Building a Product

To integrate development work into a component, a sub-system, a system, or a finished product, you must build the integrated code. Visual Studio Team Foundation Server provides visibility into the code base and the tools to control and manage builds and code integration. The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) model requires a basic understanding of product integration for configuration management at model level 2. However, the Product Integration process area at model level 3 requires a full product-integration strategy and management system. Team Foundation Server creates the evidence that you need for a Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) appraisal.

Continuous integration is a good approach to product integration that will work for many project risk profiles. For more information, see Build and Deploy Continuously. If this strategy is not appropriate for your project, you should convene a meeting of technical stakeholders to discuss an appropriate plan for product integration. The meeting should include the architect, lead developers, testers, configuration management engineers, process engineers, and a change or release manager. The team should create tasks to create appropriate build scripts. For more information about how to create a product integration environment, see Establish Environments.

For more information about how to build and integrate code, see Building the Application.