Today I was accepted into the Microsoft ALM Rangers! (Ranger's Blog)

I have been actively corresponding with several members of the Visual Studio Team over the past several months as I upgraded TFS project collections, processes, and worked on integrating Lab Management and automated testing into various processes. Brian Keller (Senior Technical Evangelist in the Visual Studio ALM group) has been particularly helpful directing me to others that could help solve some of the challenges encountered.  During this communication, he referred me to Willy-Peter Schaub so that I could share some of the challenges we have had and overcame and to participate with the Rangers.

I have worked heavily with Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server since the beginning.  This experience has been very helpful in helping our clients integrate sound policies and practices, as well as getting the most out of many aspects of the whole product suite.  There is so much capability there to be leveraged, many only scratch the surface in the ways they utilize the product's features and functionality.

As an ALM Ranger, initially I will be helping with the Lab Management Guide.  I am excited to share some of the insight and challenges I have overcome in the past several months as we implemented it here, and as usual, pushed the envelope. The Rangers are made up of internal Microsoft people, MVP's and key people within the ALM community.  It is a great honor to be associated with Rangers.

For more details about my activities, visit this MSDN Blog article.

I am a software entrepreneur and have been one. I started developing software for various clients since I was 14 (I got addicted young).  I spend my days, and often nights, developing cutting edge software for a wide spectrum of customers. Although my most recent development endeavors have been focused on the justice system, I am always up for a new challenge. I love the bleeding edge; I have plenty of battle scars to prove it.

I am an explorer by nature. I am always working with the constantly evolving and changing world of technology. Some call me a workaholic, to which I respond that I am on a life-long learning quest... there just are not enough hours in the day to learn everything I want to know. Either way, I spend all of my free time researching latest ideas and pushing personal and business limits. As a result, I have developed a knack for figuring out various problems and their corresponding solutions.

In my most recent quest to upgrade the processes used by my own company, I noticed that various portions of the technology we are use to implement these processes are either not apparent or are not documented clearly.  Realizing how frustrating this may be, I decided to take the plunge and start chronicling some of my adventures, many of which result in a happy ending while others... well, not so much, at least not right away.

If you are reading this, chances are you have started a knowledge quest of your own. Any questions and/or comments you may have are always welcomed (you never know what could spark yet another adventure into the unknown).

Technology is a wonderful tool; but it can also be a powerful adversary if things go wrong. It is my goal to help you figure out a way to tip the scales in your favor.

... and so the adventure begins...