Customer Reviews

Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System (Pro-Developer)

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

 

 

If you are looking for a book that gives you the ins and outs of Team System, this is not the book. If, on the other hand, you would like to know what Team System is, then this book is fine.

I did not get a chance to get a PDC version of the book, so I am not sure exactly what was in that "beta" edition. I will take the other reviewers word that this book is very much the same edition. It is quite common for authors to simply fix chapters from beta to final release, so this is both a common and accepted practice. Given the advice, however, I would probably not own both.

I have been using VSTS since the first beta that had its bits. I am, overall, impressed with the tool, as well as the MSDN online articles on the product. I was looking for a book with a bit more depth on the subject and there are some notable portions in this book, although most of the book is far too simple for my tastes.

What do you get?
The first three chapters are an extremely high level overview of Team System, including the Team Foundation Server. They are useful for a foundation on the product, but anyone with any type of exposure will likely skim through these chapters.

The next four chapters deal with the four roles (Project Manager, Architect, Developer and Tester) across the products (Team Foundation Server and its hooks, Team System Architect, Team System Developer and Team System Tester). These chapters have a bit more meat than the first three chapters, but are stil fairly high level.

The next two chapters are a bit deeper. Chapter 8 deals with MSF (Microsoft Solutions Framework) and is a decent overview of how MSF works, for those with little or no exposure; It is not, by any means, a full featured tome on the subject. Chapter 9 focuses on extending Team System and has a few nice code samples; most of the work is far too simple to make up for the shortcomings of Team System (for example, the build engine has to be customized for Continuous Integration (like using Cruise Control with nAnt for a truly automated build on check in)).

The final chapter of section 3 deals with deployment and closing out a build cycle. There is not a great deal of detail here and it primarily focuses on the reports available in TFS.

Of the two appendices, the first is probably the most useful as it provides context for how Team System is used from end to end. It is fairly basic information, but does deal with how to recognize Release Candidate time. The second is not much more than a text only listing of some of the visual elements you can use in the designer.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad I have this book, as I have learned a bit more Team System through the book. I wish it was a bit deeper, but there is certainly a market for intro level material in this product.

My recommendation: If you are a beginner with Team System and want an overview with a bit of meat, this book will fill the need. If you are already familiar with the product and looking for a full meal, it would be best to wait for other books on the product.

Working with Visual Studio 2005 Team System is less about working with it and more about what it is and what it can do, and even that is not more than a simple outline, just the top of the mountain. I guess I expected more How To's and less what it is. That information is everywhere on MS websites. So I am still looking for some details on how to get it done.

I am going to give a short review for this MS Press book, because at 287 pages, it is way too thin for a mountainous product suite like Visual Studio Team System. The book's title "Working with" set a level of expectation that I can get walk out feeling confident in putting VSTS into good use. Unfortunately that is not the case. Going through the chapters only confirmed my fears - which I got with from the very first glance at the book's thickness - each chapter touches a feature set, and I really mean just "touch" and not "dig deep". Merely introducing and explaning the rationale behind them, the major capabilities are shown as "what they are" and not "how to do".

As briefing material, they are fine. As a practical guide book teaching how to expertly operate and work with VSTS, it carries little value. There are absolutely no tutorials. No source content to get the reader to exercise its features to learn and understand by practical experience. It does not cover the many common scenarios development teams and try to explain how to accomplish them in VSTS. VSTS is a monumental system that is not easy to learn and leverage, and this book has zero lessons of practicality.

Had this book been titled "Introducing Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System", it would have received a much higher rating. Who will best benefit from this book? Project managers and CTOs who want a high-level feature overview. Hardcore development team members who want to learn how to use VSTS to its fullest potential have to look for another book.


Good: High-level briefing on VSTS features
Bad: Covers them briefly; no practical exercises

About the same stuff that was in the Give away from Tech Ed / PDC 05. If you have that version save your $$, if not only buy if you are looking for a "what is" Team system Book NOT a hoe to use team system.

This book does a very good job of describing Microsoft's intention behind the new functionality available in the "Team System" versions of it's Visual Studio 2005 product. That said, it is disappointing that Microsoft has not given out Demo DVDs with this information anyway. Team System has a significant price tag (especially since many of the same features can be acquired through free add-ons) and one would have expected Microsoft to provide information for free to help people to decide whether or not it was for them.

As far as this book, it was surprising that they left out the "Database Professional's" edition of the software. While that was not released when the book was printed, it should have been on the roadmap and discussed. On the plus side, while it covered the Class Designer, which is technically not part of the Team System editions, the author was careful to mention that fact several times. The reason it was included was because the author was trying to describe things more from a process perspective (how one uses Team System) rather than a product perspective.

The book makes good use of illustrations, is well written, and, surprisingly, does not really push the product instead of describing it.

I've found this book to be an excellent overview of Team System as the author obviously intended. This book will introduce the reader new to the subject of Visual Studio 2005 Team System (especially those not fortunate enough to attend the Professional Developers Conference) with the essentials they need to know about VSTS in order to make informed decisions within their organization. If you are a lead developer, project manager, or IT Director and are not yet knowledgeable about VSTS, you need this book.

The book does *not* tell you how to work with VSTS. It's a summary of marketing blabla praising Microsoft for what they haven't invented at all. Almost all the info has been used when VSTS was announced in 2005.
There are many MSDN articles really telling you how to use VSTS. This book is *not* for IT professionals. For example it does not contain a complete example starting from requirements analysis to integration testing.
If you are paid for getting software out the door - look somewhere else for VSTS info.

If you are looking to find a great overview of the entire Visual Studio 2005 Team System suite, then this book is an excellent choice. The book will definitely help speed your understanding and appreciation of Team System and all that it can offer. It shows how the Team System features can be used to ensure successful software development effort in an easy to understand and thoughtful manner.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team system has provided the essential tool set for the entire team to facilitate the SDLC support. Richard Hundhausen's "Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System" discusses not just the tool set but also the underlying software methodology, MSF, CMMI and Agile MSF, and provides an concrete and concise breadth first reference to the team system.

This ~340 pages long MS Press book is organized into four parts; namely "Introduction to team system", "Team System for the entire team", "Methodologies and extensibility" and Appendices which contain an elaborate case study. This book provides an outstanding overview of team system and covers the entire SDLC with topics like installation, branching, merging, source control, different team system editions and their significance all the way to the deployment. It serves as an essential reference guide with team system which is Microsoft's effort to provide integrated tool set.

If you are a software development manager, enterprise developer, configuration manager, or a developer who wants to learn about team system without having to read through a thousand page manual, I recommend it as "the book" for you. The writing quality is excellent and this concise and effective book definitely worth to be on every serious .NET developer's must-read books list.

Not only does this book give you a great overview of the new Team System, it also tells you things (usually as special notes or hints) that Microsoft does not. I strongly recommend this to anyone who knows VSS and is considering Team System.