While you're working hard with today's technologies, you need to stay abreast of tomorrow's innovations. In this episode of the AlignIT Manager Tech Talk, Ruth Morton and Jonathan Rozenblit chat with Sam Guckenheimer, the man who wrote the book on Agile and Visual Studio, about how development teams can optimize Application Lifecycle Management, utilize advanced methods to deliver higher-value software faster, and systematically eliminate waste and inefficiency throughout the entire development lifecycle. They discuss the concepts in Sam's latest book, Agile Software Engineering with Visual Studio: From Concept to Continuous Feedback including, but not limited to: Empowering and engaging multidisciplinary self-managing teams Overcoming causes of software waste, missed schedules, and poor quality Reengineering development to remove overhead: make individuals more productive and empower high-performance teams Featured Guest: Sam GuckenheimerSam has 28 years of experience as an architect, developer, tester, product manager, project manager, and general manager in the software industry in the US and Europe. Currently, Sam is the Group Product Planner for Microsoft Visual Studio. In this capacity, he acts as chief customer advocate, responsible for the end-to-end external design of the next releases of Visual Studio. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2003, Sam was Director of Product Line Strategy at Rational Software Corporation, now the Rational Division of IBM. He holds five patents on software lifecycle tools. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Sam has guest lectured at Florida Tech, MIT, Harvard, and Yale. Sam is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University. AlignIT Manager Tech Talk Podcast This episode is also available as a podcast. Listen Now | Download as MP3 Want more IT manager audio podcasts? Subscribe to the Align IT: IT Manager Podcast Series >> Resources ALM Webcast Series: Microsoft invites you to participate in a five part webcast series d

While you're working hard with today's technologies, you need to stay abreast of tomorrow's innovations. On this episode of the AlignIT Manager Tech Talk, Ruth Morton and Jonathan Rozenblit chat with Sam Guckenheimer, the man who wrote the book on Agile and Visual Studio, about how development teams can optimize Application Lifecycle Management, utilize advanced methods to deliver higher-value software faster, and systematically eliminate waste and inefficiency throughout the entire development lifecycle. The discussion centers around around concepts discussed in Sam's latest book, Agile Software Engineering with Visual Studio: From Concept to Continuous Feedback including, but not limited to: Empowering and engaging multidisciplinary self-managing teams Overcoming causes of software waste, missed schedules, and poor quality Reengineering development to remove overhead: make individuals more productive and empower high-performance teams Featured Guest: Sam Guckenheimer Sam has 28 years of experience as an architect, developer, tester, product manager, project manager, and general manager in the software industry in the US and Europe. Currently, Sam is the Group Product Planner for Microsoft Visual Studio. In this capacity, he acts as chief customer advocate, responsible for the end-to-end external design of the next releases of Visual Studio. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2003, Sam was Director of Product Line Strategy at Rational Software Corporation, now the Rational Division of IBM. He holds five patents on software lifecycle tools. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Sam has guest lectured at Florida Tech, MIT, Harvard, and Yale. Sam is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University. AlignIT Manager Tech Talk Podcast This episode is also available as a podcast. Listen Now | Download as MP3 Want more IT manager audio podcasts? Subscribe to the Align IT: IT Manager Podcast Series >> Resources ALM Webcast Series: Microsoft invites you to participate

