Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System (Pro-Developer)

Team Foundation Server Components

Team Foundation Server is a partnering product to Visual Studio 2005, but in many cases it will be purchased as a separate solution. It is used in environments where teams need communication tightly integrated inside Visual Studio, scalable version-control software, and an integrated Web portal for the project. I guess it sounds like most teams will need Team Foundation Server.

TIP

Topics related to installing, configuring, and troubleshooting Team Foundation Server are beyond the scope of this book. For more information, please refer to the appropriate installation guides or visit the main Team System site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/teamsystem.

Here are the features that you get with Team Foundation Server:

• Project management—Create and manage team projects

• Work item tracking—Create and manage requirements, tasks, and bugs

• Change management—Version control to manage changes to the project

• Build server—Automated and extensible project-build tool

• Project site—Microsoft Windows® SharePoint® Services (WSS) portal provides a collaborative work area

• Reporting—Management and status reports are available to the entire team

These are important features to teams of every size. These features serve to unify the entire team in various ways. Without Team Foundation Server, each team member would be architecting, developing, or testing within his or her own silo. This is a problem we want to avoid.

TIP

Microsoft recommends using Visual Studio 2005 Team System with Active Directory® directory service. However, this is not a requirement. If you want to install Team Foundation Server on a single server, it can belong to a workgroup. Dual-server installations will require Active Directory.