Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008 (3 days)

Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008 Overview

This Visual Studio Team System training course provides students with the knowledge and skills to effectively identify, manage, and track changes to software. Intended for teams working in parallel, this course focuses on using Visual Studio Team System 2008 to maximize productivity while minimizing mistakes to reduce the amount of effort expended when changes must be made.

This VSTS course is intended for current software development professionals who want to work more effectively in parallel. Some students may be part of distributed teams who work on the same project as others but without ideal communication. Other students may be working on multiple versions of the same application at the same time. Regardless of the situation, students will be able to learn and get hands-on experience with all of the Software Configuration Management related features of Visual Studio Team System 2008.

Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008 Course Goals

• Understand Software Configuration Management (SCM)
• Understand Team Systems support of SCM
• Identify and control changes using Team System
• Ensure changes are properly implemented using Team System
• Use Team System to report changes to others who may have an interest
• Protect Visual Studio projects by placing them under Team Foundation Version Control
• Work with Version Control in a multi-user environment
• Enforce quality using check-in constraints
• Automate the software build process using Team Build
• Ensure quality using build verification tests

Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008 Course Prerequisites

Experience in the following areas is required:

• Working on a team-based software development project and be familiar with their organizations Software Development Life Cycle.
• Familiarity with one or more software development methodologies
• Visual Studio (any version)
• Basic foundations of .NET
• Basic C# .NET code (all source code will be provided)

Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008 Course Outline

1. Module 1: Introduction to Software Configuration Management
   • This module introduces Software Configuration Management and the related support in Team System, from both a project management and software engineering point of view.
   1. Introduction to Software Configuration Management
   2. Team System support of SCM
   3. Team System support for identifying change
   4. Team System support for controlling change
   5. Team System support for ensuring changes are being properly implemented
   6. Team System support for reporting changes
   7. Lab: Review the SCM environment and project scenario
   8. Lab: Meet the team and review their security permissions
   9. Lab: Review the architecture and related projects
2. Module 2: Identifying Change - Team Projects
   • This module introduces team projects, process templates, work items, and version control options in Team Foundation Server 2008. Each of these can be used to identify and track the changes pertaining to a software development project.
   1. Introduction to team projects
   2. Planning and creating team projects
   3. Configuring team projects
   4. Configuring security, areas, iterations, version control settings
   5. Methodologies and process templates
   6. Managing work items
   7. Team Explorer and other client applications
   8. Managing the project portal
   9. Lab: Create and configure a team project
   10. Lab: Secure a team project and its SharePoint project portal
   11. Lab: Create and review work items using various client applications:
   12. Lab: Use Team Explorer, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, and the Web Access Power Tool
   13. Lab: Upload documents to the project portal
   14. Lab: Explore the process template
   15. Lab: Explore the widget: Process Editor (optional)
3. Module 3: Controlling Change - Team Foundation Version Control
   • This module is the first of three to focus on Team Foundation Version Control. It introduces the primary version control capabilities and explains how to plan and setup version control for team projects in order to control change in a parallel development environment.
   1. Introduction to controlling change
   2. Using version control as communication
   3. Planning version control, creating and managing workspaces
   4. Integration with Visual Studio 2008, alternate clients using MSSCCI provider
   5. Get, check-out, pending changes, check-in, changesets, undo
   6. Viewing history, annotating files, comparing revisions
   7. Migrating from VSS and other SCC systems (optional)
   8. Lab: Configure Team Foundation Version Control
   9. Lab: Create and manage workspaces
   10. Lab: Setup SCM folder structures
   11. Lab: Work with folders and files - get, check-out, check-in, view pending, view history, etc.
   12. Lab: Explore version controlled artifacts using the Web Access Power Tool
   13. Lab: Explore the widget: MSSCCI provider (optional)
   14. Lab: Explore the widget: Workspace Sidekick (optional)
4. Module 4: Controlling Change - Parallel Development
   • This module continues the discussion of Team Foundation Version Control, focusing on the topics related to multiple users working on multiple, sometimes simultaneous, projects and project versions in an agile environment. The topics in this module cover branching, merging, shelving, and detecting/mitigating conflicts when they occur.
   1. Introduction to parallel development, terminology
   2. Parallel development scenarios, locking models
   3. Branching, merging, and promotion modeling
   4. Branching patterns, conflict detection and resolution
   5. Shelving, unshelving, achieving peer review using shelving
   6. Securing version control, specifications
   7. Using Team Foundation Server 2008 Power Tools
   8. Lab: Understand and resolve conflicts in a multi-user environment
   9. Lab: Branch code, manage branches, merge changes between branches
   10. Lab: Use the command-line tool to perform a baseless merge
   11. Lab: Secure artifacts in version control
   12. Lab: Shelve and unshelve changes
   13. Lab: Explore the widget: alternate merge tool (optional)
5. Module 5: Ensuring Changes are Properly Implemented - Check-In Policies
   • This module completes the discussion of Team Foundation Version Control, focusing on ensuring the quality of the checked-in artifacts. The module will discuss the topics related to using the standard policies to run tests, code analysis, and verify work item association, as well as creating and using custom check-in policies.
   1. Ensuring changes are properly implemented
   2. Configuring check-in policies and notes
   3. Using Team Foundation Server 2008 Power Tools policy-pack
   4. Understanding policy failure, overriding, and managing overrides
   5. Creating, deploying, and testing a custom check-in policy
   6. Lab: Configure the work item association check-in policy
   7. Lab: Configure the code analysis check-in policy
   8. Lab: Migrate code analysis policy settings to Visual Studio projects
   9. Lab: Create a unit test and manage test lists
   10. Lab: Configure a unit testing check-in policy
   11. Lab: Use the Custom Path policy to scope other check-in policies
   12. Lab: Create, deploy, and test a custom check-in policy (optional)
   13. Lab: Explore the widget: Policy Override Notification Tool (optional)
6. Module 6: Ensuring Changes are Properly Implemented - Team Build
   • This module covers the Team Build features of Team Foundation Server, including the architecture and execution process. Topics include the creating, configuring, and execution of build scripts, as well as how to customize the scripts and extend the notification services to execute builds and associated tests automatically.
   1. Overview of Team Foundation Build
   2. The Team Build process
   3. Creating and queuing build definitions
   4. Running tests and computing code coverage
   5. Automating Team Build
   6. Continuous integration
   7. Customizing MSBuild, targets, tasks, and creating custom tasks
   8. Lab: Create a Team Build definition
   9. Lab: Queue (execute) the automated build in various ways
   10. Lab: Schedule an automated build
   11. Lab: Ensure a quality build by enabling code analysis
   12. Lab: Enable build notifications
   13. Lab: Configuring continuous integration
   14. Lab: Customize Team Build definition and create custom MSBuild tasks
7. Module 7: Reporting Change - Queries, Reports, and Traceability
   • This module covers the querying, reporting, and notification capabilities of Team System. Topics include querying work items and their audit history, executing various reports, creating custom reports, setting up email notifications, and the overall traceability of work items through check-ins and finally to a build.
   1. Methods to track and report changes
   2. Understanding quality metrics
   3. Using queries to track work items
   4. Auditing work items and achieving traceability
   5. Running reports and creating custom reports
   6. Working with the warehouse controller service
   7. Understanding and configuring notifications
   8. Lab: Query work items from team explorer
   9. Lab: View work item audit history and trace work items to changesets
   10. Lab: Use WIQL to query work items
   11. Lab: Use Fiddler and SQL Server Profiler to understand WIQL execution
   12. Lab: Use the Visual Studio SDK to learn about WIQL execution
   13. Lab: Query work items from Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer
   14. Lab: Create an Excel Pivot table and chart work item data
   15. Lab: Run reports from the project portal, Report Manager, and Team Explorer
   16. Lab: Explore the Team Foundation Server data warehouse
   17. Lab: Create and execute a custom report
   18. Lab: Explore the widget: Warehouse Status Update Tool (optional)
8. Module 8: SCM Patterns and Best Practices
   • This module describes some common patterns you can use when implementing software configuration management, especially with regards to branching and merging models. Several Team System and SCM best practices will also be highlighted in this module.
   1. Terminology and nomenclature
   2. Common scenarios and SCM patterns for those scenarios
   3. Best Practice: when to create a new team project
   4. Best Practice: when to branch and merge
   5. Best Practice: managing workspaces
   6. Best Practice: balance speed and quality
   7. Best Practice: balance autonomous work and integration
   8. SCM Implementation in an agile software development
   9. Various How-To topics
   10. References

Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008 Course Materials

In addition to a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all the programming examples, each student will also receive a one-year subscription to Webucator's online reference library, which contains hundreds of the most current electronic technology books - a $149.95 per student value.

Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008 Technical Requirements

1. Operating System Options
   • Windows Vista
   • Windows XP with Service Pack 2
2. Visual Studio 2008 Team System
3. Browser Options
   • Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
     • Download
   • Firefox
     • Download

Class Files for Effective Software Configuration Management Using Team System 2008

A DVD with a virtual machine and lab files will be sent ahead of class.