Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) Blog - by Neno Loje : General

Licensing Changes in TFS 2008: Creating bugs is now CAL-free!

neno — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:30:00 GMT

As you can read here, creating new work items and viewing the work items that you created do not require you to buy a CAL!

Licensing Changes in Team Foundation Server / CAL 2008

Microsoft has made one licensing change in the Team Foundation Server CAL requirement with the release of VSTS 2008. The change is as follows: You do not need a CAL to access work item tracking functionality, to create new work items or view and update work items you opened.

You may do the following:

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

· Access to work items opened only by you. You cannot view or access a work item opened by anyone else.

· 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. You cannot resolve, close or change the work item state in any way.

The change will only apply to TFS 2005 when customers are exercising downgrade rights from TFS 2008. TFS 2005 customers that purchased Software Assurance with their licenses will be able to apply this new licensing exception to their 2005 version.

Update: This client licensing exception is limited to employee’s, vendors, and contractors of the organization, not for external customers.

Happy Buyer: What's in the TFS product box?

neno — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 21:25:09 GMT

Ever wondered what you get when you pay the few thousand dollars for a Team Foundation Server [1]?

Contents of the Product Box:

Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server (1 CD with Microsoft Genuine hologram [2])
MSDN Library (3 CDs)

On the Team Foundation Server CD, labeled "VSTFD1", you'll find the following folders:

\: Team Foundation Server Installation [3] & Administrator's Guides [4]
\atdt: Team Foundation Server (For Single-Server installations)
\at & \dt: Team Foundation Server - Application and Data Tier (for Dual-Server installations)
\build: Team Foundation Server Build (aka Team Build)
\KB913393: Hotfix KB913393 for ASP.NET [5]
- "The asp.net hotfix is to be able to support large files attachments in asp.net. Currently TFS rely on this functionality to be existing and would fail if it is not."
\proxy: Team Foundation Proxy
\SQLServerKB: Hotfix KB914595 for SQL Server [7]
- "The SQL hotfix is for analysis services to fix some issues emerging during the processing of cubes in the warehouse that affect performance and cause other undesired behaviors."
\tfc: Team Foundation Client (aka Team Explorer)

[1] msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/team/

[2] www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/re/9fdcc2af-6b86-4ee8-9b71-90cebe8626e6.mspx

[3] www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E54BF6FF-026B-43A4-ADE4-A690388F310E&displaylang=en

[4] www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2AED0ECC-1552-49F1-ABE7-4905155E210A&displaylang=en

[5] support.microsoft.com/kb/913393/en-us

forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=250304&SiteID=1

[7] support.microsoft.com/kb/914595/en-us

Try it: Want to test drive Team System?

neno — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:34:55 GMT

There are three ways how you can get in touch with VSTS - ordered from the quickest to the most comprehensive:

MSDN Virtual Labs Hosted Trial: Connect remotely to a virtual system with is preinstalled with VSTS as well as some introductory exercises.
Preinstalled VPC Image (for MSDN Subscribers only):
Includes Team Suite, Team Foundation Server, MS Office and MS Project.
It’s under: Developer Tools -> Visual Studio 2005 -> English -> Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Trial Edition (For Evaluation Only).
Download the 180-day trial version of Visual Studio Team Suite (Client) and Team Foundation Server and test-drive it in your environment!
Note: You can upgrade the setup to the full version later without having to reinstall the product.

Too much work? Don't know what to try?

Visit my dedicated VSTS training site at www.teamsystemworkshop.com.

Visual Studio Team System Public MSDN Chat

neno — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 19:03:00 GMT

Come and join members from the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in Visual Studio Architect, Developer and Tester editions and Team Foundation Server. There will be experts on hand to answer your questions.

Join the chat on Wednesday September 6th, 2006 1:00pm - 2:00pm Eastern time. (Convert this to your timezone.)

To add this to your calendar, click here.

Get notified of blog updates via MSN alerts

neno — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 23:06:00 GMT

Just click on the icon to subscribe:

Blogs on Team System

neno — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 22:35:00 GMT

This log has now been listed here. This is also the best place to look for other excellent blogs on Team System.

Overview of Visual Studio Team System (VSTS)

neno — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 03:35:00 GMT

Articles

Team Up! Get All Your Devs in a Row with Visual Studio 2005 Team System, MSDN Magazine, April 2005
Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Overview, MSDN Library, May 2004

Presentations & Slides

What Does a Tester Need to Know in 2005 and Beyond?, Sam Guckenheimer, December 2004

Videos & Webcasts

Training & eLearning

Forums & Discussion

Visual Studio Team System General, Microsoft Technical Forums

What the Press says: Press reviews on Visual Studio Team System (VSTS)

neno — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 00:40:00 GMT

Announcements

VSTS@Microsoft: How Microsoft "dogfoods" Visual Studio Team System

neno — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 19:12:00 GMT

Latest Team System Dogfood Statistcs, John Lawrence (MSFT)
More Team System Dogfood Statistics (March/April), John Lawrence (MSFT)
Team Foundation Dogfood

It's coming: Visual Studio 2005 Launches Week of November 7th

neno — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 18:49:00 GMT

Visual Studio 2005 Launches Week of November 7th
At TechEd 2005 in Orlando, Paul Flessner announced that Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 will all launch together during the week of November 7th. Visit the Launch Portal for updated information leading up to this event.

