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Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server is the collaboration platform at the core of the Visual Studio solution for application lifecycle management. Team Foundation Server provides fundamental services such as version control, work item and bug tracking, build automation, and a data warehouse. Powerful reporting tools and dashboards provide historical trending and visibility into overall project health, and real-time metrics give early warnings of potential problems so that you can make data-driven decisions and course corrections. TFS is commonly used within the IT industry to drive the development of new applications

MS Visual Studio / Team Explorer 2010

This is the backbone of TFS, and is traditionally used as an application development tool. It has capabilities far beyond the requirements of Web Application / Product Development. Visual studio will be the central repository of all requirements our team need to successfully deliver projects / products.

MS Test Manager (MTM)

Microsoft Test Manager helps to plan, manage, run, and analyze tests. This course covers scripted test cases, exploratory testing, and ways for you to gather the right information to generate bugs and get them resolved quickly. The course will take you from manual verification to full automation. The course covers Microsoft Test Manager 2017 and web-based features, including functionality added in TFS 2017.

Requirements created in MS Visual Studio are pulled into MS Test Manager where test plans can be created. Within test plans are test cases, and within test cases are test steps. Once all the tests are created, a test can be run and each step marked as passed or failed, similar to how excel spreadsheets used to work. The advantage of using test manager is that it provides a comprehensive set of status reports detailing the pass/fail status of each test as well as test coverage reports which can be configured to send email notifications to all relevant stakeholders

Getting Started in MS Test Manager

Once a requirement has been specified and programmed it needs to be pulled into Microsoft Test Manager in order for tests to be created and testing to be run. Test manager will be used to test configured work items. Logging in Logging in to Test Manager is similar to logging in to TFS. The correct server and project can be chosen from the log in screen. The next step is to choose a test plan. A separate test plan will be created for groups of work items

Adding a Test Suite in MS Test Manager

A test suite is a group of tests within the test plan to break the management of the tests into smaller pieces. Tests should only be run once in each suite. Therefore, when performing retests all the tests that need to be re-tested should be moved into a separate test suite.

Microsoft TFS Project Management

In 2012, TFS morphed into a tool that helped teams manage their software development projects using Agile. One of the primary reasons it became popular for Agile was because companies already had Microsoft licenses. It was a simple choice. This made it easier for teams to adopt and support new Agile software development process. Microsoft also created a dedicated TFS ALM tool. This light-weight tool could manage some requirements, but it lacked a robust and flexible model that can support large-scale global teams. On the version control side of things, TFS has had a couple of different approaches. Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) was one centralized version control system. This system saved historical data using path-based branches created and maintained on a Windows server.

Challenges or Limitations for CI / CD

  • Licensing and Cost
  • Scalability and performance
  • Integration and compatibility
  • Security and compliance
  • User experience and innovation

Key Benefits

  • GENERATES AUTOMATIC BUILDS
  • INTEGRATES WITH VERSION CONTROL TOOLS
  • SUPPORTS MULTIPLE LANGUAGES
  • POWERSHELL’S CONTRIBUTION TO PERSONALIZATION
  • INCORPORATION OF AUTOMATIC TESTS INTO THE BUILD PROCESS
  • MANAGES CONFIGURATION FILES
  • PROVIDES TEMPLATES WITH COMMON TASKS FOR BUILD
  • ALLOWS AUTOMATIC RELEASES
  • PROVIDES TEMPLATES WITH COMMON TASKS FOR RELEASES
  • FACILITATES ROLLBACKS
  • OFFERS GREATER SECURITY