TeamCompanion v.4.4 extends its existing full-text search logic by highlighting terms found in search results. Highlighting is visible both in the work item query search result list and in the HTML work item preview. In this way, you can quickly and easily determine why a particular work item appears in search result. This is an enhancement our customers longed for quite a while, and we are thrilled that we have finally built it in.

While previewing the results of a work item query, start typing the desired search condition in the Search box located in the header of the query grid. Search results are displayed and highlighted as you type, meaning that the result list is automatically adjusted according to the way you change your search condition.

While searching, TeamCompanion automatically switches the preview in the embedded work item form to HMTL mode. In this way, as you browse through work items returned by the search, you can easily notice all work item fields where the search term appears. Our full-text search implementation searches the content of all work item fields (not only Title and Description), meaning that your search condition will return any work item that contains the search term in any of its fields.

Additionally, we added the possibility to quickly switch between the HTML work item preview with highlighted search terms and the editable embedded work item form.

We persist your search conditions when you manually refresh your query, as well as when a scheduled refresh automatically triggers. Search conditions and results are not persisted if you switch context (open another work item query, report or switch to any of your mail folders).

After you have performed a search and located your item in the results list, you can clear the condition in the Search box. TeamCompanion keeps you on the last item you clicked in the result list.

Search highlighting is available in product and iteration backlog lists in the agile project management tool Plan and Prioritize as well. It searches backlog lists using the same rules as in query lists.

Full-text search with search results highlighting in TeamCompanion v4.4 greatly improves your user experience and allows you to manage your work items in the most efficient way.

We have released our first public version in 2012 - TeamCompanion v4.4. As promised, we added new features to our Agile Project Management module and kept on working on the native support for the approaching TFS vNext release. Additionally, we improved some of our basic features and implemented various fixes.

The list of new features is as follows:

1. Search results highlighting
   • Quick search results (available in each query folder) are now highlighted
   • Highlighting is visible in both result grid and HTML work item preview
   • Added ability to switch between HTML preview and work item edit form
2. Enhanced support for creation of work items in the Agile Project Management tool
   • Implemented support for quickly adding new child work items in iteration backlog
   • Added support to undo newly created PBI item(s) or child task(s)
3. Improved support for MS Scrum 1.0 and 2.0 Templates
   • Implemented support for mapping sprint work item types to team iterations when using MS Scrum 1.0
   • Added native support for Scrum 2.0 process template in tfspreview
4. Various fixes and improvements

TeamCompanion's full-text search now highlights found search terms, both in the search result grid and in the HTML work item preview. In this way, you can quickly and easily determine why a particular work item appears in the search result.

As part of the implementation of this feature we offer you the possibility to quickly switch between the editable embedded work item form and HTML work item preview with highlighting.

Search highlighting is available in the product and iteration backlog lists in the agile project management tool Plan and Prioritize as well.

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In the previous version, we added the possibility for quickly adding new top level work items (PBIs) to the product backlog.  In this version, we added the equivalent ability to quickly add new child level work items (tasks) related to product backlog items (PBIs) directly in the iteration backlog view. This feature supports efficient sprint planning meetings.

The header of the iteration backlog list now contains a set of controls for adding new child level items to PBIs assigned to that iteration. Click on a PBI in the list to which you want to add the child task. Then type the child item’s Title and Remaining Work and press enter or click on the Add button. The new task appears in the iteration backlog list and has a negative value in the ID field. It is placed as first child of the initially selected PBI and is currently selected.

This item is not automatically saved to TFS and is therefore shown in italics. After you add all your new child tasks in the described way, you can save them all at once using the ribbon controls. If you want to discard all your changes, simply undo your additions.

In this version we also added the possibility to undo the addition of a single new item in product and iteration backlog lists, that has still not been saved to TFS. This means that you can remove a newly added PBI item from the product backlog list and that you can remove a newly added child item in the iteration backlog list. Simply right click on the item you want to remove from the list and select Undo Work Item from it’s context menu.

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TeamCompanion v4.4 now fully supports the MS Scrum 1.0 template for TFS 2010.This means that for team projects using this template you can map the appropriate Sprint work item type to team iterations. TeamCompanion recognizes if you are using the default version of this template and sets the right mappings for you. If you have customized your process template, please check your settings for related mappings in the configuration settings of the agile project management tool Plan and Prioritize.

After these settings have been configured, all changes to capacity settings of your iterations are synchronized with the corresponding Sprint work item types.

TeamCompanion’s agile project management tool Plan and Prioritize in v4.4 natively supports the MS Scrum 2.0 template in Team Foundation Service Preview (tfspreview, Microsoft's TFS in the cloud). We are able to recognize that your project is using this template, and adjust by default all required configuration settings.

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4) Various fixes and improvements

We are constantly solving issues and problems reported through feedback from our customers. Thank you one again for your effort to improve TeamCompanion.

Don’t wait, get the new TeamCompanion v4.4 right away! Grab your copy at www.teamcompanion.com\Download.

For more information visit www.teamcompanion.com, take a quick tour or go into feature details.