Jump to launch portal

Nothing's for free: Visual Studio Team System Licensing

neno — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 18:42:00 GMT

Prices (on Microsoft's "Purchasing Visual Studio 2005" page)

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System Licensing White Paper, November 2005

VSTS Licensing and Part II, March 2005

Visual Studio 2005 pricing and SKU plan announced, March 2005

How it all began: Announcing Visual Studio 2005 Team System

neno — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 18:16:00 GMT

Korby Parnell writes:

Microsoft's New Source Code Control Application

WoooHooo! I can finally write about the project I've been working on these last few months: Microsoft's source control solution for the Twenty First Century: Source Code Control Services for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System (its friends just call it Hatteras, for short). And just so that you don't have to ask... Hatteras and Visual SourceSafe (VSS) are completely different projects and products.*

As announced by Buck, Sam, Kent, Rob, David Weller, Robert Hurlbut, the FxCop team blog, and many, many others, Steve Ballmer unveiled Visual Studio 2005 Team System [like the enshrouded superstructure of an aircraft carrier in San Diego Bay ;-)] to the delight of one programmer/writer and 10,000 developers and IT pros during his TechEd keynote in San Diego this morning.

Team System is “an extensible life-cycle tools platform that helps software teams collaborate to reduce the complexity of delivering modern service-oriented solutions.“ You can read all about it at the brand spankin' new Team System Developer Center. Since it now appears to be public information, I guess I can also tell you that Visual Studio 2005 Team System's internal codename is “Burton“.

At the heart of Visual Studio 2005 Team System is a set of integrated software configuration management tools that we call Team Foundation (no codename). Team Foundation, which will ship as a server, server with standalone client, and as an integrated part of Visual Studio 2005, provides policy support, work item management, and enterprise-class source code control services.

Hatteras is a spicy new SQL Server-based, fully transactional, client-server source control system that will blow your socks off. If you're lucky enough to be walking the great halls of TechEd this week in San Diego, don't miss the Visual Studio booth. If you want to talk about source control, I recommend you talk to Doug Neumann, Beny Rubenstein, or if you can squeeze your way through the crowd, Brian Harry.

Team System Blogs
Concurrent to the creation of the Developer Center, we created a team blog called (what else?) The AskBurton Blog.
Source Control Blogs: Korby Parnell and Buck Hodges
Work Item Management Blog: Brian White
Team System Blog: Rob Caron

Team System Whitepapers
We've also created a set of Team System Whitepapers that describe the scope and function of all Team System tools.
Team Foundation Whitepaper (source control and work item management).

Newsgroups
The Team System Team Development newsgroup is available at the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Technology Preview newsgroup site as Microsoft.private.whidbey.teamsystem.teamfoundation.

++++++++++++
*We will continue to ship and support VSS for teams of 5 or less but Hatteras is our big bet for source control going forward.

posted on Monday, May 24, 2004 12:43 PM

I collected a couple of interesting links and put them on www.dotnet-online.com/teamsystem/.

Originally posted on Monday, May 24, 2004 10:16 PM

Welcome to my dedicated Team System blog!

neno — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 16:57:00 GMT

Dear Readers!

Originally I started off with one page of consolidated information about the most exciting addition to the Visual Studio product family probably in this decade: Visual Studio Team System (or short: VSTS) and Team Foundation Server (TFS). In just a few months the amount of information grew rapidly and is now overwhelming and not well structured. That was the motivation for me to create a new, dedicated VSTS Blog outside of Microsoft.

Of course VSTS is not complete by itself but furthermore there is the idea of Software Factories, Domain Specific Languages, the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) and last but certainly not least the Third-Party solutions that will round it up. Basically everything that is part of your software development lifecycle.

I hope this blog helps you to find the information you are looking for more quickly.

If you have any questions or suggestions make sure to contact me.

Enjoy reading!

Neno

About the Author

Neno Loje is a strategic consultant for the software development process at AIT TeamSystemPro Team and the first European Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for Visual Studio Team System.

As certified expert he supports companies with the introduction of Team Foundation Server – from the decision, over migration to the individual customization.

He passes on his cumulated experiences in spoken (conferences/trainings) and written (developer magazines).

Furthermore he is a convinced Notepad user, MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer), MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist), MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer), and was awarded as Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for Team System multiple times.