Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training (5 days)

Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training Overview

This comprehensive Visual Studio Team System training class provides students with the knowledge and skills to effectively use Visual Studio 2008 Team System to manage their entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in a team-based environment. The course focuses on teaching project managers, software architects, database professionals, software developers, testers, and release managers the various features and capabilities of Team System and Team Foundation Server. This course also dives deep into the areas of process template customization, version control, and Team Foundation Build, providing students with the best practice knowledge and skills to effectively customize process templates, understand the advanced usage of the version control and check-in policies in a parallel development environment, and customize Team Foundation Build.

This VSTS training class is intended for current software development professionals, including project managers, architects, database administrators, database developers, software developers, testers, and release managers who are involved in building Windows or web-based applications.

Regardless of the student's role, he or she will be able to learn and get hands-on experience with all of the role-based features of Visual Studio 2008 Team System.

This course is typically taught using Agile, but can be taught using Scrum or CMMI/PI as well.

Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training Course Goals

• Understand VSTS' capabilities and support for the Software Development Life Cycle
• Understand the architecture of Team Foundation Server
• Plan, create, manage, and secure a team project
• Choose an appropriate software development methodology and process template
• Create and query work items using various client applications
• Use the Distributed System Designers to architect and validate a connected .NET solution
• Use database projects to manage change to SQL Server database schemas
• Use automation to build, deploy, generate test data, and unit test SQL Server databases
• Leverage Visual Studio 2008's new software development features
• Understand the architecture and usage of Team Foundation Version Control
• Work with version control from Visual Studio 2008 in a multi-user environment
• Improve code quality through unit testing, code analysis, code metrics, and profiling
• Test web applications using automated tools
• Place web and unit tests under load to stress your architecture and plan for capacity
• Automate the software build process using Team Foundation Build
• Understand the architecture and how to customize a process template
• Create and edit work item types
• Understand Team Foundation Server's support for parallel development
• Detect and resolve conflicts in a parallel development environment
• Understand branching, merging, labeling, shelving, and unshelving effectively
• Choose the correct branching pattern and promotion model for your team
• Secure files and folders under version control
• Select and use alternate compare and merge tools
• Understand when and how to use the Team Foundation Server 2008 Power Tools
• Use the MSSCCI provider to connect SQL Server Management Studio to TFS
• Configure the various built-in check-in policies as well as those from the TFS Power Tools
• Create, deploy, test, and debug a custom check-in policy
• Manage check-in policy failure and overrides
• Configure continuous integration with Team Foundation Build 2008
• Ensure build quality by automatically running code analysis and build verification tests
• Configure build notifications
• Understand MSBuild, including targets and tasks
• Customize Team Foundation Build
• Create custom MSBuild tasks
• Know the best practices and preferred approaches to solving the common problems teams encounter with Team Foundation Server 2008

Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training Course Prerequisites

Experience in the following areas is required:

• Working on a team-based software development project
• Basic familiarity with your organization's Software Development Life Cycle.
• Using one or more roles in the SDLC: PM, architect, DBA, developer, tester
• One or more methodologies. (example: MSF, XP, Scrum, RUP)
• Distributed application design. (example: client/server, web applications, web services, etc.)
• Visual Studio
• Reading user requirements and business-need documents.
• The basic foundations of .NET
• Basic C# .NET code (all source code will be provided)
• Microsoft Windows operating system and security basics
• A reporting tool. For example: SQL RS, Access, Crystal

Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training Course Outline

1. Module 1.1: Introduction
   • This module introduces Visual Studio 2008 Team System from a business and technical perspective.
   1. The challenges with building software
   2. What is Team System
   3. Architectural overview of Team System and Team Foundation Server
   4. Team System features by role
   5. Lab: Add a team project to Team Explorer
   6. Lab: Manage documents
   7. Lab: Create and execute queries
   8. Lab: Execute reports
   9. Lab: Customize the project portal
2. Module 1.2: Team Projects
   • This module introduces the Project Manager and Project Administrator roles and team projects. Students will learn how to plan, create and configure team projects using Team Explorer.
   1. Project manager role
   2. Project administrator role
   3. Team projects
   4. Configuring team projects
   5. Managing team projects
   6. Client applications
   7. Lab: Manage Team Foundation Server level security
   8. Lab: Create a team project
   9. Lab: Explore and modify the process guidance
   10. Lab: Enable check-in policies
   11. Lab: Setup classification areas and iterations
   12. Lab: Secure the classification areas
3. Module 1.3: Methodologies and Work Items
   • This module introduces students to various popular software development methodologies, and the level of support in Team System. Students will learn about Microsoft Solutions Framework, process templates, and managing work items.
   1. Software development methodologies
   2. Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)
   3. Methodology support in Team System
   4. Process templates
   5. Work items
   6. Creating and managing work items
   7. Lab: Create a scenario using Team Explorer
   8. Lab: Create a risk using Microsoft Excel
   9. Lab: Create a task using Microsoft Project
   10. Lab: Query work items using Team Explorer
   11. Lab: Query and manage work items using Web Access Power Tool
4. Module 1.4: Architecture
   • This module introduces the Architect role and the tools found in the Architecture edition. Students will learn how to use the various Distributed System Designers to create and validate models of their systems, applications, and deployment environments.
   1. Architect role and responsibilities
   2. Distributed system designers
   3. Logical datacenter designer
   4. System designer
   5. Application designer
   6. Trial deployment
   7. DSL vs. UML
   8. Lab: Create a logical datacenter diagram
   9. Lab: Create a system diagram
   10. Lab: Create an application diagram
   11. Lab: Perform a trial deployment
   12. Lab: Validate the deployment
   13. Lab: Generate a deployment report
   14. Lab: Implement a web application from a diagram
5. Module 1.5: Database Edition
   • This module discusses the database professional role, including administrators and developers, and the capabilities of the Database edition to support these roles. Students will learn how to use database projects to manage their database development, including refactoring, building, deploying, managing schema and data changes, loading test data, and running unit tests.
   1. The database development life cycle
   2. Database projects
   3. Importing schemas and scripts
   4. Comparing schemas and data
   5. Database unit testing
   6. Database refactoring
   7. Data generation plans
   8. Building and deploying
   9. Lab: Create a database project
   10. Lab: Import an existing database schema
   11. Lab: Refactor database objects
   12. Lab: Build and deploy the database project
   13. Lab: Generate test data
   14. Lab: Create and run stored procedure unit tests
6. Module 1.6: Version Control
   • This module introduces all roles to the benefits and usage of Team Foundation Version Control. Students will learn how to setup workspaces and perform get, check-out, and check-in operations from within Visual Studio 2008. Students will also learn advanced features, such as branching, merging, shelving, unshelving, conflict detection, and resolution.
   1. Benefits and architecture of Team Foundation Version Control
   2. Comparison to VSS
   3. Using version control
   4. Integration with Visual Studio
   5. Get, check-out, check-in, label
   6. Branching, merging, conflicts, shelving
   7. Lab: Create a workspace
   8. Lab: Place a solution under source control
   9. Lab: Check out and check in files
   10. Lab: View history and compare files
   11. Lab: Resolve conflicts
   12. Lab: Shelve and unshelve changes
7. Module 1.7: Development Edition
   • This module introduces the Developer role and the tools found in the Development edition that will help improve code quality. Students will learn how to create proper unit tests that have adequate code coverage, scan their code for common defects and best practice violations, calculate code metrics to reveal areas which are overly complex, and profile their code for performance problems.
   1. Developer and tester roles and responsibilities
   2. Developer features in Visual Studio 2008
   3. Unit testing, code coverage, and Test Driven Development (TDD)
   4. Code analysis
   5. Code metrics
   6. Application profiling
   7. Lab: Create a unit test
   8. Lab: Refactor the method and re-run the unit test
   9. Lab: Create a data-driven unit test
   10. Lab: Calculate code coverage when running a unit test
