C (Visual Studio Team System Glossary)

This glossary defines key terms that are used in the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System Help.

callgraph analysis
The graph of method calls and the points in the program that call them. A node would be a method and the link would be the relationship of the other methods that it calls.

change advisory board
A formally constituted group of people representing service delivery and support functions that is responsible for assessing, planning, and authorizing changes to the IT environment. The change advisory board (CAB) is a key component of a formal change management process and is likely to be made up of representatives from all areas within IT and representatives from business units. For projects, this group is responsible for approving or rejecting proposed changes the project will make to the IT environment.

change control
Principles and processes that facilitate the management of change without compromising the quality or integrity of an IT project or solution, through structured procedures for submitting, approving, implementing, and reviewing change requests.

change management
The practice of administering changes with the help of tested methods and techniques in order to avoid new errors and minimize the impact, if any, on the agreed IT service levels in accordance with service level agreements.

changeset
A logical grouping of changes. The purpose of changesets is to group all of the file and work item updates that get delivered with a single check-in action.

check in
Place a file or a project in a Visual SourceSafe database for storage.

check-in notes
Comments associated with a changeset that are added during the check-in process by prompting the user for specific data. Check-in notes can be configured to be mandatory by an administrator.

check-in test
A test run by a developer to determine whether his or her code has affected the general stability of the product.

check out
Place a writable copy of a file or a project from a Visual SourceSafe database into a working folder.

class diagram
A visual and static representation of classes and the relationships between them.

code analysis
Checking code for conformance to design guidelines. Code analysis goes beyond compilation to look for common coding and design errors determined by a set of guidelines.

code complete
A development milestone marking the point at which all features for the release are implemented and functionality has been verified against the functional specification.

code coverage
(1) A technology that includes adding instructions to an existing assembly or artifact and that enables Visual Studio to monitor the code paths that are touched by a test. (2) for MSF Agile: A metric used to describe the degree to which the source code of a program has been tested. Code coverage is expressed as a percentage of the blocks of code tested over the total blocks of code.

code freeze
A point at which a technical project document (requirements specification, functional specification, etc.) or developed component of the solution cannot change without significant justification and approval by key project stakeholders.

code review
Assessing code to improve its quality and the capabilities of the development team. Types of code review include formal review, peer-based review, and third-party review.

coded Web test
A type of test that is typically created by converting an existing, recorded Web test into C# or Visual Basic code.

collection probes
Functions that collect timing and other performance data in an instrumented module.

column options
A dialog for specifying columns and sort order to display in a result list.

Common Structure Services
The mechanism in Team Foundation for describing a feature hierarchy.

conceptual design
A major stage in the design process, through which the project team translates the business requirements into a common language to be shared by users and developers, and describes the feature set and/or usage scenarios that the solution must encompass. Conceptual design is analogous to the rough sketches and scenarios created when designing a house. These are easily understood models jointly created by the customer and the architect.

configuration management
The process of identifying and defining configuration items in a system, recording and reporting the status of configuration items and requests for change, and verifying the completeness and correctness of configuration items.

contingency plan
A plan for addressing recognized risks that may arise during the course of a project. The plan identifies alternative strategies to be used to ensure project success if specified risk events occur.

controller
(1) The part of a rig that is used to administer the agents and collect test results. (2) The central manager that distributes tests to agent machines.

counter set
A set of system performance counters that are useful to monitor during a load test. Counter sets are organized by technology, for example, ASP.NET or SQL counter sets.

counter set map
An association between a counter set and a computer used during a load test. For example, a Web server might have ASP.NET, IIS, and .NET application counter set mappings.

counter threshold
Alerts that can be set on a particular counter to notify you of system resource usage during a load test run. There are two types of thresholds: warning and critical. Counter set definitions contain predefined thresholds for many key performance indicators.

coverage collection
Information collected at run time about which blocks or lines of an application are executed at least once.

critical path
The series of activities that determines the duration of the project. In a deterministic model, the critical path is usually defined as those activities with float less than or equal to a specified value, often zero. It is the longest path through the project.

customer
An individual who expects to gain a business value from the solution. Also, the recipient of a service or product.

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