Customer Reviews

Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book isn't about implementing Visual Studio Team Systems, so don't expect details on setting up, configuring, or making use of VSTS in a daily work environment. What this book really covers is the high-level use of project data, reports and features in VSTS. The author himself says this is intended as a general book on software engineering practices, touching on how to use VSTS to get engineering done well. You'll have to look elsewhere for the nitty-gritty details on actually rolling VSTS into your organization's development environment

What you will find in this book are some well-written, well-thought guidelines on how to approach various aspects of the software development process. Frequently those guidelines will involve using products or features from VSTS, and the book does some nice analysis using those products.

Specifics which I found very good in the book included the great sidebars, the section on using coverage reports for development feedback, and the troubleshooting section. For example, some sidebars show you the specific MSDN heirarchy for finding specific documentation on an aspect of VSTS, helpful for that actual implementation stuff. (That's assuming Microsoft doesn't completely re-arrange MSDN's content structure as they seem wont to do with alarming frequency.) The portion on coverage feedback is great for developers understanding why coverage might change in unexpected fashions as they're moving through their work.

The troubleshooting chapter is seriously good stuff. Guckenheimer does a great job of tossing up many graphs with different data and showing how to interpret them. He shows how graph states might reflect problems on the project with scope creep, architectural mistakes, or various issues with defects such as reactivations or poor unit testing.

The book is definitely not for developers looking to learn more about VSTS, but rather for management and leads looking to understand how VSTS can help them effectively manage their projects will get a whole lot of use from the book.

This book is a terrific high to mid level introduction to Visual Studio Team System, Microsoft Solutions Framework, and the overall philosophies and strategies behind Microsoft's ambitious undertaking. It provides terrific VSTS coverage, but it's also one the best overviews of modern software development approaches available today.

It's required reading for our instructors and mentors, and I recommend it to every one of our class and workshop participants.

Gives a nice peek into the "why" as opposed to the "how". I have read all the VSTS books that are out there right now and I appriciated this one very much. It was an easy read, but very informative.

Forget the production mention in the title; this is a true book on Software Engineering. This book actually addresses the real problems that occur in development: vague requirements, changing scope, not enough time to test all the features, warts and all.

The beginning discussion includes an overview of traditional project management techniques, such as gannt charts, earned-value-analysis, and task breakdowns. The author then explains how software products are intangible and unique, and goes on to cover agile methods. I was particularly impressed with his explanation of the 'value up' technique, which pulls together all of the agile concepts like measured running tested features and quick software releases.

Perhaps the best explanations are in the area of software metrics; how to measure bug count, code coverage, and work products completed vs. the product backlog. The view of metrics proposed in the book is surprisingly mature; the book discusses tradeoffs of various metrics and the concept of dysfunction. I was particularly surprised to find myself taking mental notes as I read the book, tracking all the new ideas to try in the office.

Of course, the title is "Software Engineering With Microsoft Visual Studio Team System", and all of the graphs and charts are generated using Microsoft Software. The book is not tutorial in nature; it concentrates on the essence of development, and not how to click what wizard to generate what graph. Instead, the examples demonstrate how the metrics are integrated within the Microsoft tool, and how much easier it would be to gather metrics within the team system. (Given the title, that has to be expected.)

Overall, I would recommend this for new college graduates without a background in software engineering, 'traditional' software engineers seeking an introduction to agile methods, or Quality Analysts seeking an introduction to Agile Metrics. Surprisingly enough, Team System is not a requisite; but if you are developing in MSVS Team System, I would upgrade it the review to 'highly recommended', or 4.5 stars.

This book provides wealth of theory and practices for software development. It throughly explained the ideas behind Visual Studio Team Studio, just like the author said, it's not a how-to book, but will let you know why VSTS provides those functionalities, and what benefit would you get if you follow the practices.

All in all, it's a must before you use VSTS to run your projects.

If you are a member or leader of a development team that has just ordered or installed Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), and are hungry to get started on your first VSTS project, this is NOT the book for you - as it isn't a "how to" manual on VSTS!

This book's intended goal is to be a solid, project manager-oriented, look at how to use VSTS to it's maximum advantage; and it attains that goal: you'll learn VSTS's tools and capabilities; and how to employ them to manage your software development efforts; but it is not intended to be an administrators guide on how to install, configure and debug the VSTS server or development environment(s).

To me, a major benefit of this book is that it is a great resource for selling your boss or upper management on the idea of initiating a pilot or "proof of concept" VSTS project - they will love the charts/graphs and reports that are shown in this book, and your "sales pitch" will benefit from the clear descriptions the author supplies as to how to read these charts or reports, and how to use them to keep yourself (and your superiors or clients) informed as to a project's status, and what bottlenecks or issues need to be addressed as the project progresses.

The text is relatively short - only 247 pages, which makes it a good weekend read - you aren't flooded with finicky details.

I also appreciated the "expected criticisms" section at the very end of the book: The author makes it clear that VSTS (at the time this book was written) is a brand new product, and will need a couple of releases to mature and reach its full potential. He also acknowledges that it will take time for a body of "field level" knowledge to accumulate as to how best to take advantage of innovations and technologies that are embodied in VSTS.

That awareness on the author's part, and the focus on why and how VSTS is designed to help you as a project manager, are what really help this book succeed: it will help you and your team be a more productive resource for your organization: building and delivering high quality software products on time and within budget using VSTS.

All in all, an excellent introduction to Project Management using Visual Studio Team System, and a book that will help you fully appreciate and exploit the capabilities and benefits of VSTS. 5 Stars!

This book is an excellent well of experience for budding project managers out there. It focuses on the "Why" and while short on the how, never pretends to be a 'how-to' book. I learned something from every chapter.

"Team System" is a component of the Microsoft Visual Studio package designed to be used to manage the development of large software packages. It contains components to track bugs, set timelines, a change control system and all of the other functionality needed to establish the metrics and development data needed for the creation of a complex software package.
However, this book is really about software engineering, the inclusion of information about Team System is largely secondary to the main points of how software construction should be managed. The chapter headings are almost identical to those in other texts of software engineering. Starting with chapter three they are:

*) Requirements
*) Project management
*) Architectural design
*) Development
*) Testing
*) Reporting bugs
*) Troubleshooting the project

The material on software engineering is limited in depth, so if your goal is learning significant details on how to engineer software, this is not the book for you. In my opinion, the niche of this book is where a software shop is moving to Visual Studio as a development platform and the plan is to use Team System as well. Experienced developers will be able to understand all of the material, even when they lack previous exposure to the principles of software engineering.

The text appears to be at least as much about Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) than about Visual Studio Team System. Granted, there are numerous screen captures about the latter, with accompanying notes on their significance. But you can learn about MSF. Wherein Microsoft has positioned this to appeal to proponents of either Agile or CMMI. For readers possibly unfamiliar with both, Guckenheimer gives an explanation of the ideas behind MSF. Why it is often useful to do iterative development in a software project. And the advantages of this over a traditional waterfall methodology, which has been shown to be often too coarse grained and unrealistic.

Plus, the idea of unit testing and verification testing is emphasised. These tests can be implemented independent of whether you also do any type of iterative development. They have standalone merit. Though their utility is enhanced when combined with rapid iteration.

Even if you decide that VSTS is not for your group, the general approach of MSF may still be beneficial, especially if you are a Microsoft house.