BizTalk Server 2009 on MSDN

I’m thrilled to announce that BizTalk Server 2009 has become available on MSDN, as of last Saturday. The 2009 release includes many cool things, but I’d like to highlight the unit testing capabilities that have been added to the product.  With this release, there is now support for unit testing of Maps, Schemas and Pipelines.  While not perfect, these features are a great initial down payment on bringing BizTalk development in line with state of the art practices in other development areas.  I’m so thrilled that these features have been added that I will be doing a post series over the next several weeks on reducing the friction in unit testing these features, and you can look forward to the first installment shortly.

Intro to WCF for the AZ.NET User Group

I'm in Arizona currently, specifically Phoenix, and last night I had the chance to speak at the AZ.NET User Group thanks to the wonderful folks at INETA.  I promised the folks there that the slides would be posted last night, so I'm only about 8 hours late.  The talk was an Introduction to Windows Communication Foundation, and the demos focused on showing a simple service being setup from nothing to running. You can download the slides here, or the final code here.

Improving Myself

Those who have known me for any amount of time, know that I have always been a vocal proponent of my employer, Sogeti.  For over 2 years they have been the vehicle by which I’ve advanced my career, and reached out to the developer community.  Unfortunately, the time has come for that relationship to end, and a new one to begin.  The choice was mine alone, and the leadership at Sogeti did their very best to get me to reconsider turning the page, but this is simply the right time for me to begin a new chapter in my career. In this new chapter, it is time for me to continue to improving myself, and it so happens that improving is exactly what my new employer is all about.  In a few shoud weeks I will be joining the ranks of Improving Enterprises, a consulting firm based in Dallas that provides consulting, training, mentoring, and rural sourcing.  I am thrilled that with this move I will have the chance to help bring the Improving style to BizTalk and WCF projects around the region.  I am also thrilled that I will be joining some of the brightest people I know on their staff.  The list of MVPs alone is enough to boggle the mind, with Caleb Jenkins, David O’Hara, Jef Newsom, and Todd Girvin all on Improving’s rock star staff, and that’s just the MVPs. I wish everyone at Sogeti nothing but the best, and as always anyone who would like to reach me can do so at Tim@TimRayburn.net.