Visual SourceSafe 2005 Software Configuration Management in Practice: Best practice management and development of Visual Studio .NET 2005 applications with this easy-to-use SCM tool from Microsoft [Paperback]

Alexandru Serban (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Best practice management and development of Visual Studio .NET 2005 applications with this easy-to-use SCM tool from Microsoft

• SCM fundamentals and strategies clearly explained
• Real-world SOA example: a hotel reservation system
• SourceSafe best practices across the complete lifecycle
• Multiple versions, service packs and product updates.

In Detail

Why is Software Configuration Management important?
Software Configuration Management (SCM) is the discipline of managing the building and modification of software through techniques including source-code control, revision control, object-build tracking, and release construction. SCM involves identifying the configuration of the software at given points in time, systematically controlling changes to the configuration, and maintaining the integrity and traceability of the configuration throughout the software development lifecycle.

Software Configuration Management is one of the first skills a serious developer should master, after becoming proficient with his or her development tools of choice. Unfortunately, this does not always happen because the subject of SCM is not commonly taught in either academic or company training.

When developing software, you need to have a manageable team development effort, track and maintain the history of your projects, sustain parallel development on multiple product versions, fix bugs, and release service packs while further developing the application. This is where the concepts of Software Configuration Management come into play; SCM is about getting the job done safer, faster, and better.

Visual SourceSafe has a long history behind it. The previous versions were either loved for their ease of use and integration with other Microsoft products, or hated because the headaches caused by using them improperly. This book will help you to avoid such problems.

What you will learn from this book?

• The fundamental principles and benefits of Software Configuration Management
• How Visual SourceSafe integrates with Visual Studio for source-code control
• The team cooperation features in Visual SourceSafe
• Using SourceSafe to manage the development lifecycle to allow the easy release of service packs and updates while developing multiple application versions
• The best practices for using SourceSafe
• SourceSafe database creation, security, and maintenance and user management

Approach

After introducing the fundamental principles of SCM and the benefits of using SCM to manage the software development lifecycle this book uses a real-world case-study project to build a Service-Oriented Application named Orbital Hotel. You will learn the team cooperation features in Visual SourceSafe with the help of John and Mary, two fictional team members assigned to implement various project components. You can visit Orbital Hotel online and you can download its source code.

The appendices deal with SourceSafe administration tasks: database creation and management, how to secure the database and how to assign users and user rights, how to manage projects and project settings, and how to customize SourceSafe to best suit your development style.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for .NET developers, testers and configuration managers who:

• Use Visual Studio .NET 2005 for building software
• Want to use software configuration to manage their products in day-to-day activities
• Want to improve their efficiency by learning to use the best practices with SourceSafe
• Want to install, manage, and configure Visual SourceSafe 2005 for optimal operation

The book does not assume previous knowledge of Software Configuration Management or Visual SourceSafe. It takes the reader from the ground up and is a great resource for people starting to learn about this subject. Readers with previous SourceSafe experience will benefit by discovering the improved and new features in Visual SourceSafe 2005.

About the Author

Alexandru Serban

Alexandru Serban is the founder and CEO of Unievo, a new software development company. Previously, he worked as a .NET Software Architect with Softwin and Microsoft on extending Visual Studio for enterprise infrastructure projects. In 2004, he co-authored Pro .NET 1.1 Network Programming, Second Edition. Alexandru has been driven by the computer revolution ever since he can remember. Now he plans to be a part of it. When not planning to take over the word, he likes to drive and travel, in the summer to the sea and in the winter to the mountains, where he hits the slopes with his snowboard.

Product Details

• Paperback: 404 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (February 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904811698
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811695
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #680,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Development > Visual Studio

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly Surprised, October 15, 2007

By	Neil C. Obremski (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Visual SourceSafe 2005 Software Configuration Management in Practice: Best practice management and development of Visual Studio .NET 2005 applications with this easy-to-use SCM tool from Microsoft (Paperback)

As far as books about Visual SourceSafe go, there aren't many to choose from, and the software itself didn't get updated for the longest time. Imagine my surprise, then, when I get this and it's not only a simple coverage of VSS, but it's also an excellent technology book in general! And I don't say that because the writing is clear, not dry and boring, even though that is true. I say that because of the fair and seemingly unbiased way that the author treats source/version control in general and how the approach of VSS fits into that. Rarely do I see technology books assess technologies without subtly vilifying or sugar-coating them, it was a nice shock to see such even-handedness here.

So if you're new to source control and you're in the Windows world of development, pick this up to learn the basics and a piece of software you can branch out from. If you're stuck being a VSS administrator and you need a reference, there's another reason to get this. And lastly, if you didn't know there was a 2005 version of VSS, this will provide a nice, in depth explanation of the new XML Web Service and remoting features.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Great ... But The Best Out There Right Now, November 13, 2007

By	Cal Zant - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Visual SourceSafe 2005 Software Configuration Management in Practice: Best practice management and development of Visual Studio .NET 2005 applications with this easy-to-use SCM tool from Microsoft (Paperback)

Why aren't there more books on SourceSafe? Moreover, why is SourceSafe so anti-intuitive? I realize it has seamless integration with Visual Studio, but actually setting up projects in it is a painful process, and forking code and merging branches isn't that easy either.

This book does explain how to do these things, but it isn't written very well. There are a ton of screenshots that let you easily follow the author through some examples, but a lot of them could have been excluded. With a good editor, this book could be trimmed down to about 100 pages of real meat. The author goes into too much detail about the 43 different ways to do something, when really they are all extremely similar or he is going to introduce the way you should really do it at the last of the chapter.

One crucial topic the book left out was how to add stored procedures to SourceSafe. That is one of the most attractive things about it, and it was left out completely.

But, there isn't a better book out there that I know about ... so what can you do? It is better than the built-in help in SourceSafe, so it was probably worth the money for me and earned a spot on the bookshelf. But it wouldn't take much for someone to through together a better book, not to mention better software.

[...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction, October 13, 2007

By	Derek Strickland "Application Architect" (Clearwater, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Visual SourceSafe 2005 Software Configuration Management in Practice: Best practice management and development of Visual Studio .NET 2005 applications with this easy-to-use SCM tool from Microsoft (Paperback)

This book is an excellent introduction to the issues in software configuration managment in general and Visual SourceSave in particular. Well written, accessible, and logically laid out.