|
Sponsored Links
Resources
.NET Research Library
Get .NET related white papers, case studies and webcasts
|
News
News
News
|
Messages: 0
Messages: 0
Messages: 0
Printer friendly
Printer friendly
Printer friendly
Post reply
Post reply
Post reply
XML
XML
XML
|
 |
Microsoft acquires devbiz to Web-enable VSTS
By George Lawton
[SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.] - Microsoft bought devbiz Business Solutions, maker of TeamPlain Web Access software which provides a Web interface for the Team Foundation Server that underlies Visual Studio Team System. The devbiz product allows cross-platform access to Microsoft’s enterprise software development suite.
The announcement coincided with the opening of the VSLive conference in San Francisco, at which Microsoft celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Microsoft Visual Studio tool kit. Increasingly, attention on Visual Studio centers on Visual Studio Team System, the group-oriented collaborative system based on Team Foundation Server (TFS) , which was released formally at the VSLive conference last year.
Visual Studio Team System is aimed at improving development team productivity, and is seen as a competitor to life-cycle software tools from IBM’s Rational group, HP’s Mercury Interactive group, and others.
How does this enhance .NET development? It makes TFS available to more members of the team, according to Microsoft.
“We bought them, because our customers have been giving us feedback about how they want Web access to the Team Foundation server,” said Michael Leworthy, product manager Visual Studio.
“We have Team Explore that you can install on your machine, and which you can use through the Internet, but you need to install a client on each machine. We found that a lot of users outside of core development wanted access to the server for core methodology features,” said Leworthy.
As a result of Microsoft's acquisition of devBiz, TeamPlain Web Access is now available as a free download. Just as important, as noted by Microsoft’s Brian Harry in a Q&A, devBiz provides an add-on to Visual Studio 2003 to enable it to access TFS, and TeamPlain Customer Connect, which enables users to participate in an organization's internal software development lifecycle through a public help desk application or a trouble ticket system. He said Microsoft is evaluating these products for possible integration into existing Microsoft products.
How does Microsoft gauge challenges as it continues to push VSTS forward? Clearly there is a ramp up with complex life-cycle tools, and productivity improvements are not always readily apparent. In an interview Prashant Sridharan, director of Product Management for Visual Studio at Microsoft, said sizing projects is an important step.
“The biggest challenge is deciding which projects to do with Team System,” said Sridharan.
“If I am an existing developer shop, and I have been using lifecycle tools for several years, the folks that have been using lifecycle tools are very amenable to moving to Team System. The folks that have never heard of lifecycle management have to understand why lifecycle tools matter,” he said. “For organizations that have never had that kind of rigor, this is something of a challenge. This is true for everybody in this space. Rational and Mercury will have the same problem.”
In his VSLive keynote, Sridharan noted that developers are always ready to provide input as Microsoft researches its development plans.
“They will always tell you if you are right or wrong. From a marketing research perspective, I don’t need to do millions of dollars in research. I just come to a show, and you tell me whether it is working or not,” he said.
|
|
|
| |
|
| New content on TheServerSide.NETNew content on TheServerSide.NETNew content on TheServerSide.NET |
|
|
Language "mashups" will become more prominent, and developers will become polyglots, one programmer suggests.
SearchWinDevelopment.com offers an introduction to the language, performance, testing and data management improvements in VS 2008.
VBCode.com code snippets cover all aspects of application development, from data binding to security to the user interface.
Get up to date on XAML best practices with a variety of articles, tutorials and webcasts. [SearchWinDevelopment.com]
One team's experience with the VSTS DB edition suggests that it can improve workflow for dev teams. It also enhanced Agile efforts.
(June 24, Article)
Microsoft has begun to include DSL tools in the VSTS kit. A new book by Steve Cook and other VSTS team members helps set the stage.
(June 24, Article)
Cartoon: Be it ever so humble there is no place like your home after you get a Microsoft Home Server .
(June 18, Cartoon)
Microsoft's Thom Robbins says new technology to highlight in NET 3.5 includes AJAX, LINQ for both C# and VB, as well as tooling enhancements intended to ease the task of building WPF, WF and WCF apps.
(June 29, Podcast)
Venkat Subramaniam discusses AJAX bottlenecks, the tenets of Agile development and more. He spoke at the Ajax Experience.
(June 25, Tech Talk)
In the second of a two-part series, Michele Leroux Bustamente discusses design decisions related to the claims-based security model. Read the story and walk through the process for creating a set of claims-based utilities to encapsulate claims authorization at the service tier.
(May 24, Article)
Understanding why the Entity Framework exists and learning where it can fit into your projects can get you prepared for the eventual release early next year.
(May 10, Article)
Resource: This learning guide gives you quick access to useful links on Windows Communication Foundation security information.
(April 24, Article)
TSS.NET's Jack Vaughan spoke recently spoke with Microsoft's Brad Abrams to find out what he is seeing in the field and what the chefs in Redmond are cooking. Along the way he discusses patterns of AJAX frameworks.
(April 11, Article)
In a two-part series, Michele Leroux Bustamente explains how claims-based security is supported by WCF, and how you can implement a claims-based security model for your services.
(March 29, Article)
Windows Workflow Foundation is a new technology that many developers will need to get their heads around. In a brief excerpt adapted from Programming Windows Workflow Foundation: Practical WF Techniques and Examples using XAML and C#, K.Scott Allen considers aspects of workflow definition.
(March 22, Chapter Excerpt)
|
|
