Team Foundation Server Clients
Visual Studio Team System has four primary client applications: Visual Studio Team Edition for Architects, Visual Studio Team Edition for Developers, Visual Studio Team Edition for Testers and Team Explorer.
When you use them with Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Team System clients provide additional Visual Studio user interfaces to capabilities such as version control, work item tracking, team Web sites, reporting, process guidance, build management, and distributed test execution.
Note
You can install multiple Visual Studio Team System clients on one computer. In this case, Visual Studio Team System unites the capabilities of the clients that have been installed. For example, if you install Visual Studio Team Edition for Architects and Visual Studio Team Edition for Testers, you have both Team Edition for Architects and Team Edition for Testers functionality when you run devenv.exe.
In This Section
Visual Studio Team System provides the following client features:
Visual Studio Team Edition for Architects
A Visual Studio Team System client application focused on the software architect role. A developer using Visual Studio Team Edition for Architects uses work item tracking and source code control. These features are the primary requirements that you must consider in your Team Foundation Server planning. If you have prepared the server appropriately for the work item tracking and source code control requirements of your team, no additional server planning is required to support Visual Studio Team Edition for Architects.
For more information, see Team Edition for Architects.
Visual Studio Team Edition for Developers
A Visual Studio Team System client application focused on the enterprise developer role. A developer using Visual Studio Team Edition for Developers uses work item tracking, build, and source code control. These are the primary demands that must be considered in your Team Foundation Server planning. If you have prepared the server appropriately for the work item tracking and source code control needs of your team, no additional server planning is required to support Visual Studio Team Edition for Developers.
For more information, see Team Edition for Developers.
Visual Studio Team Edition for Testers
A Visual Studio Team System client application focused on the tester role. A tester using Visual Studio Team Edition for Testers uses the work item tracking functionality of Team Foundation. These are the primary demands that you must consider in your Team Foundation Server planning. If you have prepared the server appropriately for the work item tracking and source code control needs of your team, no additional server planning is required to support Visual Studio Team Edition for Testers.
For more information about the client application, see Team Edition for Testers.
Additionally, a server administrator might play a role in setting up a rig. A rig is a group of computers that consists of a controller and agents. For more information, see About Controllers, Agents, and Rigs. For more setup information, see the installguide.htm on the Team Test Load Agent Installation disk.
Load test results are stored in a set of tables in SQL database. Depending on the amount of load data that is routinely stored, a server administrator might have to plan to set up and maintain the Load Test Results Store. For more information, see About the Load Test Results Store.
Team Explorer
A Visual Studio based client application for software project management and analysis. Team Explorer is a client application for users who do not need Visual Studio Team System role-based clients such as Visual Studio Team Edition for Testers installed, but who do want access to Team Foundation Server capabilities.
The primary users of Team Explorer are project leaders and analysts. Team Explorer gives you an organized view of your team projects. For example, a team project created by using the MSF for Agile Software Development process templates displays the following nodes:
Work Items This node provides access to add work items and to create and view queries against the work item database.
Documents This node provides access to documents such as functional specifications and risk assessments that are stored on the project portal.
Reports This node provides access to reports that contain metrics for the team project.
Team Builds This node provides access to the public builds of your team project.
Source Control This node provides access to the team project source control management hierarchy.
Secondary users of Team Explorer are developers who are not using Visual Studio Team System, such as developers using Visual Studio 2005 Professional or Standard Editions. For more information, see Using Team Explorer.