It's a bit of a Catch-22 – deploying a new operating system can be an expensive proposition, but not using up to date technology can cost a business worker productivity, recruitment of top talent, and integration with customers and partners. For development shops, making sure your application runs on the latest platform contributes to the longevity of a useful product. It's exhausting trying to keep up but not to do so can mean obsolesce. The question is, are there things you can do today to make things easier tomorrow? Coming hot on the heels of the BUILD conference and the release of the developer preview of Windows 8, Ruth Morton and Jonathan Rozenblit talk with David Remmer, Depth Evangelism Manager at Microsoft Canada and former Architect Evangelist about what you need to do to get your applications and infrastructure ready today to take advantage of tomorrow's advances. Featured Guest: David Remmer An industry veteran and former Senior Architect Advisor, David Remmer now heads up the Depth Evanglism Team for Microsoft Canada. David has worked solutions for the financial, multi-media, security, manufacturing, services and health care industries and specializes in leveraging advances in technology in order to realize ongoing business value within organizations. Connect with David at [email protected]. Additional Resources Springboard for Windows 7 - Resources for evaluating, deploying and managing a Windows 7 roll out in your organization. scriptjunkie{} - Essential cross-browser code, information and discussion. gallery - A showcase of sites using HTML5 markup. Beauty of the Web - Amazing Sites - Gallery of sites optimized for Internet Explorer 9. Design. Code. Scale. - A developers guide to getting started with the Cloud. AlignIT Manager Tech Talk Podcast This episode is also available as a podcast. Listen Now | Download as MP3 Want more IT manager audio podcasts? Subscribe to the Align IT: IT Manager Podcast Series >> About AlignIT Th

By now, you've heard the term "Cloud", but what does it actually mean to your developers and architects, your IT staff, and your organization. For developers and architects, the Cloud is a flexible and familiar environment to easily create and host applications that can have nearly infinite scale. For IT staff, the Cloud means on-demand computing with the right infrastructure to host, scale, and manage all your services with ease and speed. For your organization, it means being always available and being global while cutting down on maintenance and operational overhead costs by paying for a service. But at the end of the day, what does that all mean? How do you transition from the way things are today to a Cloud model? In this episode of AlignIT Manager Tech Talk, Ruth Morton and Jonathan Rozenblit sit down with Joel Varty, Director of Research and Development at Agility CMS in Toronto, Ontario, and talk about moving to the Cloud. The discussion focuses around the business problems Windows Azure can solve, the opportunities that can arise, and what it takes to transition developers, architects, and IT staff from traditional application development to the Cloud. Joel shares how he worked with his team to get up to speed on Cloud development and their strategy for moving applications to the Cloud. Resources Cloud Optimization - Expanding Capabilities, while Aligning Computing and Business NeedsFor many applications, the cloud is an ideal solution. For others, moving parts of an application's architecture to the cloud is preferable. To determine which applications are likely to derive the greatest benefit from cloud computing, organizations will want to explore a number of considerations. Delivering a New Kind of Business Value Using the CloudCloud computing with Windows Azure means that your developers can deliver a new kind of value to your business. Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Server and Tools division, talks about the new world

Technology is constantly changing. A few years ago, social media was used by a small select few and cloud computing was on the distant horizon. IT departments had enough to worry when it came to security with firewall breaches, phishing schemes and ensuring their in-house applications and company data were locked down. Today, new ways of doing business and providing IT services introduce new wrinkles into the game. But does the proliferation of social media applications really change anything when it comes to how an organization approaches IT security? In this episode of AlignIT Manager Tech Talk, my colleague Ruth Morton and I talk to Brian Bourne, president of CMS Consulting and co-founder of SecTor, Canada's premier IT security education conference about what IT managers need to know in order to ensure infrastructure security in today's environment. Additional resources: Tool - Microsoft Security Compliance Manager SlideShare - US Army - Geotags and Location-Based Social Networking Blog - Security Tips & Talk Article - Location & Privacy: Where Are We Headed? Video - Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure Link - Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle AlignIT Manager Tech Talk Podcast This episode is also available as a podcast. Listen Now | Download as MP3 Want more IT manager audio podcasts? Subscribe to the Align IT: IT Manager Podcast Series >> About AlignIT The Align IT program is dedicated to keeping IT leaders informed about what really matters in business and technology. We do that through in-person events, web casts, our blog and of course, this Manager Tech Talk series. You can find more information about the Align IT program at www.alignit.ca. Comments, suggestions and ideas for future topics can be left below as a comment or emailed directly to the Align IT program feedback alias at [email protected].