Two weeks ago I visited Texas A&M University's Computer Science Department for an Industrial Affiliates Program meeting and do so some recruiting.  I had the privilege of presenting just how easy it is to do team software development with Visual Studio Team System to five software engineering classes, led by Dr. Salih Yurttas, Dr. Dick Simmons, and Dr. Mac Lively.

While I was there, we set up a Team Foundation Server for students and professors.  Anyone in the department can now use the server for their team projects.  Here is the blurb I sent around to get started.

You can start using Team System now by visiting http://syts/    (for Salih Yurttas Team System)

What you get by using Team Foundation Server:
  • Work Item Tracking
  • Source Code Control
  • Team Project Web Portal
  • Project Status Reporting
  • Distributed Development
Set up is quick and easy by installing the Team Foundation Client on any Windows computer.  Visual Studio is not required.  For more information and instructions on how to get connected, see http://syts/.

Of course, this is just for members of the Computer Science department of Texas A&M.  If you are using this http://syts server, let me know how it's going by leaving a comment.  :)

Leaning Team System
Here are some quick tools to learn VSTS.

Getting Visual Studio
Visual Studio is not required to use Team System. The Team Foundation Client can run independently, which allows you to do development with other tools (like Java).  However, if you do want to use the full power of Visual Studio 2005, here's how you can get it:

  • CS Dept's MSDN Subscription
    The CS Dept has an academic subscription to MSDN.  This is Microsoft's entire collection of development tools, including VS05, and it's free to all CS students.  Just ask at the CS Help Desk for information on how to get access (they're stored on \\ntfiler).
  • Visual Studio Express Editions
    These are lighter weight versions of Visual Studio 2005 and are completely free to anyone.  They have the full power of .NET 2.0 and are just lacking a few of the advanced tools that VS05 Pro has.  I use these and highly recommend them.  I think they're almost easier since you're not overwhelmed with tooling and they contain cool learning tutorials and examples.    
  • Purchase from http://software.tamu.edu
    You can purchase MS software at a huge discount here.  Make sure you get Visual Studio 2005, not Visual Studio .NET 2003 (it's an old version).  I'm not exactly sure, but I think it's just $25.  I still recommend the first two options, since they're totally free.

Cheers!