Over the past few years, a few of my clients have deployed Team Foundation Server Proxy to improve the performance of their remote/distributed teams. It boosts network performance by caching copies of source control files in a remote location, local to the developer needing the files but away from the main source control location. In short, the proxy helps each user avoid a costly download of the files to their workspace across the slower connection.

So why wouldn't this work for Team Build?

In today's VSTS chat, I asked if anyone had done this. I should have expected that Buck Hodges would have, and even blogged about it.

Still trying to decide if Team System is right for you and if you can afford it. I would say you can't afford *not* to have it. Check out this list of case studies from other companies and teams who agree with me.

Thanks to Rob Caron, for putting together this consolidated list of the "top" Visual Studio Team System case studies. They support a wide range of propositions by showcasing real customers who have gone through the adoption process and have great stories to tell.

Microsoft just released their Team System Web Access Power Tool (formerly known as TeamPlain). This is a Web interface to Team Foundation Server.

If you have team members that don't want Visual Studio/Team Explorer installed on their desktop, but they still want to participate with the project lifecycle, this is a great, web-based approach to getting everyone connected quickly/easily. Here are some of the features:

• Add new work items or edit existing ones
• Work with any type of work item, including custom ones
• Add new work item queries or edit existing ones
• View, download, upload, check-in and check-out documents on SharePoint team portal
• View reports, export as PDF or Excel
• Browse source control repositories, download files, view changesets, diffs, histories, and annotated views
• View build results, start or stop builds
• Search for keywords in work items
• Authentication Modes: Integrated Windows Authentication or Forms Based Authentication (Recommended to use with SSL)

Read more about it in Brian Harry's blog posting.

Nice work Microsoft. The download page just came online today. You can download Installation Disc Images, VPC Images, or Express Editions.

There's even a link to download the .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 at the bottom of the page.

Don't get me started on Project...  OK.  Get me started...  I hate how MS Project refers to People, your TEAM, as "Resources".  :-(  However, I'll keep my mouth shut, since I want to mention a one thing related to Team System.

First, if you're entering work items in Project you'll have to enter the "Resource" name as a string, and you won't have a drop down to select from (until you have entered the name at least once).  This is in contrast to Excel, where you get a drop down of all the available people to assign the task to.  It's frustrating, but there's a reason.  Project supports assigning multiple "resources" to a task, while TFS supports only one person on the Assigned To line (by default).

Yet another Architect MVP has bitten the dust, to join the cooler crowd over here under the Team System MVP banner.

Martin Danner is an experienced developer, project manager, and consultant in the software and information technology field, Danner has an extensive history in the software engineering field. He worked as a senior software engineer at Micron Technology, where he developed applications for the Web and PC, and he managed a group responsible for configuration management and software quality for all corporate software systems. Danner has also worked as a software engineer, developer, and consultant for Northrop Corporation and Price Waterhouse. Danner earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. He is a Microsoft Solution Architect MVP, a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer for the .NET Framework (MCSD.NET), as well as a PMI Project Management Professional (PMP).

It wasn't too long ago that Jeff Levinson defected from the Architect MVP camp. What is going on over there?

Sela has created a great little plug-in to VS 2005 that will warn you when you're doing a check-out if there are later revisions of any of those files on the TFS server.  Download it here.

This week Microsoft released the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server – Project Server 2007 connector as a CodePlex project. The project has been up for a few weeks, but is now being broadly advertised.

The TFS-PS2007 connector is designed to integrate the project management capabilities of TFS with Project Server 2007. It's been developed by the Visual Studio Team System Rangers in response to significant customer demand for a connector solution. Future versions of Team System will have native integration with Project Server, in the meantime this Connector solution is the best way to integrate the two Microsoft products. This solution builds on the previous PS2003 VSTS Connector, published on GotDotNet.

I apologize for the delay, but if you attended our PRCN05 pre-conference last week at Tech-Ed, you might be interested in downloading our demo files.

I just learned about this neat editor for creating and editing Windows Installer packages (.msi files) and merge modules (.msm files). Orca is just one of many cool installer tools by Microsoft. It provides a graphical interface for validation, highlighting the particular entries where validation errors or warnings occur. This KB255905 article explains more.

Orca is part of the platform SDK and locating the correct download was difficult - a lot of redirected pages and dead ends, but I found it as part of the Vista SDK download as well as the Windows Server 2003 SDK download. Once you install the SDK, look for Orca.msi and install it separately.

Here is a screenshot of running Orca on the Orca.msi file ...

In the process improvement goal setting post a few days back, I stressed the importance of making your goals specific (and thus measurable).  Randy Eppinger made a good comment, and I felt to make it a bit more public, I'd copy that comment to a new post.

That's good advice. I find it helpful to do both. We create high-level objectives of the sort you listed like, "Reduce the number of bugs being released", "Assimilate new team members more easily". Then we create a list of milestones related to one or more high-level objectives. One or more team members takes ownership of achieving milestones which are more specific like, "Research and purchase a good book on unit testing techniques", "Create a Continuous Integration build for all code branches", "Create the Visual Studio 2005 section of the coding conventions document".

His comment reveals something that I missed.  It's definitely possible to have both types of goal statements!  In fact, setting concise, specific milestones is an excellent approach.  As long as there is a visible, specific, MOTIVATING goal to move toward, you'll have more success in your process improvement.  Thanks, Randy!