The Agile Team’s Project Portal

The Project Portal

A project portal is a 'home page' viewed within an internet browser which helps agile teams communicate and collaborate. The portal ensures that everyone is working from the latest and most complete vision. The value in having up-to-date status, current events, outstanding issues, what's coming on the horizon, schedules, technical information, test results, etc, all in one place is clear.

Without a portal or some sort of home-page, project information tends to be spread across emails, isolated documents, project plans, and so on. It is not easy to get a clear view of the project as a whole. In addition there is nowhere sensible to note all the minor events (discussions, decisions, technical implementations, etc) which can have a big impact on the software development, without emailing the whole world every time.

The portals are ever more important if you have teams in different locations or time-zones. It gives the various teams visibility of what is going on or what has gone on before they got into work, all in one place. Of course the idea isn't new, for example Microsoft's Team Foundation Server comes with a project portal associated with each project created (albeit to complex and difficult to configure and not hugely effective in my opinion).

The Implementation

I have been using Microsoft SharePoint to setup the project portals. I have started simple so far (only using the basic web-parts which come with SharePoint). The image below shows my original design, which has now been up and running for around three months. It was very quick and easy to setup simply by jiggling a few web-parts around in the SharePoint page editor.

The portal consists of:

• Project Discussion – This is the heart of the portal, and the fastest moving part. Without this we would be reliant mainly on emails being sent, being sent to the correct parties, and being read.
• Documentation Links – A simple set of links to the important up-to-date documentation. No hunting around in attachments of folders for documentation.
• Current Iteration Objectives – What will be delivered this iteration (from a business perspective), plus any technical debt to be paid back.
• Product Backlog – Work requested but not yet scheduled into an iteration (business requirements, plus technical debt to be paid back).
• Recent Documentation changes – This details all the changes to a project documentation folder on SharePoint (it's an RSS viewer web-part pointed to the RSS feed showing changes to files in a SharePoint folder).
• Project Calendar – A calendar detailing iteration dates, release dates, milestones, team member holidays, etc

It could be enhanced in many ways, such as adding the following (although some custom-web parts may have to be written):

• Detail recent Check-ins in the project branch
• Show the status of automated processes such as:
• The Build
• Integration Tests
• Regression Tests
• A place to show outstanding bugs/defects
• The burn down chart for the current iteration/sprint.

Usage

It doesn't matter whether you use Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Feature Driven Development (FDD), Lean Software Development, Agile Unified Process, or any similar methodology. The portal will bring together project managers, program managers, business analysis's, developers, QA, sponsors and anyone else involved in the software project.

The project portals I have recently setup show all sorts of aspects relating to projects, looking at a couple now I can see the following discussions within the portals:

• Clarifications and changes to requirements
• Updates to documentation and the changes highlighted
• Definitions of share components and methods
• Branching
• Why the build is breaking
• QA defects
• Planned release dates
• Important code changes
• Who is going to pick up which tasks
• Overall progress updates

The portal should NEVER replace face-to-face or telephone conversations, or meetings. It should completely replace emails. In fact I have banned project related emails from being sent. This led to a snowball effect ensuring the portals became effective very quickly.

In short even the basic project portal which I setup has had an enormous impact in the organisation and communication within projects. We are all undoubtedly more efficient, better informed, and more productive as a result.

London Bus Stop and Route data from TFL

Recently I worked on a software project which required information on the locations of London bus stops along with the routes those buses take between these stops. The project mapped this information using Microsoft's Virtual Earth with their SDK. Specifically I needed the following information about the bus network in order to feed the data into the SDK:

1. Longitude and latitude of all 19,000 bus stops (GPS locations)
2. The textual description of each bus stop
3. The distance a bus travels between adjacent bus-stops on a bus route
4. Stop-Snapping Data – specifically the stop sequence for each direction of each bus route (called the 'route-run')

Transport for London (TFL) collected all of this bus information under a specific project called iBus (ran for London Buses) and computerised it. So I decided to request this information from TFL under the freedom of information act (FOIA). I wrote a letter to TFL, to which I eventually got a response via email.

Much to my amazement, the response from TFL came with all the data I requested! Hurrah for the FOIA!

The information came back as a CSV file with points 1, 2, and 4 (above) contained within. Although in the response from TFL they claimed that they did not include point 4 – they actually did (hence why the CSV has 58,200 rows in it).

I thought I would make this information available for all to use.

Please let me know if you found this information useful...

Getting built-in 3G to work on a Sony Vaio with any SIM Card

Update on installing/running Windows 7 on a Sony Vaio: At the time of writing this is a 'no no' if you want to use the built-in 3G connection. The first problem was that GlobeTrotter v1.0 is not compatible with Windows 7. Sony have solved this by making GlobeTrotter v2.0 available from Vaio’s downloads page (choose the WWAN drivers for Vista). The one remaining problem is that the VAIO Smart Network utility does not work under Windows 7. This means that it is not possible to turn on the power to the built-in 3G and GlobeTrotter 2/Windows 7 recognise it. [For developers, someone has figured out how to do this and implemented it under Linux, so someone could use this to write a Windows 7 driver]. For now we'll have to wait until Sony release a laptop with Windows 7 pre-installed, and then hope to use the Vaio smart network off that.

Other than the 3G problem my Sony TZ21 is running Windows 7 RC fine (make sure you go to Windows Update after it finishes installing so that it downloads all the correct drivers).

