[ Q & A ] : My Community Chat Session on Visual Studio Team System 2005
I am done with my Community Chat Session on VSTS 2005 yesterday. It went on very well, got around 25-30 attendees. I am very thankful to all of them for thier patience to be with me till the end of the session. I feel 1 hour is not an ideal slot to cover VSTS 2005, after starting the Q & A part of the session. I could not able to cover all the questions with in given time. So I have decided to answer all the questions from that session here in the blog with more reliable information.
Thanks very much to Ajay Sudan, {Technical Product Manager, VSTS 2005 Architect Edition} for his invaluable proactive help. I appreciate it very much. A True Microsoftee !
Please feel free to use comments to ask more questions on the same.
Q: Please compare the features with VSS so that it can be easy to understand for us??
A: VSTS gives more performance and Features compared to VSS, the SCC part of VSTS was totally written from the scratch. There will a converter available for VSS Migration to VSTS SCC.
For more info on VSS vs VSTS check this
http://blogs.msdn.com/korbyp/archive/2004/07/28/199720.aspx
Q: is nightly build process is possible through VSTS?
A: Yep, a Build server is available in VSTS team Foundation which enables scheduling builds, automation of builds etc...
Q: Can a Project Manager (As you said PM is also in SDLC) assign certain tasks from VSTS to Developers and other related team member like what we do in MS Project?
A: Yes, VSTS System will have a Client which can be used by PMs. they do not require to install VSTS system. Adding to this VSTS is very much extensible via web services, Office products like Excel, MS Project etc.
Q: How close is this with CVS?
A: VSTS SCC’s feature set is more larger in contrast with CVS.
Q: How this whole data is managed in VSTS (Analysis Data, Reports, and Communication Data, Testing results)? Any Data backup strategy it supports? (I don’t know completely if this is applicable).
A: VSTS has got Distributed System Designers (DSD), which provides an “Integrated design Experience” along with visual design and validation onboard. DSM uses a Meta model called “System Definition Model” a.k.a SDM, which describes the connectivity, relations, and configurations between system entities including runtime environments. SDM is a part of Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI).
Q: How close is this with CVS?
A: VSTS SCC’s feature set is more larger in contrast with CVS.
Q: How this whole data is managed in VSTS (Analysis Data, Reports, and Communication Data, Testing results)? Any Data backup strategy it supports? (I don’t know completely if this is applicable).
A: VSTS has got Distributed System Designers (DSD), which provides an “Integrated design Experience” along with visual design and validation onboard. DSM uses a Meta model called “System Definition Model” a.k.a SDM, which describes the connectivity, relations, and configurations between system entities including runtime environments. SDM is a part of Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI).
Q: What is the Team Foundation in VSTS?
A: if you can check http://one.aspxconnection.com/sudhakar/VSTS_Skeleton.jpg, you will notice that Team foundation Server is a base services platform server for VSTS System which serves “Change Management”, “Integration Services” for extensibility, “Work Item Tracking” , “Reporting”, “Project Management”, and a project team site which hosts all kinds of customizable reports, status and many more.
Q: Is VSTS will be useful for the windows platform only?
A: yes, VSTS 2005 was developed for Windows Platform, but you can connect to Team Foundation servers from other platforms as well. VSTS is extendable via web services. It means any one can write their own clients which can communicate with Team Foundation Integration Services.
Q: Will there be any way to port the current application managed in VSS easily into team system?
A: Yes, VSTS ships with a collection of Converters for previous systems like VSS.
Q: so you mean we can do all other necessary tasks of code validation, maintenance etc with VSTS, without use of third part tool... but if I want to integrate any tool like Nant with VSTS.. How can I do that?? A: Yes, http://one.aspxconnection.com/sudhakar/VSTS_Skeleton.jpg has a side bar on the right side for Industry partners, which means it is highly extendable for 3rd party. VSTS Includes a Unit testing framework which is far advanced than NUnit testing framework. There will be a converter available for NUnit to VSTS very soon.
Q: Where can we access beta bits of Visual Studio Team System?
A: http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/get/default.aspx
Q: Will VSTS have features like automatic code generation after a person completes the design?
A: Yes, VSTS’s class designer does two way sync for your design, check the diagram
Q: Is this product is available or it is in a Beta state?
A: The product is in pre-Beta state. The next Beta will be available in late-Feb/early March. Visual Studio 2005 Team System will be available in Summer 2005.
Q: Is this suite part of the Visual studio 2005 IDE?
A: Visual Studio 2005 Team System includes all the functionality of Visual Studio 2005 Professional. This includes all the core VS2005 IDE functionality, the .NET 2.0 Framework, Web development, mobile development, Win Forms, etc.
Q. What is the product version available in VSTS?
A: The December Community Technology Preview (pre-beta quality) will be available to MSDN subscribers later this month.
Q: What will be the H/W and S/W resource that needs to be existing at the client and server?
A: Please see the Visual Studio 2005 Team System Readme. http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/readme.aspx#sysReq
Q: What software part of VSTS will exists at the Client side
A: Please see the SKU plan and VSTS Overview document here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=35546
Q: What database does VSTS need?
A: Visual Studio Team System is built on top of SQL Server 2005. However, it is a part of Visual Studio Team Foundation, so no separate database is required.
Q: Can we use VSTS on Linux or different OS?
A: You can use VSTS services via its Extensible APIs, web services.
Q: Where can we find articles about VSTS 2005?
A: You can find all the resources from here
01. http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem
and white papers from here
02. http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/whitepapers/default.aspx