Microsoft has released the third beta of its Team
Foundation Server to subscribers to the Microsoft Developers
Network.
The software promises application lifecycle management functions to
development teams and is designed to work with Visual Studio 2005
Team System, which is planned for release in early November.
Team Foundation Server supports software development with version
control, reporting, work item tracking, process guidance and
automated build capabilities. The drive towards application
lifecycle management - which aims to address the need of corporate
users to better manage extended and often geographically-dispersed
development teams - is welcomed by analysts.
Bola Rotibi, senior analyst with Ovum,
said, "This underpins Visual Studio and allows a flexible and
collaborative working environment for the whole development team,
not just the developer. It has long been a complaint that
developers work in silos with no regard for what other roles do.
Team Foundation negates that and allows developers to work in their
own environment but also work together, bringing a context to their
work. It means there are less likely to be errors in code. It has
never been the code or technology that has been lacking but
communication in the development process."
Team System and Team Foundation Server
aim to help developers wrest control over the development process,
from determining the needs of the business and writing error-free
code to bug fixes, maintenance and upgrades.
The beta functions with the Visual Studio 2005 release candidate
software, made available to attendees at the Microsoft Professional
Developers Conference in the US last week.
The general release of Team Foundation Server is expected in the
first quarter of 2006.
The beta release includes a Go Live
licence, which allows companies to use the tools to build and
deploy applications, but does not include support and patch updates
from Microsoft. All data in this beta version will migrate to the
final version of the server.