This is a complete guide to getting the built-in 3G/HSDPA to work on a any Sony Vaio laptop with any network. There is a lot of loose information floating around on the Internet; this is a consolidated and tested tutorial.

So far this has been tested thoroughly with Windows Vista, but should also apply to Windows XP.

Step 1: Insert SIM Card into Vaio Laptop

The first thing you will need to do to get 3G/HSDPA working is to place the correct SIM Card into your laptop. This tutorial should work with any 3G SIM.

The SIM Card is located behind the battery compartment on most Vaios, so you will need to power down and remove the battery first. Make sure the SIM 'Clicks In', you may need to use a pen or a coin to push it far enough for this to happen.

Step 2: Uninstall T-Mobile Software

Most Sony Vaio laptops come with T-Mobile software pre-installed. You will want to remove this to allow the correct configuration of the software which will allow you to connect to any network.

Depending upon your laptop model you will either need to:

Go to the Control Panel and Add/Remove programs. From here select anything with T-Mobile and uninstall it.

Or

Go to the Start menu, select the T-Mobile sub-menu and choose the uninstall option

If you don't manage to find how to uninstall your T-Mobile software it may not be the end of the world, but could cause complications later.

Step 3: Install GlobeTrotter software

Sony Vaio supplies the Globe Trotter software for free for laptop owners. It is supplied under the Windows XP Downgrade downloads section. GlobeTrotter is designed to work under Windows XP but also works fine under Windows Vista.

Go to the Vaio website and under the Drivers and Utilities sections choose Updates.

Next you will have to enter your laptop make and model. I entered:

"Vaio Notebooks" "VGN TZ" "VGN-TZ21WN/B"

After this you will be presented with a number of links. Choose Windows XP Downgrade.

Next you will be presented with a load of things you can download. Under Driver locate, download, and install the driver called WWAN. This is the GlobeTrotter software.

Step 4: Enable Vaio WWAN

Ensure the physical wireless switch on you Vaio laptop is switched to On (otherwise there is no way to connect to 3G). It is usually a slider switch located on the side of the laptop facing the user.

Sony Vaio laptops come with a utility called the Wireless Switch Setting Utility. It allows the user to switch on and off the networking components of the laptop.

Launch the Wireless Switch utility (it is normally an icon in the tray on the right side of the start menu bar). If not, find it in the start menu.

Switch everything to Off, especially the WAN option.

Now switch on WWAN but leave everything else Off.

Step 5: GlobeTrotter Settings

Launch the newly installed GlobeTrotter Connect software from the Start Menu.

Depending upon your 3G/GPRS provider you will need to enter the correct settings into GlobeTrotter, see the table below:

3G Provider	PIN	APN	User Name	Password
Vodafone	[N/A]	internet	web	web
Orange	[N/A]	internet	[Leave Blank]	[Leave Blank]
Three	[N/A]	3internet	[Leave Blank]	[Leave Blank]
T-Mobile	[N/A]	general.t-mobile.uk	[Leave Blank]	[Leave Blank]

Now close GlobeTrotter down completely.

Step 6: Disconnection Fix

Most 3G providers have connection problems with GlobeTrotter under vista, and they will disconnect you after a very short period of time (usually between 30 seconds and 10 minutes). Luckily there is a work around to allow you to "keep the connection alive". This involves changing a registry setting.

Select Start -> Run

Type Regedit and press Enter

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\U SB\Vid_0af0&Pid_6901\Serial_Number\Device Parameters\

Once inside the folder -> Right Click -> Add New -> DWORD (32bit)

Rename the new DWORD to ExtraDisSelSusp

Double click the new ExtraDisSelSusp and change the Value to 1

Note that everything is case sensitive. If you can't find the above mentioned folder to navigate to, make sure you have installed GlobeTrotter and have ran it at least once.

Step 7: Reboot and Connect

We are almost done; you should now restart your laptop.

Once your laptop has restarted confirm:

The external physical wireless switch is On

In the Sony Wireless Connection Utility, everything is Off except WWAN (which should be On). If WAN is switched on (and sometimes LAN), you will not be able to connect using 3G.

Launch GlobeTrotter, if you wait it should locate the network and display the network name. If you get a Device not Found error, use the physical switch to switch wirless off, then on again. Also ensure only WWAN is selected in the connection utility.

Once the network has been located hit the Connect button. Once connected you should be able to launch Internet Explorer and browse to google as a test.

Note: Some Vaios do sometimes have problems connecting at this stage (after a reboot). Try switching the physical wireless switch to off and wait for a few seconds, then switch it on again. I'm not sure if this has to be done when GlobeTrotter is open or closed so try both, but it certainly does resolve problems.

Finally

If anything in this guide did not work for you and you know the work around, or if something is missing please leave a comment, stating your laptop model number and the operating system. I will update the guide. Also if the guide worked for you please also leave a comment with your O/S and model number, that way I can add it to the verified table below.

So far this guide has been verified on the following systems:

• VGN-TZ21WN/B (VGN-TZ series) on Vista
• VGN-TZ21XN/B (VGN-TZ series) on Vista

The guide has also been verified on the following cellular networks:

• Vodafone
• Orange

I hope that this guide was helpful. As always, any feedback which helps others is much appreciated. You do not need to sign in to leave a comment.