A new member of the VSTS family is on the way!
OK, so this is really a week past due, but better late than not at all! Also, I think I'm the first one on my team to blog about this. :-)
Last week Microsoft announced that a new member of the Visual Studio Team Suite family - Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals is on the way. It's a great addition to the existing three members of the suite and enables the integration of data management tasks right into an organization's comprehensive Software Development Lifecycle methodologies. Best of all, since it's part of Visual Studio Team Suite, it will be free to those that already have the suite!
I'm genuinely excited about this release because it's a definite sign that there is tremendous potential for growth with this product line. Team Suite and Team Foundation Server were a ginormous undertaking for us but one we needed to do. Although we have the best developer tools on the planet, there was basically nothing that brought the process of software engineering methodologies right into the IDE and linked together so many different roles in a harmonious fashion, along with providing for a strong integration platform for our Visual Studio partners . Customer feedback on the SDLC processes and roles played a huge part in what our developer division produced and in this case (no doubt) it helped us identify the need for a set of tools focused on what a database professional does. Software engineering methodologies evolve over time and I'm sure we will continue to pour our hearts and souls into ensuring that VSTS and TFS keep up with the times! Bravo to the team.
For great coverage of what's in the box as well as availability, check out this blog entry by Cameron Skinner, the Product Unit Manager for the product. Also, if you'll be at Tech-Ed next week, here is a schedule of some times and places you can catch a demo of it, courtesy of Thomas Murphy.
(UPDATE - I just found out about some webcasts about VSTEDBP (how's that for a acronym) coming up soon. Links are below...)
Friday, June 09, 2006 2:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Wednesday, June 14, 2006 12:00 AM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Friday, June 16, 2006 3:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
