A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Visual Studio 2005 Team System, Part I

Part I – Evolving Visual Studio (Part II)

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First, let’s take a look at the Visual Studio .NET 2003 product line to understand where things are today, and what’s coming down the road.

Figure 1.1 – Visual Studio .NET 2003

Each graduated edition of Visual Studio .NET includes all of the functionality found in the edition beneath it. For example, Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer includes all of the functionality found in Visual Studio .NET Professional, which includes all of the functionality found in Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard Edition, Visual Studio .NET C# 2003 Standard Edition, Visual Studio .NET J# 2003 Standard Edition and Visual C++ 2003 Standard Edition.

Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect  and Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional are the most widely used versions of Visual Studio .NET 2003. Of the two, Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect has the largest share and is most frequently obtained by purchasing an MSDN Universal subscription, which is close in price.

Next, let’s take a look at how the Visual Studio product line is evolving for Visual Studio 2005.

Figure 1.2 – Evolving Visual Studio

As shown above, the product line is growing in many directions. First, the product line is expanding below the current language-specific Standard Editions to include a collection of very inexpensive Express Editions for each language, including an edition that is targeted at Web development.

Figure 1.3 – Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions

The Express Editions are an ideal fit for hobbyists and those seeking to explore software and Web development for the first time.
The current language-specific Standard Editions are moving into Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, which includes several new features (such as Class Designer) and features previously available in Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional (such as support for smart device and mobile Web application development).

Figure 1.4 – Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition

Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition now includes most of the features found in Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Developer & Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect, in addition to all of the functionality found in Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition.

This is typical for Microsoft developer tools. As features become more common and expected, they migrate into the lower-end versions.

Figure 1.5 – Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition

The subset of Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect features  that are not included in Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition (such as Visio for Enterprise Architects) are available in the new MSDN Premium Subscription.

With that, Visual Studio 2005 has in essence blanketed what Visual Studio .NET 2003 covers today, not to mention added a bunch of new features. At this point, we haven’t even touched on Visual Studio 2005 Team System.

Looking at Team System, let’s put aside Team Foundation Server and first consider the role-based products, Team Edition for Software Architects, Team Edition for Software Developers and Team Edition for Software Testers.

Figure 1.6 – Visual Studio 2005 Team Editions

With Team Edition for Software Developers, Visual Studio provides functionality that was not previously commercially available from Microsoft (such as unit testing and C/C++ native code analysis), or integrated in the Visual Studio IDE (such as profiling and managed code analysis).

The Distributed System Designers in Team Edition for Software Architects are part of a larger initiative that is underway at Microsoft, the Dynamic Systems Initiative. These designers and accompanying tools represent the first wave of tools to improve the design and deployment of service-oriented applications.

Team Edition for Software Testers recognizes the role of the professional software tester, and includes functionality for managing tests, performing load & stress testing, managing load test agents, and leveraging machine virtualization with Virtual Server 2005. To increase the capacity for load testing, test managers can purchase Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent for additional load agents.

In addition, each of the Visual Studio 2005 Team Editions includes Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System.

Perhaps one of the largest challenges to team software development is collaboration and communication. To answer that, Visual Studio 2005 introduces a new server product, Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server. Team Foundation Server is the nexus for Visual Studio 2005 team software development. Using deeply integrated core services, Team Foundation Server provides version control, work item tracking, and build automation. In addition, Team Foundation Server integrates with Windows SharePoint Services to provide a project portal site and SQL Server Reporting Services to provide project reporting.

Figure 1.7 – Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server

Using a model similar to SQL Server, Team Foundation Server requires a Client Access License (CAL) for clients to connect. Each of the Team Edition products includes a CAL and Team Explorer functionality. For those that require each of the Team Edition products on one desktop, there’s Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite, which flattens the three Team Edition products into one.

Figure 1.8 – Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite

In addition, you can purchase Team Foundation Server CALs for using Team Explorer with Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition and Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition to provide integrated Team Foundation functionality.

Figure 1.9 – Visual Studio 2005 Team Explorer

If you’re working on a project that cannot migrate to Visual Studio 2005 just yet but you’re anxious to start using Team Foundation Server, you can purchase Team Foundation Server CALs and use Team Explorer side-by-side with Visual Studio .NET 2003 and earlier versions of Visual Studio. Although you won’t enjoy the integrated experience found in Visual Studio 2005 you’ll be able to take advantage of Team Foundation Server’s core features, such as version control and work item tracking.

Figure 1.10 – Visual Studio 2005 Team Explorer with Visual Studio .NET 2003

Bottom line – Visual Studio 2005 represents a quantum leap in the evolution of Visual Studio. With the addition of Visual Studio 2005 Team System, Microsoft has expanded into the software development life-cycle tools market.

In Part II, I’ll explore Visual Studio 2005 pricing and licensing.

