Have Cheers, Jeers, Opinions about Visual Studio, TFS and Other Microsoft Products? How Can You be Heard? Here is how!
“That Test Manager form should be resizable! “
“That option is too hard to find in Visual Studio!”
“Why can’t Team Explorer include that one really key feature that I need to do my job?“
“Why isn’t that easily searchable?” – I’ve asked this myself!!
We hear you! Really, we do. We’ve been listening for many years actually, but it is so darn hard to know where all of the resources exist! But if you’re stewing on frustrations, keeping those ideas to yourselves, well, we can’t read minds either. Believe me, I wish I could, I’d be a MILLIONAIRE (and blogging about living on my private island). So speak up, be HEARD…. I talk to thousands of people a year, literally, about our Application Lifecycle Management tools. So, Visual Studio, Team Explorer Everywhere, Microsoft Test Manager, Team Foundation Server, Expression, etc. Everyone has ideas for us, finds quirks or thinks up amazing new “features” that could improve our products, and we love it all. Granted, we do not have unlimited time and money to give you every feature you want. Shocking, I know If you don’t love our product, if it doesn’t do what you need, then we have failed. No differently than the products YOU are developing and delivering as software developers.
There are of course many, many places you can go for help. Twitter (you’d be amazed how many product team people are on Twitter and RESPOND), Facebook, LinkedIn, non-MSDN forums, blogs, it is mind boggling. Trust me, I tried to keep up with them and gave up long, long ago. But I also see many people only hitting individual’s blogs, non-official forums, and flounder for weeks without getting answers to questions that are commonly asked and answered . I am trying to focus on official channels that get you in touch with our product team. If I am missing anything key let me know! Here are some place I know of right now for you to start looking for the right soapbox for your questions, complaints and very valuable opinions:
Submit bugs here and only here!!
- General Connect Site (https://connect.microsoft.com/) - submit feedback/bugs for *CURRENT* products (drill down to Dynamics, System Center, developer Tools, etc.)
- Connect for Visual Studio (https://connect.microsoft.com/visualstudio) - submit feedback/bugs for *CURRENT* developer tools. Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0.
- Connect for Visual Studio Lightswitch (https://connect.microsoft.com/site1231) - submit feedback/bugs for *CURRENT* Lightswitch tools.
Submit product enhancements and ideas for future releases here!!
- VS ALM User Voice (https://visualstudioalm.uservoice.com/forums/100197-visual-studio-alm) - submit feature requests for *FUTURE* version of Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management tools. Visual Studio, Test & Lab Mgmt, and TFS vNext, , this is NOT for submitting bugs.
- Visual Studio Ideas (https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio-ideas) - submit feature requests for *FUTURE* version of Visual Studio development tools. Visual Studio IDE and .NET Framework only, , this is NOT for submitting bugs.
- Silverlight Feature Suggestion Forums: (https://dotnet.uservoice.com/forums/4325-silverlight-feature-suggestions) - submit feature requests for *FUTURE* version of Silverlight, this is NOT for submitting bugs.
Not sure if it is a bug, or have a general question or complaint that you are sure someone else probably knows the answer to… Hit the forums!!
- Visual Studio General Forums - https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/visualstudio,vsarch,vsdbg,vstest,vstfs,vsdata,vsappdev,visualbasic,visualcsharp,visualc
- MSDN – If you are an MSDN *subscriber* you have support and priority access to forums among other options. USE THEM or lose them: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/angelab/archive/2011/05/17/are-you-really-leveraging-your-msdn-benefits-if-not-let-me-help-you.aspx
Comments
- Anonymous
July 12, 2011
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
July 12, 2011
Hi Ken, That is one of the first things in the request list on the VS ALM Voice site this post refers to above. So really, that's the place to put the suggestion. I personally am not accepting requests. Please go to that link and add a +1 by voting for that feature request.