Visual Studio ALM Rangers have spoken on the FY12 project candidates and the new process

As mentioned in Listening to the external Rangers … New project nomination process is first of many new innovations we have introduced a new project nomination and prioritization process. Overall the new process worked very well and was well received … but more importantly what was decided? I am “loaning” content from Bijan and Jeff’s announcement email, which is shown in italic 

As usual, we had good participation with a total of 81 votes which makes the results very representative. Big thanks to all Rangers who voted and to everyone who contributed to the project candidates!

Here are the combined community results which means all Ranger votes combined: 

Rank	Project Nomination Idea
1	Strategies for Maintainable Coded UI Test Automation
2	Hitchhiker's Guide to Developing Reports for TFS
3	Merging Practical Guidance
4	Test Management guidance for MTM
5	Dashboard/Reporting Customization
6	Test Case Branching Guidance/Tool
7	WIT/Template Customization Guidance
8	Enterprise Test Strategy
9	TFS Projects Best Practices
10	TFS in the cloud practical guidance
11	Windows Azure Load and Performance Testing Framework
12	Windows Azure ALM Tools and Guidance
13	TFS Automation through Powershell
14	How to use TFS for Kanban Guidance
15	Build Customization Guidance for non-Microsoft environments
16	Dependencies management
17	Code review guidance and template customization
18	TFS 2010 Process Template Customization Guide
19	Capacity Analysis and Planning Tool
20	ALM Assessment Guidance
21	Word 4 TFS Phase 2

The side by side results shows the usual agreements and disagreements. It is actually more agreement if you look at the top 10. Six are common choices which we have highlighted below. (NOTE: the projects with the most votes are listed at the top. The number in front of the items below is not the ranking, but the original nomination reference number)

Microsoft Rangers	MVP Rangers
18 - Hitchhiker's Guide to Developing Reports for TFS	04 - Strategies for Maintainable Coded UI Test Automation
01 - Windows Azure Load and Performance Testing Framework	19 - Test Management guidance for MTM
04 - Strategies for Maintainable Coded UI Test Automation	17 - Merging Practical Guidance
15 - TFS in the cloud practical guidance	45 - TFS Projects Best Practices
20 - Windows Azure ALM Tools and Guidance	12 - Dashboard/Reporting Customization
17 - Merging Practical Guidance	22 - Test Case Branching Guidance/Tool
12 - Dashboard/Reporting Customization	32 - Dependencies management
22 - Test Case Branching Guidance/Tool	11 - WIT/Template Customization Guidance
49 - Enterprise Test Strategy	16 - How to use TFS for Kanban Guidance
19 - Test Management guidance for MTM	18 - Hitchhiker's Guide to Developing Reports for TFS
11 - WIT/Template Customization Guidance	49 - Enterprise Test Strategy
34 - TFS Automation through Powershell	23 - TFS 2010 Process Template Customization Guide
45 - TFS Projects Best Practices	07 - Build Customization Guidance for non-Microsoft environments
36 - Code review guidance and template customization	15 - TFS in the cloud practical guidance
05 - Capacity Analysis and Planning Tool	36 - Code review guidance and template customization
07 - Build Customization Guidance for non-Microsoft environments	34 - TFS Automation through Powershell
25 - Word 4 TFS Phase 2	51 - ALM Assessment Guidance
23 - TFS 2010 Process Template Customization Guide	05 - Capacity Analysis and Planning Tool
51 - ALM Assessment Guidance	20 - Windows Azure ALM Tools and Guidance
16 - How to use TFS for Kanban Guidance	01 - Windows Azure Load and Performance Testing Framework
32 - Dependencies management	25 - Word 4 TFS Phase 2

That brings us to the frequently asked question of which projects are we going to start soon. While the prioritized list of project ideas is a great starting point, it is not always possible to hold that ideal order. If for example all stars are perfectly aligned for project number 5, we don’t hesitate grabbing that opportunity for our 1^st project.

There is also a 2^nd source of influence, which is the strategic guidance from the product group. If we get a convincing request from the product group to go after a project which is not on top of this list, that provides another great opportunity to leverage.

And finally, there is another potential factor which can play a big role and modify our priorities. At this point, we only know that the vNext readiness is going to be a big priority for us. Stay tuned for that discussion.

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 12, 2011
  Can any real world non MSFT customers be doing real world  Load and Performance Testing on Azure? Seriously on Azure? Isn't azure supposed to just scale elastically? Why is this project number 1? Seriously the Product Group must have massive sway in the voting....sigh the other projects look really really interesting and vaulable.

• Anonymous
  July 12, 2011
  Hi Allen, I updated the blog post to remove any future misunderstanding. The 01 - infront of the "Windows Azure Load and Performance Testing Framework" means it was the first project nomination idea we received. The projects with most votes are listed at the top. I removed the original numbering and added the rank column in the combined view. I hope that clarifies some of your concerns?