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2005
  Visual Studio Team System
  I’ve kicked-off a series of posts that I’ve dubbed “A Hitchhiker’s...

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  Dude. That's an awesome explanation of it all. Well done!

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  In the text between Figures 1.4 and 1.5, did you mean to refer to the "Enterprise Architect" and "Enterprise Developer" editions once each, instead of "Enterprise Developer" twice?

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  "In the text between Figures 1.4 and 1.5, did you mean to refer to the "Enterprise Architect" and "Enterprise Developer" editions once each, instead of "Enterprise Developer" twice?"
  
  Yes, I did. Thanks for the copy edit. Fixed.

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  Is is possible to use Team Edition for Developers without connecting to a Team Foundation Server? For example, I am a single user working at home office... lets just say I dont need the 'server' aspects of the product but I want to use integrated nunit, profiling, etc., Is this possible?

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  Hi Rob,
  
  This is a great synopsis of the various version of VS. Keep up the great work on the blog.
  
  Cheers,
  
  ET

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  preetty coooll!

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  "Is is possible to use Team Edition for Developers without connecting to a Team Foundation Server? For example, I am a single user working at home office... lets just say I dont need the 'server' aspects of the product but I want to use integrated nunit, profiling, etc., Is this possible?"
  
  Yes.

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  Why not just open the architecture and seperate functionality into plugins and charge modestly for those if your boss forces you to. I dont want to be tied into particular languages, compilers, 'team' software, plugins, platforms, vendors, controls, databases or proprietary file formats. No matter how hard you try you won't be able to write as many plugins as the rest of the world can.

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  "Why not just open the architecture and seperate functionality into plugins and charge modestly for those if your boss forces you to. I dont want to be tied into particular languages, compilers, 'team' software, plugins, platforms, vendors, controls, databases or proprietary file formats."
  
  Yeah, that's an interesting idea. Eclipse depends upon that model. For now, the only solution that comes close for Visual Studio is if you join the Visual Studio Industry Partner Program (VSIP).

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  I've been at Microsoft 3 weeks now and my new role is really kicking into gear. I have been on the road...

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  I've been at Microsoft 3 weeks now and my new role is really kicking into gear. I have been on the road...

• Anonymous
  April 15, 2005
  Welcome to my new blog!
  I've been at Microsoft 3 weeks now and my new role is really kicking into gear....

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2005
  Ok, some of you already know that VS 2005 Beta 2 is "on-the-way". Here's some stuff from to help you...

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 17, 2005
  Ian's weekly review of the best of the blogs for the .Net developer week ending 17th April 2005

• Anonymous
  April 18, 2005
  It’s not really news anymore since people have been downloading bits and blogging about it all weekend,...

• Anonymous
  April 18, 2005
  I recently blogged about an article Rob Caron wrote on "The evolution of Visual Studio from Visual Studio...

• Anonymous
  April 18, 2005
  I recently blogged about an article Rob Caron wrote on "The evolution of Visual Studio from Visual...

• Anonymous
  April 19, 2005
  Traducción de Jose David Parra de Microsoft Colombia.
  Parte I – Evolucionando Visual Studio
  Primero,...

• Anonymous
  April 20, 2005
  A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Visual Studio 2005
  Team System
  Part II – Visual Studio 2005 Pricing &...

• Anonymous
  April 20, 2005
  There's been lots of interesting posts and news that have come up in the last couple of weeks. Since...

• Anonymous
  April 25, 2005
  Thanks to a volunteer effort, A Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Studio 2005 Team System is available in...

• Anonymous
  May 13, 2005
  Great job explaining a very complicated software package! By figure 1.7 my eyes started to glaze over at all the licensing requirements.

• Anonymous
  May 19, 2005
  Erster Teil – Die Entwicklung von Visual Studio
  
  Read this article in English.
  Lisez cet article en...

• Anonymous
  June 09, 2005
  Yesterday at TechEd, someone asked me if we had one-page documents that explained:
  
  What's new in SQL...

• Anonymous
  June 14, 2005
  Teil II: Visual Studio 2005 – Preise und Lizenzen
  
  Read this article in English.
  Lisez cet article...

• Anonymous
  August 31, 2005
  Geralmente, quando leio algum artigo sobre o Visual Studio 2005 Team System vejo expressões como...

• Anonymous
  March 07, 2006
  Wooow its a very good explanation
  iam amazed and keep going
  best wishes

• Anonymous
  March 21, 2006
  thanks a  lot I could not find this at Microsoft site

• Anonymous
  May 26, 2006
  I would like have full guide on it..
  Thanks..

• Anonymous
  July 11, 2006
  Visual Studio 从2003 到 2005 的演化

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2007
  MOC Curriculum : Course 2631A Optimizing the Software Development Lifecycle with Microsoft Visual Studio

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2007
  Общие наблюдения: Бизнес ожидет от IT предоставления продвинутых технологий с правильной (бизнес) функциональностью