iTFS – TFS on the move!

iTFS App allows, TFS users to visualize and manage the TFS projects on the move via an Android or an iOS mobile/tablet device. Before explaining what is the facility provided by app we must know what are the facility provide by TFS.

Below is the prescribe description of Team foundation Server and the facility like source code management, reporting, requirements management etc.

Team Foundation Server (On Premises)

Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a product of Microsoft. It is mainly used as a collaboration platform for the solutions developed in Microsoft Application Lifecycle. TFS is mostly used for working as a team on all the phases of software development lifecycle. Its helps the whole team to connect & collaborate on a single solution & to get the effective outcome from the development team maintaining the quality of the product, as it can manage all the processes, development, testing & deployment. It enables us to provide & manage the source code efficiently by maintaining its versions, reporting, automated builds, lab management & release management. You can manage different types of projects and teams as well but it is personalized for Visual Studio & Eclipse. It highly supports agile development practice and provides user with multiple tools which can help to manage the projects effectively.

Team Foundation Server (Online)

TFS is the child of large group Visual Studio Online. The visual studio online is supported by the cloud service Windows Azure, Microsoft’s Cloud Platform. Both TFS on premises and visual studio online uses same code with minor changes & features. Unlike Visual studio on premises, visual studio online does not need any setup. User can directly login from Microsoft account for development. The Cloud version does not support SQL Reporting & SharePoint Development. Both the versions varies in terms of Customizability & Expendability.

Work Items

Work Item is anything that user works upon. It is the heart of TFS. It refers to the basic element which can be tracked in the project like new functionality, an issue, a piece of code etc. Work items are highly extensible and are defined through XML Documents.

Source Control

TFS source control engine is called Team foundation version control (TFVC). It allows the teams to store any kind of object within its repository by its centralized version control system. The code checked in follows the configurable rules as to maintain the versions of the code. The user can maintain the version of the code and retrieve the desired version at any span of time. The rule engine here is named as Check-in Policy.

Reporting

Reporting has been the essential component of TFS. Work item can be traced and report can be generated to know the current state of work. The reporting infrastructure consists of the Data Warehouse which is relational database and a SQL Server Analysis Services data cube. The standard report is generated according to the specification mentioned in project template of project wizard. It helps to know the progress of team and its status, reporting services also covers the things like Build information, agile report bugs, project management, work progress, work items & issue data.

Team Build

Team foundation server has a build application called the Team Build. It allows us to automate the build of the software projects on TFVC. The process of build can be configured for different types of builds which will include Rolling builds, Scheduled builds, continuous integration & gated check-in. It also works with other VS Team System tools during the build process like work item tracking, version control and test tools.

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