To test these bleeding-edge technologies, I had to create two new partitions, since both uses different versions of the .NET 2.0 runtime. VSTS is using the September Release Candidate of Visual Studio Team Suite and WinFX is using Beta 2.
[You must be wondering why I didn't install them on VPC. Well, I rarely fancy virtual machines and usually prefer to try the products on a real environment to experience the performance.]
Looking at Visual Studio, this product has really came a long way. From unifying the development environment for different programming languages into a single IDE on .NET, it has now expanded into the software lifecycle arena. Visual Studio 2005 Team System is an amalgamate of tools and products that together provides a productive suite of integrated software management lifecycle tools to help organizations increase the predictability of their software development process.
The components that make up VSTS are:
Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
A collection of architect, developer and tester tools integrated into Visual Studio 2005 that each can also be acquired separately in Team Editions:
- Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects - provides tools that are part of the Application and Application Hosting layer of the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) such as Application Designer, Systems Designer, Logical Datacentre Designer and Deployment Designer.
- Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers - provides tools for static code analysis, code profiling, unit testing and code coverage.
- Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers - provides tools for load testing, web testing, manual testing, test case management and also unit testing and code coverage.
Common across all the Team Editions are the Visual Studio Professional Edition that we all know, a new Class Designer and some extras like as Visio for Enterprise Architects (in MSDN Premium subscription)
Central to the Team Editions is Team Foundation Server (TFS), the heart of Visual Studio Team System. It provides a common place for Work Item Tracking, Project Management, Source Control, Build Automation and Reporting.
What's cool about Visual Studio Team System is that it is not only about tools. It also comes integrated with Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) Version 4 to provide process automation and guidance through proven-practices. Out-of-the-box it comes with MSF for Agile Software Development (MSF Agile) and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement (MSF Formal).
When you install the Team Foundation Client, you will be able to connect to Team Foundation Server from within Visual Studio. What's interesting is that it also integrates with Microsoft Project 2003 and Microsoft Excel 2003, allowing Project Managers and Business Analyst who are more familiar with MS Office to participate in the lifecycle.
The ecosystem of Visual Studio has now grown to cover other members of the development team, hence extending the focus from 'developer' to 'development'.
I'm sure Visual Studio Team System will be an exciting offering and hopefully, I can pick it up as one of my specialization.
Alright! I need to go catch a movie now. Will blog more about VSTS and WinFX in the next round.
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