In his blog, Peter Himschoot suggests the creation of a Belgian User Group (BUG, for short :-)) centered around Team System. I think this is a great idea and I'll certainly join and do my part. If you'd like to join too, send an email to peter@u2u.net and let him know!
In the meantime, I've been "playing" with Team Foundation Server Beta 3 and I really love it. My methodology of choice is MSF for Agile Software Development, which is very very close to the pragmatic mix and selection of best practices from other agile methodologies (MSF, XP, Scrum) that I once concocted under the name "Smart Development". Team System is great for every team that wants to keep its eye on project progress and deliver a quality product.
In short, Team Foundation Server is the back-end part of Team System that supports collaboration, project "planning" (work item tracking), bug tracking, daily build processes etc. You can develop software using Visual Studio without using Team Foundation Server, of course. But I really recommend using the tool, even if it's still just a beta, because it's so incredibly valuable. It integrates agile development processes right into the IDE, as they should be. For instance, the tool generates a team website for you, where you can post announcements, downloadable tools, conventions documents etc., and where build and unit test results are automatically posted. You can also keep track of the number of work items that still need to be done, the amount of work already done in the current iteration, etc. The source code control system is really powerful, and checkin policies make it possible, for instance, to disallow checking in code that doesn't build. How great is that??
Incidentally, if you have an MSDN Subscription, then you can download a great virtual PC (VPC) image with Team Foundation Server Beta 3 and the RC version of Team System on it, complete with a sample project (AdventureWorks, of course).
Last week, Microsoft officially launched Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 (although the latter isn't really out yet -- they are launched together because, once BTS 2006 will be ready, the three systems form a very compelling and well-integrated platform together). I was at the launch event in my native Belgium on Thursday, in the honored presence of none other than S. "Soma" Somasegar, Vice President of Microsoft and responsible for the Development Division ("Dev Div"), and some of his "crew".
Most of us have already worked, or played, with the beta and CTP bits of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, so we already know what great environments these are. Now that the RTM bits are out, I'm sure more companies will feel at ease to ship their .NET 2.0-based products or to start development. So if you're reading this and you're still doubting whether or not to switch to .NET 2.0/SQL Server 2005 already: go ahead and make the jump now! You'll love it. If you're not sure, try it out first -- either by downloading the free Visual C# Express, Visual Basic.NET Express, Visual Web Developer Express, Visual C++ Express, Visual J# Express or SQL Server 2005 Express right now or by visiting the Visual Studio 2005 Hosted Experience, which is a web-based tool for remotely trying out Visual Studio 2005 without any cost, downloading or installation effort on your part. There's no excuse for staying away now!
Of course, the Visual Studio 2005 team is already looking at the future. Until March, they'll be spending time in support mode and will be performing internal reviews so as to improve their development processes even further for the next version, code-named "Orcas". Soma and his team were kind enough to talk to a number of influential architects and consultants during the launch event in Belgium, and stated that Orcas will definitely contain more testing and architecture tools. For instance, the team is currently evaluating what they can include to automate testing of user interfaces. Other areas of focus are improvement of the ease of developing multitier applications, further extending the languages, etc. As Soma and his team are also looking into shortening the release cycle. This may mean that Orcas will become Visual Studio 2007 some day... Looking forward to it already? You bet!