Test and Team System

The tester advocates for the test constituency in the MSF Team Model. The tester's main goal is to discover and communicate problems with the product that could adversely impact its value. The tester must understand the context for the project and help others to make informed decisions based on this context. A key goal for the tester is to find and report the significant bugs in the product by testing the product. Once a bug is found, it is also the tester’s job to accurately communicate its impact and describe any workaround solutions that could lessen its impact. The tester makes bug descriptions and steps for recreating the bugs easy to understand and follow. The tester participates with the entire team in setting the quality standards for the product. The purpose of testing is to prove that known functions work correctly and to discover new product issues.

The tester's workflow is as follows:

• Analysis

• Close a Bug

• Develop Documentation

• Establish Environments

• Establish Project Process

• Release a Product

• Test a Customer Requirement

• Verify a Product Requirement

Also listed here are links to help testers adopt the workflow for the MSF Team Model using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System.

Process Guidance

• Finding and Using Process Guidance
  Explains how to find and use process guidance for your team project using Team Explorer, Microsoft Project, or Microsoft Excel.

• Team Foundation Process Guidance
  Provides a conceptual overview about process guidance.

Working with Team Projects

• Team Foundation Team Projects
  Provides an overview of team projects and links to more information.

• Using the Team Project Portal
  Lists topics for working with the project portal.

• How to: Add or Remove a Team Project
  Describes how to add and remove team projects in Team Explorer.

Working with Work Items

• Team Foundation Work Items
  Provides a conceptual overview of work items.

• How to: Add New Work Item Queries
  Describes how to create new queries.

• How to: Run Work Item Queries
  Describes how to run queries.

• Working With Work Item Query Clauses
  Describes how to create complex queries using query clauses.

• How to: Find and Edit Work Items Assigned to You
  Explains how to find and edit work items assigned to you.

• How to: Add or Edit Alerts
  Explains how to get notified when a work item changes.

Work Item Synchronization in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project

• How to: Add Work Items in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Project
  Describes how to add new work items to the work item database using Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word.

• How to: Publish or Refresh Work Items in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Project
  Describes how to publish work items to the work item database, and how to refresh work items with changes from the work item database.

Working with Work Items in Microsoft Excel

• How to: Create a Work Item List
  Describes how to create a work item list in Microsoft Excel.

• How to: Add or Remove Columns in the Work Item List
  Describes how to add or remove columns in a Microsoft Excel work item list.

• How to: Connect a Work Item List to a Work Item Query
  Describes how to connect a work item list to a work item query so that the work item list synchronizes based on the query.

• How to: Remove Work Items in Microsoft Excel
  Describes how to remove work items from a work item list in Microsoft Excel.

Working with Work Items in Microsoft Project

• How to: Remove Work Items in Microsoft Project
  Describes how to remove work items from a Microsoft Project plan.

• How to: Enable or Disable Publishing of Work Items in Microsoft Project
  Describes how to control work item publishing so that some work items are not published to the work item database.

Working with Source Control

• Team Foundation Source Control
  Provides an overview of Team Foundation source control.

• How to: Configure Visual Studio with Team Foundation Source Control
  Describes how to configure Visual Studio to use Team Foundation source control and how to configure environment settings for Team Foundation source control.

Work Items

• How to: Link Work Items to Source Code Files
  Describes how to link a work item to source control files.

• How to: Link Work Items to Changesets
  Describes how to link a work item to a changeset.

• How to: Open Changesets from Work Items
  Describes how to open a changeset from a work item.

• How to: Find Changesets to Link to Work Items
  Describes different options for searching for changesets when you need to find a changeset to link to a work item.

Files

• How to: Add Non-Project or Non-Solution Files and Folders to Source Control
  How do I work with existing Visual Basic 6 and .NET projects that I do not want to upgrade?

• How to: Show Differences between Two Files or File Versions
  Describes how to compare files or shelved items for differences.

Workspaces

• How to: Create a Workspace
  Describes how to create a workspace to map files under source control to your local folders.

• How to: Add and Remove a Working Folder in a Workspace
  Describes how to add or remove working folders in an existing workspace.

• How to: Edit a Workspace
  Describes how to edit an existing workspace to change the name, comments, or working folders.

• How to: Cloak and Decloak Folders in a Workspace
  Explains how to hide folders in your workspace to improve performance and usability.

• How to: Remove a Workspace
  Describes how to remove a workspace.

• How to: Identify Source Control Item Status in Solution Explorer
  Explains the meaning of different source control icons you can see in Solution Explorer.

Working with Team Foundation Build

• Overview of Team Foundation Build
  Provides a conceptual overview of Team Foundation Build.

• Team Foundation Build Warnings and Errors
  Explains warning and error messages that can be generated by Team Foundation Build.

Monitoring and Reporting

• How to: View a Build Report
  Describes how to find and view a build report after a build runs.

• How to: Isolate Bugs Generated in a Build
  Describes how to find work items created when a build has errors.

• How to: View Build Summary Status
  Describes how to use the Team Build Browser to view build summary status.

• How to: Monitor Build Progress
  Describes how to monitor a build that is in progress using the Team Build Browser or build reports.

• How to: Receive Build Notification E-Mail
  Describes how to set up e-mail notification on builds.

• Walkthrough: Viewing Team Foundation Build Report Results
  Describes how to view summary status, the detailed build report, the log file, and built binaries after a build runs.

Working with Team Edition for Testers

This page contains links to popular topics for getting started with Distributed System Designers in Visual Studio Team Edition for Architects. To view other categories of popular topics, see How Do I in Team Edition for Testers.