Team System Highlights from Today's Whidbey Chat - Sam Guckenheimer's Q&A

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Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Will Team System force you to choose a methodology, or can you start a team project without one?

A: You need to start a team project with a "precess template", because that's the holder of the definitions of groups, permissions, work item types, reports, etc. You don't need to have "prcess guidance" with it, although the two we're planning to provide do have guidance. They are MSF for Agile Software Development (out for public review now) and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement. We are considering a stripped down "bugs only" process template as well -- I'm interested in your feedback.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Hey Sam, What's the difference between Team System and SourceSafe?

A: SourceSafe is a great tool for small workgroup-based teams, but does not scale to larger, enterprise development teams. Team System is designed to scale. Additionally, source control in Team System is intimately bound to Work Item tracking -- for example, when you check in, you can directly tick off the work items you're delivering and bugs you're fixing. And there's check-in policy enforcement, a metrics warehouse, reporting engine, process, guidance, to name a few improvements.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: VSTS - a simple process template with no initial work items, no policy, etc. would be handy - probably take a few hours to create it, it would be nice if it's in the box

A: Got it. Thanks for the input.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Will any of those partners work on tools for methodology customization have beta products out or are they looking for people to test their products?

A: Check out www.Osellus.com
If you're interest is in the porcess guidance primarily, you also might want to look at the public review of MSF for Agile Software Development. If you have InfoPath installed, you can edit the xml directly via an InfoPath form.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Will domain accounts still be a requirement for Team System in Beta 2?

A: yes. We're revisiting this post beta 2, however.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: What percentage of the market do you think will buy Team System? I could not get a straight answer at the author's summit. I need to know if it makes economic sense to spend any time on it in my book.

A: We will probably be the leading lifecycle suite within the first year. Several of us are writing books; if you'd like introductions, please contact me separately.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Will there be any new UML tools or are we still stuck with Visio?

A: Our modeling strategy is to provide fully faithful, tripless modeling and visualization with the .NET languages. In addition to class diagrams, which go beyond UML, we're focusing on Design for Operations, with innovative designers for both distributed apps and infrastructure.

These are an initial instance of domain specific languages, which you can read about on the workbench on MSDN. We have partners who will be using the DSL architecture to implement more UML modeling, but we won't be delivering that directly beyond what you have now.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: What kind of tools will be included in VSTS to configure nightly builds along with check-in policies such as including completed unit tests, running FXCop and custom check-in policies.

A: This configuration of builds with automated code analysis tasks, build verification tests and reporting is directly in the product.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: I work in a small place wheree I am the IT department how will VSTS help me?

A: If you're really a team of one person, it's questionable that you need the source control., work item tracking, etc. However, you get the SOA designers of Archtect Edition, the code analysis, performance profiling and unit testing of Developer Edition, and the Web and Load Testing of Tester Edition. These are all valuable whether or not you use the Team Foundation Server.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: please post a link to info on setting up a development domain for local developers on the corporate domain and remote developers via VPN to access to develop..... Also what recommendations in this scenario - isolated , semi-isolated, ???

A: This is similar to how we are using Team System internally now. We have teams at four sites around the globe.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Here is my question: I am putting together a Test automation Tool to test our internal API. I have used VB6, and i was able to complete it in 2-3 months. Now, I am developing it in C# and I was hoping I can complete it the project as fast as I did in VB

A: You might want to look at the test automation built into Team System, which might already do what you want.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: sam, can you provide a link or info with specifics on setting up a dev environment as you have internally with developers located around the globe in different sites (details on domains, active directory, subnetting, etc) - thanks

A: there should be info with Team Foundation at Beta 2. I don't think we've posted this yet.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: does team system replace the need to use project server for dev teams tracking project changes, timeline - is there best practices on this - links to info?

A: At beta, Team System uses Project Client, and keeps Project tasks as work items in the Team Foundation database. We are exploring tighter integration to Project Server, but this is not available at beta.

Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: sam, can you provide a link or info with specifics on setting up a dev environment as you have internally with developers located around the globe in different sites (details on domains, active directory, subnetting, etc) - thanks

A: We should have some general information at beta. If we don't have what you need, please ping me again.