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Misleading Usage Quote For Visual Studio Team System

I just ran across the FTPOnline article Reporting on Vista Security and the VS Road Map and the following quote by Prashant Sridharan, Senior Product Manager for Visual Studio is very misleading:

Rosario, with the first community beta due at the end of 2007, is a Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) update, with new organization collaboration features. Sridharan pointed out that Microsoft's research showed that 60-70 percent of all Visual Studio users are also VSTS users, so regular updates and enhancements to that product are an important part of the Microsoft developer strategy.

Now, 60-70 percent of all Visual Studio users may have a flavor of VSTS installed on their machine (Team Suite or one of the Team Editions), but from what I've seen in the field, almost none of the developers are actually using any of the tools installed as part of VSTS.  I have yet to run into someone actually using any of the following: Unit Testing, Code Coverage, Dynamic Code Analyzer, Static Code Analyzer, Code Profiler, no less any of the architecture tools: Application Designer, Logical Infrastructure Designer, or Deployment Designer.  60-70 percent of Visual Studio users have VSTS installed because it is part of their MSDN subscription, not because they are using it.  And don't get me started about the confusion between the differences in the terms VSTS and Team Foundation System.  Team Foundation System is one of the Visual Studio Team System products, but that doesn't mean that 60-70% of Visual Studio developers are using Team Foundation System, which, at first glance, is what I thought the quote was implying.  TFS may be the hot thing in some enterprise development shops, but not in the RAD shops that are the core of VS users.  Don't get me wrong, some of the tools in VSTS are good (and better than nothing), and more developers should be using either them or a similar product, but most of the developers I'm see out in the field are just now waking up to things like unit testing and code coverage.  Yes, more developers should be using these tools, and better versions of the tools will help adoption, but don't try to claim that a majority of Visual Studio users are actually using them.  It just isn't the case out in the "real" world.

Published Wednesday, April 18, 2007 1:01 PM by donxml
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Greg Wilson said:

At best, I might agree that 60-70% of Visual Studio Developers have downloaded a demo of VSTS, but I think that 60-70% of VS Developers using VSTS on any type of regular basis is highly dubious. IME, the big $$$$ price tag of Team Systems has prevented most shops from considering it. BTW, Don, are you goinng to be speaking at the Heartland Developer's Conference in Omaha again this year?
April 18, 2007 1:47 PM

donxml said:

Greg,

I'm not sure about HDC, yet.  I think I'm speaking at VSLive in NYC in Sept. and I'll be attending the PDC in early Oct.  Nov. may be tough, but I'm not ruling out HDC.

April 18, 2007 2:57 PM

Noah Coad said:

Hey Don, I think you're right that perhaps 60-70% of Visual Studio users have an MSDN account in which they have the option to select _one_ of the _Team_Suite_ client products (most of which choose Team Developer). This in no way means they're using Team System as a system, Team Foundation Server, or even the more advanced features in any of the Team Suite client products over Professional (like the profiler in Team Developer). Thanks for keeping people honest.
April 18, 2007 3:37 PM

Greg Wilson said:

It'll be a shame if you don't make it. I know Kent Tegels is going to make it this year. I'm hoping to present this year. It would be great to see you there.
April 19, 2007 8:36 AM

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About donxml

I’m an independent consultant, specializing in .Net solutions architecture, based out of New Jersey who also doubles as an evangelist for XML, Domain Driven Design, enterprise architecture and .Net. I do not work for Microsoft, the W3C or any other big company that you may know of (at least not yet). I’ve been an indie for over ten years, and although I’ve been tempted a couple times to take a job with companies like Microsoft, I’ve haven’t found something better than my current situation. I work mostly with the large pharmaceuticals that are based here in New Jersey, and usually find myself on long term contracts. Definitely not the prototypical indie consultant, but it lets me dedicate time to my non-income generating activities like the developer community stuff, plus financing open source projects like XPathmania and MVP-XML. If you would like to talk to me about doing some contract work, just contact me via the contact page. My rates vary widely, depending on lots of different variables, but mostly distance from Jersey, and type of work. Plus, I’ve been known to donate some of my code for various projects.
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