Strategic Data Systems' team members are frequently asked to speak on their topics of expertise and author documents highlighting their point of view and latest learnings. This demand creates a growing list of Intellectual Assets we share with our clients and partners. Please review our sample list below of publications from our team for helpful articles, white papers, special reports, briefings, and more. To more quickly identify publications by topic or author, simply click on the tag(s) in which you are interested. If you do not see what you are looking for, please contact us.
Getting Started with Agile
Over the years our organization has given a lot of presentations about Agile. There are always a handful of people who come up afterwards and say, “I get it and it all makes sense. But my organization is just not built for this process so I’m not sure I could ever get management to agree to do this. How could I ever get started?
What's Your Mobile Strategy
The nature of a mobile device is such that it’s always with us: it knows where we are, what we do, and sometimes, even who we are with. This rich environment and wide device availability provides a unique opportunity to target customers (and internal knowledge workers) at the right time with the right information. Now the critical question to understand is: What do businesses need to know if they want to extend their presence to these fast growing mobile devices?
Agile Software Development--The Bottomline
Agile software development methodologies provide many benefits including reduced time to market, lower defect rates, and more accurate requirements tracking. The greatest benefit, however, is the lower cost of development realized when agile processes are followed. This paper describes Strategic Data Systems’ experience with agile software development, and demonstrates the financial benefits of following an agile process.
Agile Project Score Card
Not every project is a good fit for Agile methodologies. But for those projects that are—and every organization has them—there are significant benefits to be gained through using this proven approach.
See specific results for how agile practices can increase your team’s results and deliver further value to the business. Then consider, can your project do that?
Inside Look at Microsoft Windows 8 - Notes from //BUILD/
I attended the Microsoft //BUILD/ conference September 13-16, in Anaheim, CA. This was the public world’s second introduction to the next version of company’s OS, Windows 8. It was also the first time that any real depth about the product was provided. This paper highlights the information learned and answers some key questions brought up among the attendees.
Usability (UX) Briefing
What is User Interface Design? UI design is not webdesign, where the screen needs a certain aesthetic
appeal, and the developer would be required to do the job of a graphic artist. Neither is UI design complete interaction design where a user's total work environment is designed regardless of medium. UI design implies a computer screen, and thus should be somewhat familiar to a developer. It is about how a system interacts with people, and as such, can be thought of as a person who can translate user vernacular into a language that programmers can understand.
Clearing up Two of the Most Common Concerns Around the Cloud.
There seems to be two major concerns I hear from people when I talk to them about the cloud: Security and Vendor Lock-In.
I can see real validity in the security discussion with some of the issues being valid and others just being chalked up to FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). But I just can’t understand the vendor lock-in concern, at all. In this article, I’ll talk a little bit about both of these concerns.
TFS Training: Heterogeneous Development with Team Foundation and Visual Studio 2010
Many organizations develop and support applications written in Java, .NET, and often other platforms. Today, these disparate platforms have resulted in separate silos, leaving the organization without end-to-end visibility into its development efforts. This separation also means that any process improvements made by one silo are unlikely to benefit the other silos. With Team Foundation and Visual Studio 2010, that painful separation is about to become a thing of the past.
What You Will Learn:
- Introduction to Team Explorer Everywhere
Mike Wood Discusses Innovation, Agility and Productivity--Cloud Benefits
Take a few minutes to hear benefits companies can experience from Cloud technologies. Mike Wood, Cloud Specialist with Strategic Data Systems, and Windows Azure MVP, talks with Dave Neilson during a recent trip to Redmond, WA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXNf27tkN8
To learn more about our Cloud Practice, please contact us today or review the overview of services provided here.
TFS Training Webcast: Continuous Deployment with TFS and Visual Studio Database Tools (Slides)
Lose customer information and you lose your customer. Oft neglected, database deployments can be the most difficult and risky portions of a system. Come learn how to make deployment a breeze, by practicing with every schema change.
