Initial Thoughts on VS.2005 May Release and VS.NET 2005 Team System

 I installed VS.NET 2005 May drop with the specific intent on playing with Team System pieces – I really wanted to play with the Project Management and Source Code Control pieces…Well, turns out that I can’t seem to run the PM or SCC modules because they require a Team Foundation Server… which isn’t shipped with the build. Ack!  Well, it took a news group entry to figure that out.  If you are interested, you should also check out the FAQ – While reading the FAQ one thing really stood out for me:

Q: Does this tool manage my requirements?

A: Visual Studio 2005 Team System includes basic tools for gathering requirements and tracking work items across the project life cycle. A number of third-party companies will offer integrated requirements management tools, including Borland CaliberRM.

DOH!  No, don’t get me wrong – I really like CaliberRM – but it’s a bit costly for most of my customers.  I’ve gone ahead and decided to “do” requirement management through Sharepoint – what works even better is requirements management with a combination of InfoPath and Sharepoint (that way you get requirement versioning).  It’s no Caliber (a product I’m extremely familiar with I must admit) but it helps get the job done for almost nothing.   Additionally, what about requirements analysis – use cases, sequence diagrams, activity diagrams, and other realizations – where are the MS tools for that?  Don’t see any – I guess we’re supposed to use Borland Together for this…

Doesn’t that sound suspicious..?  The only major functionality left out of Team System happens to be supplied by Borland… Wonder if Microsoft is planning on buying Borland or are they just being “good friendly neighbors”.

At any rate, Team System is very extensible (so says the documentation and web sites) – so, there may be some opportunity for me to write (or realistically have Mike write)  a RM plug-in.