News

CTP of Visual Studio Team System 'Rosario' Is Imminent

• By Chris Kanaracus
• July 26, 2007

A community technology preview of VSTS, code-named "Rosario," is set for availability within the next week, according to a blog post from Brian Harry, a Microsoft distinguished engineer.

Despite the CTP, Microsoft's roadmap for Rosario's release appears to remain a bit hazy, judging from Harry's post. "We have not (and will not soon) be announcing anticipated timelines for Rosario, so for now you'll have to be happy with getting your hands on the bits to play with," he wrote.

Of course, Microsoft is first set to release Visual Studio Team System 2008, which is set to offer incremental improvements to the first version of VSTS 2005.

Microsoft is framing Rosario as a major step forward in bridging the gaps within IT organizations as well as between the technical and business sides of an enterprise, as Redmond Developer News magazine noted in an earlier cover story.

Harry says the first Rosario CTP will be called CTP8, coming after the eighth iteration of internal development. He says another CTP will arrive in about three months, following the 10th internal iteration.

Microsoft's double-barreled approach to evolving VSTS is unusual to say the least, Harry acknowledges. "You might say it's odd that we are releasing CTPs of Rosario before we've even shipped Orcas," he wrote. "Historically, we have managed our development cycles pretty serially. We are trying something new this time ... The outcome of this should be a shorter delta between Orcas and Rosario than we've seen between previous releases."