For all of you TeamCompanion supporters who intend to take part in the StarEast Conference in Orlando, FL, USA, April 15-20 2012. we offer this valuable discount for up to $400 off the cost of the conference registration for the Early Bird Special and up to $200 off after the conclusion of the Early Bird Special, which ends March 16.

To obtain the savings, please contact us (sales@teamcompanion.com) to get the promo code. At the time you register for the conference, type the code into the field listed as: Promo/Mail Code.
The link to the Registration Form is:
https://www.sqe.com/StarEast/Register/SelectConference.aspx
Also, below is the link to the conference brochure now available for download:
http://www.sqe.com/StarEast/Brochure/Default.aspx

Looking forward to seeing you at our booth!

Let me share our thoughts on what you can expect from the TeamCompanion team in 2012. As we approached the end of 2011, it was clear that this is going to be the most successful year for the TeamCompanion in any respect. We released four versions, introduced the agile project management module, more than doubled the number of customers and got continuously good feedback on quality and price/performance. TeamCompanion is gaining momentum as a must have tool for all software development teams using TFS and Outlook, trying to improve team collaboration, transparency and productivity in daily tasks. We intend to support this further on in 2012 with a series of development and marketing activities. Here is the list of key activities:

• TeamCompanion key value is in enabling all software development project stakeholders to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on collaboration and focusing on business tasks. We will continuously add new features that support this message.
• We got lots of valuable feedback for the Agile Project Management module and are committed to add new features to it. We see many benefits in having Project Management module within Outlook, enabling users to manage projects and collaborate within a single work environment.
• One of the key promises to our customers is to stay in sync with TFS and Outlook updates. TFS vNext release is approaching fast and we are already prepared to simultaneously ship the next version of TeamCompanion supporting the newest version of TFS.
• There are also some really interesting (and time & resource intensive) features that we will consider to implement like full offline work item editing or a mobile version of TeamCompanion.
• We are planning to deliver web casts on regular basis on various TeamCompanion usage scenarios.
• As Ekobit, the company behind TeamCompanion, is an ALM consultancy company, you will see a number of TFS/TeamCompanion implementation case studies in various industries.
• Expect to meet us exhibiting on conferences like ALM Summit, StarEast, ALM Days in United States and Europe. Talking to our customers face to face has always been the greatest experience and the best way to find out how good we are at what we are doing.
• We will continue to listen very carefully about what you have to say on TeamCompanion and its features. Use the opportunity on our feature request web page and shape TeamCompanion according to your needs!

Best regards
Vedran

ALM Days in Munich were absolutely great! Two days of high quality sessions, around four hundred delegates mingling within the exhibition area, visiting in big numbers our TeamCompanion booth was a guarantee for a successful week in Germany. Besides tens of TeamCompanion presentations, Ogy also delivered session on Visual Studio Test Lab Management so there was not a minute of idle time left. Here are some of the pictures (can you spot Sam Guckenheimer and Brian Harry? )

Looking forward to being a part of it next year!
Vedran

It was great being (again) at the ALM Summit! Near four hundred attendees enjoyed the quality sessions from some of the best ALM speakers out there. We were Gold sponsors so we also had the opportunity to show case TeamCompanion during the Technical reception which was great, despite the fact that it lasted for only two and a half hours. Wish next ALM Summit will give us sponsors more time to spend with our clients. Unhappily, some of the best pictures we made got lost somewhere between the iPhone and the notebook ( Ogy, pls use WP7 next time), but I have a nice picture of Sam and Neno signing their new ALM classic: Agile Software Engineering with Visual Studio: From Concept to Continuous Feedback .
Thanks to everybody visiting our booth! We are in process of updating our backlog for the new version and are very thankful for great feedback we got.
Vedran

After the release of our newest version 4.3, we updated the presentation “Scrum with TeamCompanion” to show you our new cool feature for quickly adding new product backlog items (PBIs) directly from the Product Backlog view. Check out the 'demo' slides for “Planning the Project with TeamCompanion”!

TeamCompanion v4.3 supports Team Foundation Service Preview (tfspreview) and is able to display data from tfspreview projects.

In order to connect to the Team Foundation Service Preview you need to install Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2010 together with the KB2581206 hotfix.
Regarding this here comes one very important note - if you installed KB2581206 hotfix before September 1, you’ll have to manually uninstall, download and reapply it again, because it was changed in the meantime although the hotfix name remained unchanged. With the old hotfix, you’ll be able to connect to the tfspreview using Team Explorer, but all other clients including TeamCompanion will fail to connect.

Once you installed all required prerequisites you can connect to the tfspreview server the same way you would connect to any other server. First, you need to add server to the list of known Team Foundation Server servers:

The most important detail here is to define that connection uses HTTPS protocol. After you click the OK button, you’ll get the sign-in dialog. In order to sign-in to the tfspreview server your Windows Live ID account must have some previously assigned permissions.

Once you establish a connection tfspreview projects will be treated same way as any other non-cloud Team Foundation Server project and you’ll find it in the Outlook’s navigation pane.