   11. Lab: Run code analysis on a .NET assembly
   12. Lab: Calculate code metrics
   13. Lab: Profile a poorly performing .NET application
   14. Lab: Using Team Foundation Version Control and code profiling tools
8. Module 1.8: Test Edition
   • This module introduces the Tester role and the tools found in the Test edition that will help verify applications meet requirements and are free of defects. Students will learn how to record, configure, and run HTTP-based web tests, bind web tests to data sources, place web and unit tests under load, and use manual and generic tests appropriately.
   1. Web testing
   2. Data bound and coded web tests
   3. Load testing
   4. Manual tests
   5. Generic tests
   6. Lab: Create a web site based on the personal web site template
   7. Lab: Record a web test
   8. Lab: Create a data-driven web test
   9. Lab: Create a load test, placing the web test under load
   10. Lab: Modify load test properties
   11. Lab: Create and execute a manual test
9. Module 1.9: Team Foundation Build
   • This module introduces the architecture and usage of Team Foundation Build. Students will learn how to define builds, queue them manually or based on a trigger, and analyze the finished builds, setting the quality appropriately.
   1. Introduction to Team Foundation Build
   2. The Build Process
   3. Reporting
   4. Automating Team Foundation Build and Continuous Integration (CI)
   5. Lab: Create a build definition
   6. Lab: Queue a team build in various ways
   7. Lab: Set the quality of a completed build
   8. Lab: Schedule a build to queue at a specific time
   9. Lab: Configure build notifications
   10. Lab: Enable continuous integration
10. Module 2.1: Customizing Process Templates
    • This module introduces process templates and the tools and techniques to customize and tailor them for a team's specific needs.
    1. Customizing vs. extending
    2. Process template architecture
    3. Modifying process guidance
    4. Modifying process templates
    5. Work item type schema
    6. Customizing work item types
    7. Configuring work item state transition workflow
    8. Lab: Download and explore a process template
    9. Lab: Create a new process template
    10. Lab: Upload and test a process template
    11. Lab: Alter work item types of existing team projects
    12. Lab: Use the Process Editor found in the Team Foundation Server 2008 Power Tools
11. Module 2.2: Parallel Development
    • This module dives deep into 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)
12. Module 2.3: Check-In Policies
    • This module continues the deep dive into Team Foundation Version Control, focusing on ensuring the quality of the checked-in artifacts. The topics in this module include 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)
13. Module 2.4: Advanced Team Foundation Build
    • This module includes a deep dive into Team Foundation Build, including a more technical look into the architecture and execution process. Topics include understanding MSBuild and customizing and automating Team Foundation Build.
    1. Team Foundation Build architecture
    2. Automating Team Foundation Build
    3. Continuous integration
    4. Customizing Team Foundation Build
    5. MSBuild Architecture
    6. Understanding targets and tasks
    7. Creating custom MSBuild tasks
    8. Common build recipes
    9. Lab: Define an automated build
    10. Lab: Queue (execute) the automated build in various ways
    11. Lab: Ensure a quality build by enabling code analysis
    12. Lab: Ensure a quality build by running Build Verification Tests (BVTs)
    13. Lab: Configure build notifications
    14. Lab: Customize the automated build definition
    15. Lab: Create a custom MSBuild task (optional)
14. Module 2.5: Patterns, Best-Practices, and How-To's
    • This comprehensive module covers various Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server patterns and best practices, and also examines how to solve many of the frequently asked questions and problems.
    1. Common SCM patterns
    2. Organizing team projects
    3. Planning iterations and releases
    4. Configuring areas, iterations, and version control settings
    5. Bulk copying and moving work items and artifacts
    6. Promoting an application from Dev to QA to Production
    7. Promoting an application through major and minor version changes
    8. Best practices - workspace management
    9. Best practices - branching and merging
    10. Best practices - working with shared code and components
    11. Best practices - working offline
    12. Best practices - achieving traceability
    13. Team Foundation Server capacity planning
    14. How-To - various topics around work items, version control, and build automation
    15. Resources

Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training 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.

Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training Technical Requirements

1. Operating System Options
   • Windows Vista
   • Windows XP with Service Pack 2
2. Visual Studio 2005 Team System
3. Browser Options
   • Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
     • Download
   • Firefox
     • Download

Class Files for Comprehensive Visual Studio Team System 2008 Training

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