is to make all text black, with just  branches and nodes having a colour.

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2011
    Have you guys considered making the diagrams live with real data showing how TFS works. Why can't you use the Branching and Merging Visualization features built into the TFS Product (blogs.msdn.com/.../Mature%20Track%20CS%2010-26-2009%201-16-38%20PM_thumb.jpg) or why aren't you using the DML diagrams that are in the VS Ultimate Product (blogs.msdn.com/.../directed-graph-markup-language-dgml.aspx)? If you want to be artistic why not use Gource? code.google.com/.../Screenshots And or if you really want to help the community surely you could create a data driven VISIO diagrams see here: www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx Creating YADLT (Yet another Diagram Language/Taxonomy) is a waste of resources.

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2011
    I want diagrams to consistency show 4 releases....2nd New diagram only shows 2 Feature and 2 Version. :( Now....1 Versions isn't clear enough. 2 Versions cannot show how to repeat steps. 3 Versions shows different ways and I do not like. 4 versions shows patten & is clear & is Best Practice over Mutli-Release/Sprint/Many Months. Please show 4 always.

  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2011
    Our Developers are not clear on REVERSE Integrations and FORWARD Integrations....the merge txt with the small arrow looks hidden. Improvement would be to include full text: REVERSE Integration...FORWARD Integration plus larger arrow symbol.

  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2011
    Ramesh: Thanks for your feedback. We will attempt to make this clearer. We may need to use RI (for Reverse Integration) and FI (for Forward Integration) simply becuase of space limitations. We may also add a comment to indicate that FI is always a merge from Parent to Child while RI is always a merge from Child to Parent.

  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2011
    Narendra: Thank you for you feedback. We sometimes need to limit our diagrams for space reasons. I would suggest a compromise: Where a process or pattern is repeated in the same identical way, three repititions should be sufficent to convey the repetive pattern. A fourth repetition (version) should not add any clarity and may make the overall diagram too confusing.

  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2011
    To all who suggest an alternative style or tool for creating these diagrams, we appreciate your suggestions. However, we have invested a lot of time using PowerPoint to create the diagrams. While we may consider changing tools, it is unlikely at this time. We are attempting to depict patterns for branching and are not attempting to use live or data-driven diagrams. As for why we don't use Gource - well the answer is simple, I work for Microsoft. I use Bing for search. :)

  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2011
    Bill, thanks for your feedback and for driving the branching and merging guidance solution with such passion. While the use of data driven, animated and VS based diagrams may sound appealing, we chose PowerPoint to enable the community to re-use the diagrams, especially in their own PPTX presentations. We could consider a more sketchy look and feel when we start creating Channel9 videos that walk the user through the scenarios?!?