Professional Team Foundation Server 2010

Chapter 24. Working with Geographically Distributed Teams

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Understanding the difficulties of a distributed development environment

• Getting to know Team Foundation Server Proxy

• Learning techniques for working with remote teams

• Dealing with build servers in a distributed environment

• Getting to know Team Foundation Server Integration Tools

• Understanding how to be effective when the server is not available

The development of software by distributed teams is a growing trend. People are working in a global economy with greater competition and choice. There are many reasons you may be working with a distributed team, including the following:

• Your company has grown and expanded, and has several field offices.

• Your company contracts out portions of development to third parties.

• A merger has occurred, and two companies must work interactively over great distances.

Even if you don't work in a distributed team, you may work in an environment whereby your server infrastructure is located at a different physical location. Following are a couple of examples:

• Your IT infrastructure is outsourced to another company.

• Your development team is located in a different city from the main office to take advantage of skilled workers in that area.

• You have a mobile workforce that moves between offices and has no main office.

When you work with Team Foundation Server 2010 in this environment, there are a number of challenges that you will face, and considerations that you must account for. This chapter ...