Learning Team System
Where to start!?
Visual Studio Team System is a huge product. If you're just exploring or have a few hours to burn, click randomly and enjoy. If you're looking for a bit more structure in your learning, click in order. If you're looking for customized training, contact a training company - or as we refer to them Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions. If you already know what you're looking for, you can search for training near you.
To justify investing in the hours and days and weeks of learning available, one has to be able to measure the impact. For software development teams, I would recomment going through an ALM Assessment before any training or any changes are introduced. When you establish "where you are" it becomes a lot easier to plan the road ahead and measure how far you've come. Our experts can assist with that assessment and also get involved with your team to help drive the planned improvements.
A large part of learning about Team System is Process. This is about behavior, those good and bad habits we all have. It is a lot easier to learn Team Foundation Server features when looking at features in terms of how they enable your preferred Process. For some, it is easier to pick a simple process and expand it as their team matures. For others, they pick the process they aspire to, learning how to fully participate through high-intensity training and coaching.
Team Foundation Server ships with two implementations of the Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF). Guidance is available for Agile and CMMI-based MSF but I personally prefer to learn this kind of thing hands-on: Microsoft Official Course 1846 is a great non-technical immersion in MSF. Once the whole team (including management) is familiar with MSF, developers can get closer to the day-to-day in Microsoft Official Course 2710. Or, as I expect some of you will do, you can dive directly into Team System with course 2631 or 6214. Eventually, once you get around to customization of Team Foundation Server, one or more people in your team should take a look at Microsoft Official Course 50005. Lastly, your IT team need to maintain that Team Foundation Server, so have them look into 6215 for details on Administration.
For those who prefer self-study, we have a lot of Team System materials online:
- Visual Studio Team System Basics Training - based on the 2005 release, but very important to start with the basics.
- Visual Studio Team System Training VPC - based on 2008 and includes VSTS Database Edition hands-on labs.
Prefer to watch instead of follow hands-on lab instructions? Take a look at the short How Do I? videos about many tasks in Team System. Channel9.msdn.com hosts interviews and other Team System related videos.
For additional depth and breadth of information on Team System topics, read the TFS Guide on CodePlex.com and the Administration Guide.
And once you've installed your first Team Foundation Server, the first question that you'll face is "how to arrange your source control folders". Think before you check in: read the Branching Guidance.
The final proof of your new skills is to pass the Team Foundation Server exam.
PS: These are the training companies I know of in the Gulf:
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