This is hardly breaking news for all those who are in fact, Database Professionals, but it was worth noting that this has finally been released. I'm not actively using this version of VSTS but the DB architect on my project simply rants and raves over how great this new tool is.

In my opinion, the coolest feature is the ability to do schema compares and data compares. I've always thought that these types of synchronization tools were extremely important for several reasons:

1. It ensures that all of the staging environments are running off of the same database schema.
2. It allows easy deployment promotions to Staging, QA, and Production servers. Its really easy to ignore individual changes made between deployments since it is now easy to run a comparison and generate a single large change script.
3. It is a helpful tool for troubleshoot vague data access issues.

Here is a screenshot of the new VSTS Database Pro Edition using Schema Compare.

Brian Harry's latest post lays out the roadmap for Team Foundation Server.

When I think about the TFS roadmap, I think about 3 different categories of things:

Servicing – These are Hot fixes, Service Packs, etc that fix bugs and add new capabilities to versions that have already shipped (today, that means TFS 2005)

Out of Band releases – We call them Power Tools (used to be Power Toys).  These are add-on tools/utilities that enhance the value of already shipped products without actually modifying them directly.

Major releases – These are the big new releases.  The next one is called Visual Studio “Orcas”.  In parallel, we are also actively developing for the release after Orcas, which I’ll describe at a high level.

...........

Please check out his post for a more specifics.

I found yet another post at the Vertigo Team System blog which once again warns of the dangers of using the vs2005 website approach rather than the Web Application Projects. I do feel like I've been beating a dead horse about this, but I thought this was worth mentioning because it made its recommendations specifically from the Team System point of view. The author listed a reason, which I had never thought of, to choose the WAP over the Website:

it's impossible to check in code analysis rules on Web Site projects, because the code analysis rules are stored entirely on the client!

Overall, I just can't wait for the VS2005 SP1 to come out so that we can put all of this nonsense behind us and avoid having to sell the idea of using a project add-in rather than the VS2005 standard approach. What a mess this all was.

Just a reminder of a few up-and-coming webcasts.

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server HOW TO: Plan for, Install, and Configure

Thursday, November 16, 2006 2:00 PM Central Time (US & Canada)

Visual Studio 2005 and MSDN - a procurement perspective

Thursday, October 26, 2006 2:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Momentum Webcast: Best Practices for Source Code Management with Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server (Level 100)

Thursday, November 30, 2006 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database (Level 200)

Monday, November 20, 2006 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Visual Studio Team System Demo

Thursday, November 02, 2006 2:00 PM Central Time (US & Canada)

Visual Studio Team System Demo

Thursday, November 30, 2006 2:00 PM Central Time (US & Canada)

There is an upcoming MSDN chat for Team System. These chats provide a great platform to ask the members of VSTS and TFS all of those insightful questions (or gripes) which you have been saving up. I joined in on the chat last month and found it to be an informative experience. I recommend it to anyone using TFS or VSTS.

The chat will take place Nov 8, 2006 from 10AM - 11AM Pacific Time

MSDN Chats

This may appear to be somewhat late news, but it is still worth noting for importance. The Microsoft Solutions Framework Process Guidance which shipped with TFS has been updated. When initially released there were some issues which may have been encountered, but Rob Caron has re-released the zip files to alleviate any of the issues. You can download the process guidance updates for both Agile and CMMI in the links in Rob's Blog post.

Randy Miller has recently published a post discussing the changes which have been made to the newly released guidance files.

I recently read an interesting post on Rob Caron's blog which referenced the importance of static code analysis. I agree with both Rob Caron and David Falkenstein that taking the extra time to run tools like this can help ensure the quality of the software product.

Recently, I have submitted my proposal for my Software Engineering Master's Project at California State University of Fullerton. The project in brief, will discuss how Team Foundation Server can be used/customized to promote quality control within a project such that it can remain within statistical control. One of the sub-points in my proposal summary was the fact that Team System could support static code analysis and that with each project (or each iteration if one were that ambitious), that rules could be modified based upon the possible issues which may been found responsible during root cause analysis on the Bugs which QA found. As a result there is a need to easily customize rules and deploy them to client machines. At last, I found a great resource on how to build custom rules with the Team System Static Code Analysis tool (FxCop). The FxCop Blog is a great resource.

While searching the weblog I found this great post in the FAQ section. It is a great reference for creating new rules and registering them with the Static Code Analysis tool in VSTS. Simply follow the steps listed and make sure to read some of the information which I have provided below.

The post contains an zip file containing the sample source required to build a custom rule which checks member prefixes. The entry is a little outdated, thus you should take the following into consideration.

• The directory where the rule dlls should be dropped has changed since the post was written and is now located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\FxCop\Rules
• You only need to copy the .dll into the directory listed above. The other files are not required to register the rule. (The xml file is an embedded resource)
• More FxCop FAQ can be found on this Microsoft Forums post
• Screenshots 

Screenshot: Drop the built dll into the following directory.

Screenshot: Code Analysis enabled with Samples rules enabled

Screenshot: Code Analysis warnings when Building the Solution