A documentary on the Blue Angels, the Navy's ace demo flight team, got me to thinking about how dismally most corporations manage technical talent and imagine how things might be different if the average company ran a team modeled after the Blue Angels.

1. Anyone can apply to become a Blue Angel, but the existing team has complete say in who joins.  It's clear that they pick the best of the best and require not only ace skills but also the ability to represent the team and the Navy in the best light.
2. You serve only three years as a member of the team.  One year to learn your stuff.  One year to do it best.  The last year is dedicated to training your replacement.
3. After your stint, you return to real life.  This opens spots for the next crop of team members and ensures that everything you've learned about being the best is carried back out to the Navy at large to help the whole organization improve.

I can only imagine the effects of running such a team might have on the average corporate IT organization.

First, companies might finally be able to maintain highly motivated and skilled people.  Too often it's the case that  your best and brightest get bored and go looking for a new job just at the point where they're ready to become truly useful to the company.   Imagine instead this energy and talent earning a place on the Blue Angel team and getting assigned tasks that will really stretch and challenge them to take it up another level.  Imagine too, having a real alternative besides promotion to management to reward your technical stars.

Usually Managers let go their star employees only grudgingly knowing there's a good chance that it will be a long while before they find somebody to replace their ace.   But imagine instead, that as you let go of your favorite talent, you get in return an Ace.  Better yet, and ace who's now a trained expert on the latest and greatest trends approved for use in the business.  You get a direct liaison to the powers that be, someone who's got the training and knowledge to actually improve all your team members' productivity.  Someone who's ready to help ensure your team understands and adheres to the proven best practices...

Imagine being a CIO knowing that there is an effective and constant flow of ideas among all your disparate teams.  That best practices are more than just empty bits on a sharepoint site that nobody reads and most teams have no way of understanding let alone adopting.   Instead, you have evangelists of excellence cycling throughout your company,  leaders with the hands on knowledge and skills ready to rapidly deploy key changes to any team in need.  And don't forget you also the Blue Angels team itself, full of great minds ready to tackle any thorny problem that may arise.

And lastly, imagine just being a cog in the wheels at such a company.  Maybe you don't feel up to putting in the extra effort to become a Blue Angel.  Maybe you have kids you want to watch grow up or you're writing your novel.  But imagine how much better to be a cog in a company where the hotshots really do get their time to shine and so don't just sit around kvetching about how backwards and stupid everybody else is.  Imagine that you had actual working code examples to follow when asked to adopt a new standard or better yet real automation tools and robust frameworks to make the job easier.

Seems like a win-win all around,  does any place like this exist in the IT world?  What would it really take to run a shop like this?

 

原文地址: http://lauramooresthinkingspot.blogspot.com/2009/03/blue-angels-for-corporate-america.html

在本文中, 我将介绍如何在VS2008中使用WCSF June 2007.

1. 安装 Guidance Automation Extensions Technology Preview (July 2007 Release for Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio Beta 2).
2. 下载并安装Orca MSI editor (从 Windows SDK 中可以找到). Orca MSI Editor 是一个帮助你编辑.msi文件的工具。如果需要了解关于这个工具的更多信息，请访问这个链接(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255905/en-us).

Note: 如果你不想下载整个Windows SDK, 有人将ORca.msi的安装包发布到他的Blog中。

1. 打开 Orca MSI 编辑器在File > Open中选择WCSF MSI file (Web Client Software Factory - June 2007.msi).
    
2. 在列表中选择RegLocator.
   
3. 修改下列键值(在下列路径中用9.0替换8.0):
   • FindVSInstallDir
   • VisualStudioInstallRegistry
   • VistualStudioHelpRegistrySearch
   
    
4. 保存修改.
5. 安装 Web Client Software Factory June 2007.
   

其它几个Software Factory的安装如法炮制。

最近装了VS2008 Team Suite(RTM)英文版并开始试用，强烈地好奇心让我不断地去尝试VS2008的各种新特性。优点我就不说了，MS很会王婆卖瓜了。
这里我就谈谈在试用过程中遇到的一些问题，希望与大家分享。

1. 代码编辑器对VBScript的支持
由于工作需要，我会在VS2005中开发一些ASP页面（虽然技术已经过时）。在VS2005的代码编辑器中，VBScript的代码会通过代码智能感知给关键字或对象着色，并且可以设定断点进行调试。这些基本功能满足了我在VS2005下开发ASP页面的需要。
可是，当我升级到VS2008后，在VS2008中编辑ASP页面，如果页面声明使用VBScript编写服务端代码时，其代码智能感知失效，同时设计器还不允许在VBScript代码中设定断点进行调试。当页面声明使用JScript时，智能感知又开始起作用，并且允许进行调试。
我想，这是不是一个Bug.

2.对Enterprise Library暂不支持
在撰写本文时，正式发布的Enterprise Library的最新版本是3.1，目前只支持VS2005，部分安装组件无法进行安装（如Application Block Software Factory, Strong Naming Guidance Package)，由此引起Smart Client Software Factory、Web Client Software Factory、Web Service Software Factory不能安装使用（缺少VS2005也是不能安装的一个原因）。
在我的另一篇文章中，有一个解决这个问题的方法：
如何在VS2008中安装Web Client Software Factory (WCSF) June 2007