VSTS (speaker Kevin Jones)

I had my doubts about attending this one as it was an introductory presentation and I like to think that I am beyond that stage. Even though it turned out that I know most of what was presented, I must admit that Kevin knows a lot more about VSTS than what was presented today.

He, essentially, walked us through the different parts of VSTS, both client and server.

Along the way, he gave us some hints and tips like there is a tool from the Build team that provides continuous integration features (of course there is CruiseControl.Net) and that the Windows scheduler is good enough to schedule your daily or nightly build.

That VSTS is a V1.0 was made clear by the fact that Kevin also mentioned stuff that does not (or not completely) work well at the moment like for instance, deploying policies and the inconsistencies between how things are stored in Source Control, MS Project, and SharePoint,

Finishing his presentation, he also told us about the nice features that VSTS for Database Professionals has to offer and that finally DBA’s are a full partner in the Software Development Lifecycle or SDLC.

Sure, I knew a lot beforehand but the talk was informative and nice anyway.

And I must applaud the dignity with which Kevin handled his laptop failing to provide a picture through the beamer and the hassle of copying his PowerPoint presentation over and not being able to demo some of the things he highlighted in his talk.