A (Visual Studio Team System Glossary)

[Note: This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

This glossary defines key terms that are used in the Visual Studio Team System Help.

• '@me'
  The query value macro that is replaced by the user name of the current logged-on user.

• '@project'
  The query value macro that is replaced by the name of the currently selected Team Foundation Project.

• '@Today'
  The query value macro that is replaced by the value of system date on the workstation that is running the application.

• acceptance criteria
  The criteria that a product or product component must satisfy to be accepted by a user, customer, or other authorized entity.

• acceptance testing
  Formal testing conducted to enable a user, customer, or other authorized entity to determine whether to accept a product or product component.

• activity
  A pattern of work performed together for a single purpose. An activity may use or produce work products and may be tracked by a work item.

• adversary
  A disfavored persona or persona with the objective of gaining access to an asset. Examples of adversaries include hackers.

• agent
  The part of the rig that is used to run tests and generate simulated load.

• Agile Methods
  A family of processes that application developers use to minimize risk by developing applications in a series of short iterations that last one to four weeks. In this paradigm, the primary measure of progress is working software, instead of hours spent or tasks completed. Agile Methods emphasizes real-time communication, such as face-to-face meetings, telephone calls, and instant messaging, over written documents.

• algorithm
  A rule or procedure for solving a problem.

• alpha version
  A very early release of a product to get preliminary feedback about the feature set and usability.

• analysis
  In conceptual design, the breaking down and examination of business and user information into use cases and scenarios documenting work processes. In logical design, the identification of services, objects, attributes, and relationships from scenarios. In physical design, the examination of physical constraints of the infrastructure and the physical requirements of the application to select candidate implementation technologies and to draft a preliminary deployment model.

• application diagram
  The definition and configuration of applications that will be composed into systems for deployment. The application diagram shows the communication dependencies exposed through endpoints in a graphical layout prior to committing to code.

• application exclusive time
  Time spent in function to kernel mode and Performance Tools probes, excluding time spent in items it calls and excluding time spent in transitions.

• application inclusive time
  Time spent in function and items it calls, excluding time spent in transitions to kernel mode and Performance Tools probes.

• application life-cycle management
  The coordination of the requirements, design, development, building, testing, and releasing of application software. This requires integrating software processes, defining relationships between work products to enable traceability, and project management and reporting across all activities and stages.

• area
  A node on the Common Structure Service hierarchy that represents a feature area.

• artifact
  A type of software product documentation that includes specifications and testing plans. In the case of text templates, artifacts can also include generated text output.

• asset
  The abstract or concrete resources that a system must protect from misuse by an adversary.

• assign a test
  1) Associate a test with a work item that is already associated with a person. 2) Assign a test to an agent computer during a test run.

• attachment link
  A Team Foundation link between a work item and a file attachment.

• audit
  In CMMI process-improvement work, an independent examination of a work product or set of work products to determine whether requirements are being met.

• author a test
  Create a test via a test type and manage it in Visual Studio Team System.

• automated test
  A set of steps that a computer may run programmatically to test the functionality of the system.