And voilà, you’re connected to the tfspreview server, could that be any easier!?

We are happy to announce public availability of the TeamCompanion v4.3 that improves end-user experience and gives user a couple of new exciting features.

Here is the list of new features.

1. Support for Team Foundation Service Preview
2. New ClickOnce installer that supports automatic updates
3. Velocity graph
4. Add “New PBI” action to the product backlog
5. “Request new Feature“ feature
6. Ability to expand trial period using trial codes
7. Fixed 50+ known issues
8. Let’s see what each of the entries from the above list is about.

1) Support for Team Foundation Service Preview

TeamCompanion v4.3 supports Team Foundation Service Preview (tfspreview) and is able to display data from tfspreview projects.

In order to connect to the Team Foundation Service Preview you need to install Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2010 together with the KB2581206 hotfix.

Once you establish a connection tfspreview projects will be treated same way as any other non-cloud Team Foundation Server project.

Note: if you installed KB2581206 hotfix before September 1, you’ll have to manually uninstall, download and reapply it again, because it was changed in the meantime although the hotfix name remained unchanged.

2) New ClickOnce installer that supports automatic updates

TeamCompanion v4.3 is now deployed with the completely new installer engine. New installer enables automatic updates, so now each time user starts Outlook she’ll be informed about the new update. User has the ability to delay or even skip some update. Also, user will be able to turn off automatic updates and to check for updates manually.

3) Velocity graph

Another exciting new feature is the implementation of the velocity graph. Using velocity graph you will be able to estimate how much backlog effort your team can handle in future sprints.

Much more about velocity graphs you can find here.

Velocity graph is implemented inside the Plan and Prioritize node and can be shown while user works either on the product backlog or in some particular sprint.

By default velocity graph is not displayed inside the product backlog. However, it can be easily displayed using Velocity ribbon button.

Once you decide to show it, it will be visible above the backlog grid:

If you switch to some sprint (iteration), velocity graph will already be there for you in the upper pane next to the Burndown graph.

4) Add “New PBI” action to the product backlog

Another new cool feature added to our “Plan and Prioritize” planning tool is the ability to create new product backlog items (PBIs) directly from the product backlog view.

You can quickly add several new PBIs just by typing item title and hitting the enter keyboard button. Depending on the active team, new PBI will get default values for several required fields. If you set default team member for the active team, newly created work item will automatically be assigned to that person. After you create new PBI, item will be displayed in the grid with negative value in the ID field.

Using the “Plan and Prioritize” tool configuration dialog you can define additional top level work item types. In this example, we declared Issue work items as additional work item type and because of that Issue appeared as an option in the new PBI combo box. If some work item type contains required fields that cannot be filled automatically, you’ll get the additional dialog on which you’ll have to fill all required fields in order to create a new work item.

After you commit changes by hitting the Save ribbon button, newly created work items will be displayed in grid as saved and a new by TFS assigned ID will replace original negative values.

5) “Request new Feature“ feature

I guess every user from time to time wishes that the application he’s using has at least one more feature. The one he needs at that particular moment.

Although TeamCompanion tries to read end user’s mind, we decided to implement a link that will help you request new features directly from the TeamCompanion user interface.

When you click on the “Request a Feature” link, a new web page will be opened giving you the ability to enter your idea or to vote for some of the previously submitted ideas.

6) Ability to expand trial period using trial codes

As you already know, you have the right to load and execute the unregistered copy of TeamCompanion for a period of 90 days. Until now, we were unable to expand the trial period, but starting from TeamCompanion v4.3 users will be able to request and enter code that will extend the trial period.

In order to extend the trial period, contact our support team (support@ekobit.com) and tell us the reason why you would like to extend the trial period.

Upon request approval, you will receive a trial extension code and enter it using TeamCompanion License Info dialog.

7) Fixed 50+ known issues

TeamCompanion v4.3 comes with the bug fixes for more than 50 issues.

Don’t wait, get the new TeamCompanion v4.3 now!

Grab your copy at www.teamcompanion.com\Download .

Watch all videos at www.teamcompanion.com\Videos.

For all other information visit www.teamcompanion.com.

TeamCompanion natively supports Scrum.

Scrum is based on three pillars: Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation. TeamCompanion successfully addresses all three of them. A multitude of features providing easy, real time insight in the state of your development process, ensures transparency. Efficient access to reports, work item queries together with capacity and burndown charts, make it easy to inspect scrum artifacts and progress towards the goal. Graphical tools featuring efficient drag and drop based actions, together with standard work item management features, make adaptation easy.

First class graphical support for Teams, Scrum Artifacts, like Product and Sprint Backlogs, and direct support for Scrum Events, like Sprint Planning Meeting, make TeamCompanion the ideal companion for your Scrum based development.

The image below shows TeamCompanion features listed next to Scrum artifacts they implement. You can easily see which tools and features are used in different phases of the Scrum lifecycle.

In the upcoming blog entries, we will dig deeper in this chart and investigate how TeamCompanion supports Scrum.

Until then, happy team work with TeamCompanion.

Ognjen