Pushing the request feedback feature to new limits as part of dogfooding

The Visual Studio ALM Rangers have been dogfooding the Team Foundation Service to the limit for months, often exploring new features and literally misusing them for the better :)

… request , submit and analyse feedback!

Request Feedback feature

The latest feature that falls into this category is the Request Feedback feature:

We are currently in stabilization phase and need to engage our reviewers to peruse bits such as code, videos, hands-on labs and documentation. Looking at the Request Feedback dialog and the three radio buttons (Web Application, Remote Machine, Client Application) we are probably in the wrong movie for these artefacts:

Being in the wrong movie is generally the right movie for the ALM Rangers and our dogfooding

How to use the Request Feedback tool to request a document review … in easy steps

1. Get the document URL

Let’s assume we want feedback on the document illustrations.pptx in our ACV_TFSTeamProjectGuidance project, hosted on https://tfspreview.com/.

Select the SOURCE menu. Right click on the folder which contains the document, in our case …/Development/Documentation/Guidance and copy the Address (URL).

2. Create a Request Feedback Request

Select the stakeholders … those you want feedback from. Give the stakeholders some background information and use the URL retrieved above as the Web Application address. List the items to be reviewed with specific information. You can optionally include the link (URL) to the item, which you retrieve the same way as the folder URL (see above)

3. Start the Feedback Tool

	The stakeholders will receive this email. Stakeholder selects the “Start your feedback session” to start the process.
	Stakeholder can select the link. Feedback too opens the respective source folder in the browser, where you can spot the review item to be reviewed. Stakeholder clicks Next.
	Stakeholder selects the item to be reviewed, optionally saves it to his/her system and opens it for review.

4. Give Feedback

Stakeholder can add recordings and screenshots. Stakeholder can add text Stakeholder can add attachments Stakeholder can easily rate the item reviewed Click Next and select Close and Submit, to submit the feedback.

5. Receive Feedback

Back in the development cave we notice the feedback response work items appearing under the associated feedback request work item. We see the screenshot. We can peruse the feedback text. We can see the rating.

Voila … it works for us and this feature really “rocks”, even if it was not designed for the way we use it