In this webcast you’ll learn to:
- Configure a New Team Build for Continuous Integration
- Create a Database deployment package
- Automate the execution of a Database deployment during a Team Build
TFS Training Webcast: Planning and Executing Manual Tests with Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 (Slides)
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 makes a real impact on software quality. It’s an integrated testing solution that delivers a complete plan-test-track workflow. It allows the user to quickly identify quality-related bugs and easily report them with rich, actionable information. In this session, we'll review test planning and manual testing with Visual Studio Test Professional 2010.
What You’ll Learn:
• How to manage tests cases and test suites, aligning your testing efforts with the application lifecycle
Agile Project Management - Healthcare Example
A state-of-the-art medical facility in Southwest Ohio, providing innovative care and advanced treatment for pediatric patients, needed to upgrade four existing PeopleSoft applications. This had enterprise-wide effects and had to be delivered within a Go-Live weekend in order to not disrupt normal hospital operations.
To help the medical facility achieve its pilot project goals and gain learnings to be applied more broadly by the PMO, SDS provided a custom set of services that included:
Disciplined Agile™ mentoring
TFS Training Webcast: Continuous Deployment with Team Build and MSDeploy (Slides & Webcast Notes)
Session Overview: Caffeine, pizza, and anxiety are regular tools for a production deployment. Watch and learn how Team Foundation Build 2010 and MSDeploy can turn the last hurdle of software development into a moment of Zen.
What You’ll Learn:
In this webcast you’ll learn to:
∙ Configure a New Team Build for Continuous Integration
∙ Create an MSDeploy package from an ASP.Net MVC project
∙ Automate the execution of an MSDeploy package to remote servers
TFS Training Webcast: Automating Team Foundation Server with PowerShell (Slides and Code Link)
System administration can be slow and inconsistent when performed manually, or quick and easy when automated. Learn to use PowerShell with TFS to script away that wasted time.
Preview the slides and demo code used in this webcast, conducted February 10, 2011 by Scott Brickey.
To view the actual PowerShell scripts, please visit: http://sdscon.codeplex.com/releases/view/60931
Learn:
SharePoint Ingredients
If you’ve heard people talk about using SharePoint, chances are no one has the same story. This is because SharePoint has a lot of features, and ends up being used very differently. This briefing discusses the major features of SharePoint, and what they can do.
Microsoft Prism Developer’s Guide
Strategic Data Systems (SDS) team members, Ryan Cromwell and Steve Gentile, served as advisors to the Patterns and Practices Developer’s Guide, Prism, released by Microsoft Corporation in November
2010.
Read the Prism Developer’s Guide at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en‐us/library/gg406140.aspx.
Microsoft Overview:
Moving Applications to the Cloud on the Microsoft Windows Azure Platform
Strategic Data Systems team member and Microsoft MVP (Azure and Software Development), Mike Wood, served on the review team to bring you this informative content from Microsoft.
View the Microsoft Patterns & Practices Developer Guide at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728592.aspx#_Authors_and_Contributors.
Microsoft Summary:
What is SharePoint?
I’m sure many people have heard, been asked, or themselves have asked this question. To confuse matters further, people tend to provide different answers. Some people say it’s a website; others call it a file share; Microsoft calls it a platform. Before I provide my own definition, let me introduce you to the various editions which Microsoft provides.
SDS Cloud Computing Practice Overview
Strategic Data Systems (SDS) knows application development. Custom solutions for better results is our focus, and creating solutions that can live in the cloud is a key part. Our team includes cloud resources, including Azure MVP, to deliver custom Platform as a Service (Paas) and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. Learn more about our Cloud offering in this brief overview.
SDS Expertise: Lunch and Learns
SDS recognizes the value of collaboration and knowledge-sharing. We'd like to offer you and your colleagues a complimentary informational session (Lunch & Learn) facilitated by a select SDS Consultant. A variety of topics are available. Please contact us to discuss learning opportunities we can to bring to your team.
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