Face it. Producing high-quality software on-time and on-budget is still a very difficult thing to do. Why is that, anyway? Let's start by admitting that software development isn't just about the software developers. In fact, there are typically many other roles involved in software projects, and the way they work together will determine the success of the project. Project teams typically consist of Project Managers, Business Analysts, Application Architects, Developers, and Testers. Unfortunately, in far too many cases, the people playing these roles find it challenging to coordinate their efforts, because they do not have tools that help them collaborate with each other. Wouldn't it be great if we had tools that not only allowed each team member to be more productive, accurate, and predictable in their work, but also to share information and collaborate more readily within their established software development lifecycle? Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce Microsoft Visual Studio Team System.
Visual Studio Team System is Microsoft's newest addition to the Visual Studio family. This is a very significant release since, for the first time, Microsoft is targeting the entire software development lifecycle. Building on the features of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Team System provides additional features to support Architects, Developers, Testers, and Project Managers. Figure 1 depicts the four role-based versions of Team System: Software Architects, Software Developers, Software Testers, and Team Foundation.
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