The Need of VSTS

The following are some of the needs that are addressed by VSTS: -

Communication Needs: Modern IT teams need a highly efficient communication model. A model that entails easy flow of up-to-the-minute accurate information between the team members and at the same time maintains confidentiality of certain information items or source code by providing restricted access to them. The team members - project managers, architects, developers, testers, system administrators, support staff, etc. - may be present in the same room or scattered across the globe. Even though the team might have regular status meetings, send and receive a large amount of e-mail, make a lot of expensive phone calls, collaborate using a SharePoint or WSS site, the information is still not always up-to-the-minute accurate, and it takes a lot of time to sift through all of it.

Integration needs: IT teams need an integrated set of tools to perform various project related tasks, because a great degree of disjointedness results by the use of separate, sometimes unrelated tools for performing project tasks such as creating the application architecture, tracking the work items and deliverables, tracking work schedules, developing code modules, testing the code modules, storing the various artifacts, tracking object dependencies, generating project related reports, etc.

Process guidance needs: IT teams need to ensure that the development process follows an effective development methodology such as Agile Development Methodology, Extreme Programming (XP), Rational Unified Process (RUP), Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF), etc., based on the nature of the project.