Visual Studio Team System

By using the suite of tools in Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, you can apply proven practices to manage your application's life cycle, from understanding customer needs through code design and implementation to deployment. These practices can help your team create software that your customers value and that is faster and more reliable. You can use Visual Studio Team System to achieve the following results:

Plan and Track: Capture what is important to your customers, and track your project's progress. Enact processes and monitor their quality.	Planning and Tracking Projects
Design: Design functionality either on top of existing assets or from scratch.	Modeling with Team Architecture
Develop: Write, unit test, debug, analyze, and profile your application.	Developing the Application Using Version Control
Build: Build your application.	Building the Application
Test: Run manual or automated tests, including performance and stress tests.	Testing the Application
Deploy: Deploy into virtualized lab environments.	Virtualizing the Application Lifecycle

To start to use Visual Studio Team System, see Getting Started with Visual Studio Team System.

For information about what has been added since the previous release of Visual Studio Team System, see What's New in Beta 2 for Visual Studio Team System 2010.

To administer Visual Studio Team System, see Administering Visual Studio Team System and Technical Reference for Team Foundation.

Team Foundation Server

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, the core of Visual Studio Team System, provides version control, a build system, and tools and metrics for managing and organizing projects. With a license for Team Explorer, you can view and update data in Team Foundation Server by using Team System Web Access, Visual Studio and other integrated development environments. You can access some of that data without a license for Team Explorer by using a Web browser to view team project portals.

For more information about clients for Team Foundation Server, see Working with Team Foundation Clients.

Team Suite

You can integrate other aspects of the application development lifecycle with Team Foundation Server by using one or more other products in Visual Studio Team System.

Microsoft Test and Lab Manager: Manage and execute test cases outside Visual Studio, and create and manage lab environments. 

Team System Architecture: Design your application in UML, or analyze your existing software assets. Define your software architecture, and validate that design when your team checks in and builds with Team Foundation Server.

Team System Development: Implement the presentation, application, and data tiers of your application by using .NET languages, Transact-SQL, and C++.

Team System Test: Automate user interface tests, and create and run load tests in Visual Studio.

The following table shows how these tools can be used throughout the application lifecycle.

Application Lifecycle	Team Foundation	Microsoft Test and Lab Manager	Team System Architecture	Team System Development	Team System Test
Plan and Track
Design
Develop
Test
Build