Visual Studio ALM at //BUILD – recap

Tons of stuff at this year’s //BUILD! It was really exciting and there were a lot of news about Windows 10, Edge and the ecosystem.

But this post is going to be about all that’s been announced for Visual Studio ALM. Brace yourselves, it is quite long :)

• Visual Studio Code
  An evolution of Codename Monaco, this Electron-based app enables a great editing experience on not only Windows, but also MacOS and Linux. It is free and downloadable from here.
• SonarQube and Team Foundation Server integration
  I already started working on it, this is a joint release from SonarSource and Microsoft to enable a deep integration between SonarQube and Team Foundation Server so we can have the same parity as Java for Technical Debt Analysis with SonarQube. It is a very well welcomed effort, I can’t wait to bring it into several projects I have in mind.
• Visual Studio Release Management 2015
  Some light was shed on VSRM at //BUILD, we now know that much of the goodness of the new Release Management (with full support to Chef, Puppet and Team Build vNext) is going to be released with Team Foundation Server 2015 Update 1 or during the Summer on Visual Studio Online.
• CodeLens
  This is quite big – CodeLens is integrated in Visual Studio Professional 2015! Plus, there are new indicators like Combined Authors, When Last Changed and support for every file type.
• Cloud Load Test
  I can now define from where my traffic is going to be generated, so I can generate a better profile of my simulated usage.
• REST API and Service Hooks for Team Foundation Server 2015
  As Visual Studio Online and Team Foundation Server share the same codebase, we are going to get both REST APIs and Service Hooks!
• Extensions for Visual Studio Online
  Based on the existing REST APIs, Visual Studio Online is going to boast a brand new extension capability.
• Application Insights in Public Preview
  Oh yes, Application Insights is in Public Preview now! And with additional capabilities – a better Java support, iOS and Android devices as first-class citizens, a new shiny integration in Eclipse and XCode!
• IntelliTest
  Do you remember Smart Unit Tests? Well, the name wasn’t as good as it seemed to be, so it is now IntelliTest (like IntelliSense and IntelliTrace). There are two additional features now – Parametrized Unit Tests (you can define your data properties for the generated tests) and a Create Unit Tests menu.
• Developer Assistant
  The Developer Assistant gets full access to the enormous amount of code hosted on GitHub! 21 millions of examples to browse.
• GitHub extension as a Managed Hosting Provider
  GitHub enters Visual Studio as a new Managed Hosting Provider, so you can have a seamless integration inside the IDE like if it is Visual Studio Online or Team Foundation Server.
• Improved Git branches and history views
  The integration of Git into Visual Studio proceeds, the branching view and the history view get lots of love, making it way easier to use on a daily basis.
• Team Projects Rename
  Ten years later, we finally get Team Project rename in Team Foundation Server! This is a fantastic milestone (as it required lots of rework under the covers)!
• Improved Build vNext preview
  Team Build preview is more aligned to the latest bits running on Visual Studio Online, it is a lot more stable and there are several new features in the web UI.

There is actually more, this is just a quick feature recap. For instance I purposely left out the Agile Boards improvements in Team Foundation Server, as I believe it is pretty clear it is being ported from Visual Studio Online to the on-premise product. In case you still have doubts, have a look at the Visual Studio Online and Team Foundation Server Feature Timeline.

Eventually, it is worth having a look at the Release Notes for TFS and Visual Studio.