Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System

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Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System

The world has once again changed for the Microsoftapplication developer. Visual Studio is no longer just a desktop-centric, oreven Web-centric, programming environment it is now a world-centricapplication lifecycle tool. The distributed nature of applications and theteams that are responsible for their construction, deployment, and iterativemaintenance have permanently changed the way teams manage their softwareprojects. Recognizing this paradigm shift, Microsoft has architected VisualStudio 2005 to facilitate this comprehensive universe of applicationarchitecture, development, and testing in their Team System environment.

Understanding the pieces that comprise Visual Studio TeamSystem (VSTS) and the differences between the various Visual Studioconfigurations can be daunting possibly even overwhelming to the uninitiated.Fortunately for those seeking help with this task, Microsoft MVP RichardHundhausen has written a book that can satiate the needs of the IT projectmanager, architect, developer, or tester.

The book begins with an overview of VSTS, describing theproblems it solves, as well as the differences between and the primary roles ofthe five versions of Visual Studio 2005 that comprise the end-to-end VSTS. Thisis followed by an introduction to the Team Foundation Server and Team SystemClient Applications.

Part 2 continues with individual chapters detailing howthe primary team roles of project manager, architect, developer, and testershould optimally configure and live within their specific version of the VisualStudio environment. Easily the heart of the book, this section was excellent. Iespecially appreciated the effort that Hundhausen spent on describing how keyMicrosoft technologies have been tailored to meet the needs of each specifiedteam member and their desired development methodology.

Speaking of methodology, Part 3 covers the MicrosoftSolutions Framework (MSF) 4.0 Team Model and its ability to host two of themost popular methodologies used in software development today: Agile andCapability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Process Improvement. MSF can beextended to support other approaches, as well, such as Extreme Programming andScrum. This portion of the book also provides an immensely helpful summary ofthe roles and responsibilities of each advocate group these methodologiespromote. Part 3 closes by describing how to customize and extend Team System tosupport specific workflows or unique organizational requirements.

Part 4 contains an appendix that describes a day in thelife of Team System, an outstanding summary of the world-view necessary toconceptualize how the orchestrated use of VSTS delivers world-centricapplications; it also humanizes the process. Another appendix provides a briefdistributed system designer reference for use with Microsoft Distributed SystemLogical Datacenter, Application, and Class Designers. The final, single-pageappendix lists the array of codenames associated with VSTS to help newcomerstranslate names used for some time by seasoned VSTS beta testers.

Overall, I was highly satisfied with the writing qualityand educational impact this book delivers and I recommend placing it on themandatory reading list of any serious .NET developer.

Mike Riley

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Title: Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005Team System

Author: RichardHundhausen

Publisher: MicrosoftPress

ISBN: 0-7356-2185-3

Web Site: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/8477.asp

Price: US$34.99

Page Count: 336pages