Visual Studio Team System 2008 Licensing White Paper out

A new Visual Studio Team System 2008 Licensing white paper is out. Very few people get excited about licensing--I doubt you'd find many people who print a EULA because they just love to read--but one of the more common questions I get is about licensing.

You can download a copy to read in PDF, Word, or XPS format from Visual Studio Team System 2008 Licensing. 

It's a 13-page document, even though a lot of work goes into making licensing as simple as possible. It's a constant trade-off between addressing some specific customer needs and trying to keep the licensing simple. The paper is a little longer because some examples are spelled out specifically--like the licenses required for a multi-server configuration, when users need a client access license and when they don't, what a call center scenario would require, etc.

One of the changes in the Team System license is that "you can submit a bug for free"--e.g. outside users can submit, track, and modify their bugs, change requests, or other items. They still need a license to modify or track work items from other users. To be exact:

“A user does not need a CAL to create new work items or to view and update work items that user has created. This waiver applies only to work items related to defect filing or enhancement requests. All other access to work item tracking functionality requires CALs.”

With Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server a user may now do the following:

· Open a new work item of any type within the system. 

· Access to work items opened only by that user.  A user cannot view or access a work item opened by anyone else unless that user has a Team Foundation Server CAL.

· Edit any work item you opened to clarify the original entry, change work item fields, or make annotations to the discussion of the opened work item

This CAL licensing exception is limited to defect filing and enhancement request scenarios only. Our goal is to allow organizations to permit their users to enter bug / issue/ defect / enhancement request submissions into Team Foundation Server.

Again, you can get a copy of the paper from Visual Studio Team System 2008 Licensing.