From all indications, Microsft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) adoption is growing quickly as it provides an easy way to share information, facilitate collaboration, manage content, and implement workflow within enterprises.  We use it daily here on our team to store documents, and share project details.  We’ve done a bit of customization but I can tell that there are many more capabilities that we have not yet exploited.  As customers adopt and customize the platform, they find that they want bring the power of Team System to managing the lifecycle of their sites just like they’ve done for their other application development efforts.  To help with this, the Team System Rangers have engaged in an effort to develop guidance around the best practices for SharePoint application development. We plan to publish the guidance in the form of white papers and articles to MSDN.

As we engage on this project, we’d like your feedback on the top topics around leveraging Team Foundation Server (TFS) for MOSS application development. Please review the below list of categories that we’re planning to cover and let us know if we’re hitting the most important ones.  Are there any that we’re missing? 

• Implementing TFS Team Build for SharePoint Development:  Customers want to use Team Build to centrally build their SharePoint application projects on demand or on an automatic schedule as well as how to extend Team Build for deployment to target SharePoint farms.
• Assembly and Artifact Development Models for SharePoint: Development teams need to reconcile the differences between artifact and assembly development, including combining these two components into a single source control repository such as Team Foundation Server.  There are various team and organizational models ensure all artifacts and assembly components of a SharePoint application get packaged for farm deployment as a single unit.
• Deploying and Managing SharePoint Solutions: Development teams and administrators need strategies for deploying their application into a target SharePoint environment.  Since there are various types of SharePoint applications, there are various strategies and scenarios to consider.
• Implementing TFS as an ALM Platform for SharePoint Development:  Developers want advice on how to best take advantage of the collaboration capabilities of TFS to increase their ability to stay organized and focused on meeting business requirements. 
• Leveraging Testing for SharePoint: Customers, given the complexity some of their customized SharePoint applications, want advice on tools and methods needed to test their SharePoint applications and how Team Foundation Server can extend these capabilities.

So, if your team is creating custom applications for SharePoint, we’re hoping that guidance on these topics will be helpful. Please let us know if we’re missing any major areas from your perspective.

Thanks!