License costs of Team Foundation Server 2010

This is the best explanation yet I’ve seen of the TFS 2010 pricing structure…

See Ewald Hofman | License costs of Team Foundation Server 2010.

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Visual Studio Team Explorer (TFS) with Cross Platform Support!

Sweet! Looks like TFS is becoming the multi-platform tool that shops such as where I work need. Now to convince the PHP guys that they need to add a big chunk of Microsoft tech to their development process…

The Teamprise products have been very popular with TFS customers who were developing applications across Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms. Often customers want to standardize on a single enterprise-wide solution for Application Lifecycle Management because of the cost savings and increased transparency this provides. The Teamprise technology is key in enabling cross platform TFS access.

via Somasegar’s WebLog : Beta of VS Team Explorer with Cross Platform Support.

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Implementing Team System and ROI – .NET Rocks!

Caught an even better than average podcast from .NET Rocks!, this time regarding Team System. Steven covered a lot of material, but I found his discussion around the need for deliberate planning to be particularly useful, as well as his outline of why investing time and resources in TFS is worthwhile. At the end of the session Steven mentions how to get training material for free.

Steven Borg talks about his experiences delivering solutions with Microsoft Team System, with a special focus on automated builds.

Steven BorgSteven Borg is the founder of Northwest Cadence, a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner focused on Visual Studio Team System. He was selected as a VSTS MVP in the first round back in 2005, and has been a Team System MVP even since. He’s little ‘a’ agile, and big on understanding what makes successful development teams tick.

via .NET Rocks!.

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The State of Team System (YAP)

Yet Another Podcast, (YAP) talking not just about Team System but about effective, predictable software process and the tools that can be used to enact one. (Primarily TFS, but a few others were mentioned.) This discussion, with the issues that were highlight, only further emphasizes to me the definite advantage of using the right process and methodology in software design, and the importance of those “icky” things like unit tests that cost a little up front but save a lot on the back end. It is a big goal of mine to not just be casually familiar with (I think I’m there already) but really able to make the most of what I consider the current “state of the art” in software development architecture, methods, process, etc.

Joel Semeniuk on the State of Team System

Joel Semeniuk is back to catch us up on Visual Studio Team System. Problems solved and features yet to come.

via .NET Rocks!.

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Virtualization and Team Foundation Server Downloads

The latest podcast I’ve had the privilege of listening to during my commute was another .NET Rocks! Radio TFS home run, this time discussing hyper-v and virtualization with Brian Randell. Among other things Brian maintains the virtual machine images provided by Microsoft that allow you to trial Team Foundation Server using a fully functional Virtual PC or Hyper-V images. With an expiration date of December 31, 2009, there’s plenty of time to play!

Brian’s blog post about the images.

Unfortunately I don’t currently have enough surplus horsepower to give the images a run, but I’d recommend listening to the podcast.

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