TFS RC is here ...

It's finally here ...

Today TFS RC was released on MSDN at last ...

A great step ahead in the revolution ...

TFS RC ... What's new in it ...

I got a look at some of the biggest changes in TFS RC and here is a summary of such list ...

• Bug fixes: They’ve found and fixed a ton of bugs. This release is substantially more reliable, stable and performant than Beta3.
• Friendly name support for Work Items: Active Directory 'Friendly Name' is now used to assign work items insteas of the network account names.
• Improved SharePoint configuration during install: The #1 issue during installation is ensuring that SharePoint is correctly configured for proper use by TFS.
• Improved error detection within Setup.
• Move SQL Reporting Services to the Application Tier: Because Reporting Services requires IIS to be present and many companies do not allow IIS and SQL to run on the same server, The Reporting Services was moved off the data tier in dual server deployments (no change for single server installs).
• Upgrade utility: A lot of work on the upgrade scripts was done to allow migration of data from Beta3 refresh to both the Release Candidate and the final build of TFS. These scripts will also help migrate your data from the RC to the final bits to allow customers to “go live” with this release.
• Reports: A lot of improvements to the reporting system were done so that everyone is going to like the changes done :)
• Admin tools: Same goes for the admin tools.
• Portal: Number of reports on the main page is reduced and the overall look of the default portal is cleaned up.
• CMMI Methodology: A bunch of work to bring the CMMI process template up to shipping quality by fixing bugs in the work item templates and reports was done.

Team Foundation Server RC Feb 7th ...

It's almost there ... as noted in Jeff Beehler's Blog :
"... the Team Foundation team signed off on their Release Candidate build ..."
"The CD images have been handed off to the team that handles the uploads to the MSDN download center and according to current estimates, we should have bits available for download sometime on Tuesday, February 7th."

Can't wait to get it ...

VSTS Great Collaboration …

Borland Software Corporation announced that it will provide one of the first fully-integrated requirements management solution for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team System, Borland's award-winning CaliberRM™ requirements management solution is designed to provide Microsoft teams with a comprehensive way to manage requirements throughout the application lifecycle, enabling teams to select the right software projects, apply the right resources and adjust projects as they progress through different phases and roles in the development process.

Quoted from the press release …
“Below are specific use case scenarios of the planned integration of CaliberRM and Visual Studio Team System, as defined by roles within the application lifecycle:
Linking Requirements to Tests – Once analysts enter requirements with CaliberRM, they become visible within Visual Studio Team System with test creation and development tasks linked directly to them. Consolidated test results will be available so analysts can verify not just that code was developed to meet a requirement and tests were created to test a requirement, but that the tests passed and the requirement has been successfully fulfilled.
Developers Implementing Requirements – When a requirement is created or updated in CaliberRM, the changes will immediately become visible within the Visual Studio Team System environment, and development tasks will get assigned to make sure that the product code reflects the latest requirements. When a task gets completed, its status will be available for all team members so the analyst knows the code meets the correct requirements and the tester knows there is new code ready to be validated against the updated tests.
Creating Business Stakeholder Transparency – CaliberRM provides transparency of product status through reports which show requirements, test and development task status. The integration between CaliberRM and Visual Studio Team System allows users to generate reports showing each requirement and test plan associated with the approved requirements as well as the test plan results so business stakeholders can see which requirements are being satisfied in the product for each reporting period. “

Read the full release here ...

Visual Studio Team System Books

Although VSTS is not released yet but VSTS Books started to appeat by both MSPress and by various publishers, these include AW Publishing, Apress and Wrox to name a few.

Take a look at 4 of the great books to come ...

1. Working with Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team System by Richard Hundhausen
2. Pro Visual Studio 2005 Team System by Jeff Levinson & David Nelson
3. Professional Visual Studio 2005 Team System by Jean-Luc David, Tony Loton, Brady Gaster, Erik Gunvaldson, Noah Coad
4. Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System by Sam Guckenheimer

Wants to know about VSTS??

Take MS Clinic 2551: Introduction to Visual Studio Team System, which will offer you the following:

• Introduction on Visual Studio Team System
• Managing the Software Development Life Cycle
• Introduction to Visual Studio Team System Features
• Using VSTS Tools Across Multiple Roles
• Using VSTS Tools to Support the SDL Process
• Automating Reporting and Status Using VSTS

Go take it here ...