Most recently, a group of Avanade and Accenture colleagues collaborated to publish their expertise on the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) in their book, Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation, released this January. The work explains WCF from an SOA perspective, and illustrates the importance of WCF to web service development and architecture. The development of the book was a truly collaborative effort that included:

§  Avanade UK Senior Solution Architect Amit Bahree http://desigeek.com/weblog/amit

§  Avanade US Solution Architect Shawn Cicoria http://www.cicoria.com/cs1/blogs/cedarlogic

§  Avanade Netherlands Senior Principal Consultant Dennis Mulder www.dennismulder.net

§  Avanade Australia Solution Architect Chris Peiris http://www.chrispeiris.com/

The authors of Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Application will conduct two webcasts with Microsoft. The first, scheduled for April 10 at 2 p.m. PST, is targeted at the technical audience. The second, scheduled for April 11 at 2 p.m. PST, is meant for CTOs and the tech-savvy business audience. Both are open to the public.

§  To register for the technical webcast, go to http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6440184, click the Registration link, and an email with further instructions will be mailed to you.

§  To register for the CTO webcast, go to http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6455035, click the Registration link, and an email with further instructions will be mailed to you.

Note: A Microsoft Windows Live ID account is required to view all Microsoft webcasts. If you do not have an account you can set one up now at login.live.com.

If you work with VSTS and haven't seen this, check it out now: http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSGuidance

Must read, know and understand for anyone leading others:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory

"If you want seamless integration between systems implemented on disparate technologies, if you want to plug legacy systems in an SOA environment, if you want to have composite applications based on multiple services, if you want dynamic discovery and binding capabilities, if you want true interoperability, in short if you want to resolve all of your integration nightmares, then ladies and gentlemen I give you the ENTERPRISE SILVER BULLET (ESB).

The ESB is a magical and nebulous piece of software that plugs itself in the middle of your enterprise with neat bidirectional arrows going to boxes labeled ‘mainframe systems’, ‘Java Systems’, ‘.NET systems’ and ‘other legacy assets’, it is all you will ever need to reduce costs, increase your time to market and optimize your IT operations etc. etc. and etc. "

Where did you hear this before....

Read about the real story and the context of the above quote: http://blogs.msdn.com/mohammadakif/default.aspx

Announcing the Visual Studio Team System - Project Server Connector! We are pleased to announce general availability of the updated Project Server 2003 – Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2005 Connector application. The Connector can be downloaded here: http://www.avanadeadvisor.com/TFS-ProjectServerConnector.zip. See the “News” or the “Releases” sections for more information. The Connector is largely based on the sample Project Server 2003 – Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Beta 2 Connector available on GotDotNet. The Connector is also available as a part of the Avanade Software Lifecycle Platform™: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/why/avanade/default.aspx. More about the Avanade Software Lifecycle Platform (SLP) Avanade Connected Architectures® for Lifecycle or ACA® Lifecycle 2006 is an asset that implements the Avanade SLP vision. It provides a software development lifecycle environment for project teams doing custom .NET development. This includes tools, processes, and best practices to support the various roles on the team, including Test, Dev, Architect, and Project Manager. For more information on how Avanade can help you with the Avanade Software Lifecycle Platform, visit our website at www.avanade.com or contact us at to slp@avanade.com .

http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=b9f69ea5-ace1-4a21-846f-6222a507cc9c

Collection 5134 : Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005
 
This collection of 3 2-hour premium clinics teaches about the new capabilities provided by the .NET Framework 3.0. These clinics are for experienced Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions.

Clinic 5135 : Introduction to Developing with Windows® Presentation Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005

Clinic 5136 : Introduction to Developing with Windows® Workflow Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005

Clinic 5137 : Introduction to Developing with Windows® Communication Foundation and Visual Studio® 2005

Tired of installing beta stuff? Well, Microsoft has done it for you....

Normally I use Das Blog's web interface to blog. This entry is the first one I've written in a client. And I have a good reason: Windows Live Writer... Try it for yourself Writer.msi

More info windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com