Buy this book to sell your boss on VSTS
If you are a member or leader of a development team that has just ordered or installed Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), and are hungry to get started on your first VSTS project, this is NOT the book for you - as it isn't a "how to" manual on VSTS!
This book's intended goal is to be a solid, project manager-oriented, look at how to use VSTS to it's maximum advantage; and it attains that goal: you'll learn VSTS's tools and capabilities; and how to employ them to manage your software development efforts; but it is not intended to be an administrators guide on how to install, configure and debug the VSTS server or development environment(s).
To me, a major benefit of this book is that it is a great resource for selling your boss or upper management on the idea of initiating a pilot or "proof of concept" VSTS project - they will love the charts/graphs and reports that are shown in this book, and your "sales pitch" will benefit from the clear descriptions the author supplies as to how to read these charts or reports, and how to use them to keep yourself (and your superiors or clients) informed as to a project's status, and what bottlenecks or issues need to be addressed as the project progresses.
The text is relatively short - only 247 pages, which makes it a good weekend read - you aren't flooded with finicky details.
I also appreciated the "expected criticisms" section at the very end of the book: The author makes it clear that VSTS (at the time this book was written) is a brand new product, and will need a couple of releases to mature and reach its full potential. He also acknowledges that it will take time for a body of "field level" knowledge to accumulate as to how best to take advantage of innovations and technologies that are embodied in VSTS.
That awareness on the author's part, and the focus on why and how VSTS is designed to help you as a project manager, are what really help this book succeed: it will help you and your team be a more productive resource for your organization: building and delivering high quality software products on time and within budget using VSTS.
All in all, an excellent introduction to Project Management using Visual Studio Team System, and a book that will help you fully appreciate and exploit the capabilities and benefits of VSTS. 5 Stars!
Excellent Experience
This book is an excellent well of experience for budding project managers out there. It focuses on the "Why" and while short on the how, never pretends to be a 'how-to' book. I learned something from every chapter.
The First VSTS Book You Should Read
This book is a terrific high to mid level introduction to Visual Studio Team System, Microsoft Solutions Framework, and the overall philosophies and strategies behind Microsoft's ambitious undertaking. It provides terrific VSTS coverage, but it's also one the best overviews of modern software development approaches available today.
It's required reading for our instructors and mentors, and I recommend it to every one of our class and workshop participants.
Highly Recommended
Gives a nice peek into the "why" as opposed to the "how". I have read all the VSTS books that are out there right now and I appriciated this one very much. It was an easy read, but very informative.
Wealth of theory and practices
This book provides wealth of theory and practices for software development. It throughly explained the ideas behind Visual Studio Team Studio, just like the author said, it's not a how-to book, but will let you know why VSTS provides those functionalities, and what benefit would you get if you follow the practices.
All in all, it's a must before you use VSTS to run your projects.
(8 reviews)
