New Connector Released

Today, Microsoft officially released a new connector between Visual Studio Team Systems and Project Server 2007.  This connector was a collaborative development effort between Project Server, VSTS and Microsoft Consulting to solve a customer need.  While this connector could have been bundled into the normal release cycle, it was felt that this need had to be addressed sooner.  Hence, the separate release.

As one of the members of the team that worked on this connector, I'm very happy to see it get released to the world.  We had a large number of people from the teams work on this effort.  I want to thank them all for the work they did to get this product constructed and shipped.  VSTS officially owns this connector but you will see enhancements to the connector as upcoming versions are released.

The official announcement is below.

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Just Released: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server – Project Server 2007 Connector

We are pleased to announce the release of Visual Studio Team Foundation Server – Project Server 2007 Connector which is available at https://www.codeplex.com/pstfsconnector.

OVERVIEW

The Visual Studio Team Foundation Server - Project Server 2007 Connector is designed to integrate the project management capabilities of TFS with Project Server 2007. It's been developed by the Visual Studio Team System Rangers in response to significant customer demand for a connector solution. Future versions of Team System will have native integration with Project Server, in the meantime this Connector solution is the best way to integrate the two Microsoft products. This solution builds on the previous PS2003 VSTS Connector, published on GotDotNet. This solution is intended to provide guidance, provided as source code that can be used "as is," extended, or modified.

BACKGROUND

Microsoft® Office Project Server 2007 and Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 Team Foundation Server (TFS) are two powerful applications that are each used in different ways for management of software development projects. Up-to-date project information requires a seamless integration between the development environment and the project management tool.

Managing projects, resources, and related information for an entire enterprise requires a holistic view and integration of project management data with the software development lifecycle. The Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution with Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 can help organizations effectively manage and coordinate people, projects, and processes. The Microsoft EPM solution provides tools for strong coordination and standardization between projects and project managers, centralized resource management, and high-level reporting on projects and resources. Through familiar tools and ease of integration with a broad range of programs in the Microsoft Office System, the EPM solution promotes broad participation for greater accuracy, accountability, and acceptance.

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) provides a solution for software development teams that integrates designing, developing, testing, and managing a project. TFS integrates with Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 for desktop use and allows project managers to plan and manage projects on a local computer. However, because there is no integration with Project Server, the project data for each team is available only in a stand-alone plan. There is no simple way to aggregate project data across multiple projects.

The Connector synchronizes Project, Resource and Task data between the two systems. Project Managers and Resource Managers continue to work in the EPM environment while the development team works in the development environment, i.e. TFS, and data seamlessly flows between the two systems. Updates to work items in TFS are automatically applied to the corresponding assignments and tasks in Project Server and vice versa. Project Managers have complete control over the inflow of the actuals into the project plan. In addition, resource management functions for all development projects, like managing time and utilization for resources working across multiple projects, team staffing etc. can be performed in Project Server. Lastly, portfolio and program level reports can easily be generated for projects being executed in TFS and managed in Project Server.

Project Link: https://www.codeplex.com/pstfsconnector

Setup Guide: https://www.codeplex.com/pstfsconnector/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Setup%20Guide&referringTitle=Home

Questions or Feedback? tfpstalk@microsoft.com  or https://www.codeplex.com/pstfsconnector/Thread/List.aspx

 

Technorati Tags: Project Server 2007, Visual Studio, TFS, Project, VSTS, Connector, Microsoft