Yesterday Microsoft published the release candidate for Visual Studio 2013 Update 2. So the moment has finally arrived where we can start to use these great new features in our production environments, as the RC update offers "go-live" support along with a seamless migration to the RTM version once it becomes available.
As with all updates for TFS a good strategy for promoting updates into production environments is critical for any organization. We always advise our clients to have a sandbox environment available that closely matches production to first apply the updates and try them out. If all looks good then schedule a time where they can be applied to production.
Below is where you can find the update:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42307
And here are some of my favorite new features in update 2:
1) New Web Access Look and Feel
A picture is worth 1000 words. Have a look at the screenshot below of the new web access. Nice job!
2) Work Item Charting
This is a great new feature to help visually represent work items queries. Some of us absorb information better is a visual format! The really nice thing about this feature is that the chart can be "pinned" to the Web Access home page (See below).
3) Work Item Tags
The use of work item tagging keeps getting better! Now we can use them in work item queries ("Contains" and "Does not Contain").
4) Exporting Test Management Artifacts
This is a great feature to share information about the testing workflow with those outside the immediate team who may not have access to TFS. It is now possible to export Plans, Suites and Test cases into an HTML format. This could be helpful on many fronts from simply sharing information to a more formal process where physical documents are required for approvals.
5) Configurable Work Days for the Team
This may seem small but I must admit I am very excited about this one. We can now exclude weekends from the burndown report to have a more accurate picture. Rather than a burndown looking like a staircase! Check it out:
These are some of my favorite features in update 2. Actually in this release there is a lot of new stuff and fixes as compared to update 1 so I would encourage everyone to have a look and give it a test drive.
Cheers!
