It's been a while since I wrote something here, so I think it's time I'll give you all an update on what's going on in the project.

On monday this week we had a Live Meeting with Mr. König, where we showed this presentation with our findings and questions. The black hole as we saw it then was how to implement the operational store where we should store our data in the TFS server.

The answer to that question were pretty straightforward. We have to create a new database in the same SQL-Server. Then we have to build our own Web service layer on TFS. Finally, we have to implement a client which communicates with the web service. This client should send the code metrics down to our operational store (database). The webservice we implement should then be added to the IIS on the TFS server. As an endpoint to which the client can communicate, we need to provide an URL for the service.

The Team Foundation Object Model that I've been wondering about will apparently be created when you supply the URL to the client. I didn't really understand how that works, but I think It'll be clear as soon I start experimenting with it.

We should have our emphasis on the Adapter + operational store + the report, and not spend too much time constructing the web service.

One thing to think about is how to map our dimensions we'll create to those that already exist in the data warehouse in TFS.

We still need to put our emphasis on the server part of the project, not the client. Next week we will meet with an American gentleman who has been responsible for the (now existing) Code Metrics in Visual Studio 2008. Depending on the outcome of that meeting, we'll see what twist & turns the project will take on the client side. Some suggestions were uttered during the meeting; you could for example see if it is possible to extend the Code Analysis engine to get our code metrics. Or, we could use some kind of external open source tools that performs the code analysis in Visual Studio.

Regarding the reports, we should use MDX and the Report Designer to create them.

So Magnus and I have splitted up the work between us. I will take care of:

• Figuring out how to create the Operational Store
• Create a Web Service
• Create an Adapter
• Create a XML schema for the Adapter

Magnus will take care of:

• Creating the report (MDX + Report Designer)
• Take a look at the Dashboard-part; how to implement that in the project portal
• Figuring out how to use the TFC API to create our client

As for the master thesis part, work is not going so well. We still haven't got a project context to work with (delimitations on project type, role, size of project etc) so we can't do any empirical research. We're at a complete halt here, and it is very concerning! Time is running out and I'm really worried if we'll make it on time. To add up to all this we still haven't got the books we need to do a good job. None of these things are at our table, so I really really do hope that it gets sorted out soon, preferrably already yesterday.

Anyway, my TODO-list:

• Learn WCF
• Build a web service
• Make XML schema for the adapter
• Create Adapter
• Create operational store
• Write some parts of the master thesis (theoretical)