Microsofts Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Due in March

SAN FRANCISCO—A Microsoft executive Jan. 30 said the Team Foundation Server component of Microsofts Visual Studio Team System will ship in March.

The company had been saying that TFS was on track to ship in the first quarter of 2006. And S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, noted in his blog that the technology would in fact ship in March.

"With the forthcoming availability of Team Foundation Server for Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) in March, Microsoft is embracing the extended software development team," Somasegar wrote in his blog. "With the introduction of Visual Studio 2005 Team System, we bring a solution that marries creativity and agility with discipline and visibility."

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Somasegar says he will discuss TFS as a collaboration platform in his keynote at the VSLive conference here Jan. 30.

"It [TFS] offers a completely new source code control system, issue tracking, project management and reporting in a single, integrated data store," Somasegar wrote in his blog. "Team Foundation Server is designed to provide a single collaboration point for developers, testers, project managers and architects. The Visual Studio Team System offers role-based tools for architects, testers, developers, designers and managers. This means greater predictability, higher team productivity and reduced complexity. For developers, this means that in addition to having a highly productive development experience, they can ensure that their goals are aligned with their team goals, they can work collaboratively with their team members, they can have visibility and control over the activities that they manage and influence, they can have a better understanding of requirements and frankly be able to add more value where it counts."

Somasegar called 2005 a "foundational year" that now ushers in a new era of software development for both developers as well as designers.

Moreover, Somasegar called WinFX the next generation development framework for Windows, "comprising .Net FX 2.0, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Workflow. Combined with Microsoft Expression tools and the tools support in VS 2005 and moving forward with Orcas, we have the opportunity to set a new bar for the rapid development of differentiated applications that are more connected, easier to use, resilient and have richer user experience," he wrote in his blog.

In addition, Somasegar said Microsoft will continue to hone its focus on process and agility in development.

Indeed, Microsoft is intent on making process "invisible yet ever present, to deliver software initiatives more securely, efficiently and predictably," Somasegar wrote. "Specifically, VSTS and the Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) can improve an organizations development capability and maturity through the availability of the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model) methodology template which is available with VSTS out of the box. Furthermore, the creation of modular guidance such as the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle ensures that security guidance is integrated into MSF (Microsoft Solutions Framework) Agile and VSTS making security a seamless part of the development experience by delivering our guidance directly to the developers desktop."

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