During presentations, demonstration and discussions of Team System at the global summit, I have been wondering whether our market (South-Africa) is satisfied with and ready with the Team System product. This applies to TFS2008, with a few lingering TFS2005 environments, and excludes the all exciting, but non-released TFS Rosario release.
The marketing message of TFS is definitely not correct and I often get agitated by the sales message dropped with customers. For one, TFS is not VSS+ and it is also not a simple click-the-setup, install, then use the product. I often get a raised eye-brow when I suggest that before installing or at least before using TFS, the organisation needs to take a huge step back, find a whiteboard and do some post-implementation planning.
Although my TFS planning session has created raised eye-brows with sales, it has resulted in current and potential TFS users to stop, think and plan, often avoiding the unfortunate and often dismal failure of a TFS installation ... after which we normally get called in to fix the product. It is not the product, but the lack of planning and incorrect implementation and usage thereof. At www.drp.co.za and SA Architect, at SA Architect > Publications > Value Add Information > Technology Videos, you can find the TFS Planning session recording made for a technology day event in Kuwait, which is a glimpse of the planning that organisations should ... or rather must do before using the TFS product. Use the SA Architect site (hosted in South-Africa) if you are located in South-Africa and probably the www.drp.co.za site (hosted abroad) if you are located anywhere else.
Etienne made an excellent recommendation at the summit that Microsoft should create a 5-min product overview of TFS, highlighting the product focus, the features and ensure that the message is correct. In other words, TFS is not a Visual Studio Source Safe on steroids, but instead a complete ALM guidance and management solution.
The following illustration shows my views ... hold back the missiles ... on TFS 2005, TFS 2008 and the next version of TFS in the form of a "radar view". While TFS 2008 has introduced great enhancements in certain areas, only the next generation of TFS will deliver the near comprehensive solution that many of us are looking for. BUT, this does not mean that TFS2008 is not a great product ... in fact it is an exceptional product that, if implemented and used correctly, can add immense value to all stakeholders of solution development teams "today".
The read arrows show the "current" threats and attacks on the TFS 2005/2008 product. Build and Reporting is a complex environment, Team Architect lacks useful and productive modelling support, operations is complex, process, operations, work items and version control often suffers due to a lack of planning and in the area of team editions the licensing is complex and costs often skewed. Most developers in our region need ... or want?!? ... Team Suite as they are also Testers and/or involved in design of solutions, but simply cannot afford it.
With the next generation of TFS the picture, as shown, looks vastly different, but the threats are probably the same.
It is important to highlight that I am currently 
with the product,
... but the next generation will make me 
!!!
More on Rosario in future blogs as we investigate the latest CTP12 release ... in the interim stop, think and plan ... then the investment in TFS will prove to be a positive and productive investment!
To conclude, what are the answers to the questions:
- Are we satisfied with the product? ... Absolutely ... TFS2008 rocks if we stop the bus, think and plan. With planning the investment in TFS will prove to be a positive and productive investment!
- Are we ready for the product? ... Yes, but only if we plan, plan and plan, possibly adding a spice of awareness and training. I am also convinced that the relentless evangelism of the product and especially process guidance has raised the understanding of TFS and the associated value proposition. A few years ago acronyms such as SDLC, ALM, CI, ... would have been mistaken for symbols on nutritional fact stickers on consumer products by most Microsoft project team. Today the understanding of and the need for process guidance is a well known and understood terrain, making the Team Foundation Server tool an easier product to talk about and plan for.
We all know that TFS is a great product and that the value-add is immense ... with planning, planning and more planning ... however, we also need to understand what TFS is "not":
- Upgrade to Visual Source Safe ... it is not just a source control system.
- Product that is easy to install, configure and maintain ... it is not a Notepad type application.
- Simple and cheap solution ... licensing and selection of correct VSTS editions is not trivial and requires thought and "planning". Start with a phased adoption process start with VS Pro and TFS CALs ... go Team Editions and especially Suite when needed. The big-bang approach never worked for us in the TFS or other SDLC products, therefore a phased approach is both cost "sane" and implementation/adoption "feasible".
- Time or project management solution ... it integrates with Project and Project Server, but will never replace these.
Rock on TFS!