Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2012
/ Integrated Lifecyle Tool Helps Vietnam Software Developer Boost On-time Completion 100%
Overview
Country or Region:Vietnam
Industry:IT
Customer Profile
Lac Viet is an independent software-development company that creates and customises enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and digital content applications. Based in Ho Chi Minh City, the firm employs over 100 developers, and maintains a CMMI Level 3 for software support.
Business Situation
To help development teams complete projects on time, Lac Viet introduced Agile Scrum working methods. However, good collaboration and team-work was difficult because developers and project managers used multiple project management systems.
Solution
Lac Viet created an end-to-end application lifecycle management tool using Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012, and integrated it with Microsoft SharePoint 2010.
Benefits
- On-time project completion, up 100%
- An integrated environment
- Better cross-team collaboration
- Support for open-source development
Tran Duc Truong, Lac Viet
To keep an average of 15 development projects all on-schedule, software development company, Lac Viet, wanted an end-to-end application lifecycle management platform.It had to support fast-paced Agile Scrum working methods, and all aspects of software development, from code tracking to progress reporting. It also had to support all types of software, including web and desktop applications built using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and open-source softwarefor the iOS operating system. In September 2012, Lac Viet deployed Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 to over 100 developers, and integrated it with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. With a clear understanding of customer needs, developers complete high-quality work faster, and daily task completion rates have risen by 20 percent. With real-time progress reports available in SQL reporting and SharePoint, project leaders manage resources more efficiently. Increased productivity meansLac Viet now completes 80 percent of all software projects on time.
Situation
Established in 1994, Lac Viet is a leading developer of accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, as well as digital content solutions such as Lac Viet Dictionary.The firm supplies national enterprises—including PV Oil,Vietnam Airlines and MB Bank—with a range of standard and highly customised applications, and employs over 100 software developers.
To manage complex projects simultaneously, Lac Viet employees used a variety of support applications. These included the Whizible execution tool for issues and bug fixing; SourceSage, for managing source code; and a requirements-traceability matrix built in Microsoft Excel. Without instant access to all project data, however, close collaboration between developers,project managers and stakeholderswas difficult. As a result, just over half of all softwaredevelopment projects were finished late.
“There was no direct link between the project managers and developers, so developers could not always understand each customer’s requirement,” says Tran Duc Truong, Quality Assurance Manager, Lac Viet. “Also, customers frequently change their requirements, but developers could not track a change request straight to a piece of code, or quickly test the fix.”
To complete projects faster, Lac Viet adopted the Agile Scrum development method, which involves daily collaboration and rapid ‘sprint’ development cycles. Without a single support tool, however, administrative staff spent hours each day collecting reports and updates for daily scrum meetings.
“Our managers wanted an integrated application lifecycle management (ALM) tool that contained all project data,” says Tran. “Project managers wanted to accurately track progress on each unique task within a software project, so they could take the decisions needed to complete more projects on time. They also wanted an ALM tool for customer-facing tasks. Sometimes it took months for project managers to collect requirements and create project schedules.”
In late 2011, Lac Viet began looking for an ALM solution. It had to support the fast-paced Agile Scrum development technique, without forcing developers to spend time on new tasks. It also had to have the documentation capabilities to comply with the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) development standard, because Lac Viet is an accredited CMMI level 3 software supplier.
Finally, it had to support a wide spectrum of non-Microsoft technologies. Although, programmers used the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment,they also used a wide variety of open source and third-party technologies. These included Xcode, which developers used to create iPad applications in Apple’s iOS.
Solution
In September 2012, Lac Viet deployed an end-to-end ALM tool called MicrosoftVisual StudioTeam Foundation Server 2012 (TFS 2012). It consists of a single communication and collaboration platform, with specific modules to support project management, requirements management, design and development, quality management, and source code testing and deployment.
“We chose TFS 2012 because it gives us all the collaboration tools we need for Agile Scrum development in a single platform,” says Tran. “It also generates all the documentation we need to be compliant with CMMI.”
TFS 2012 is designed to work with Visual Studio, but because it is technology-neutral, Lac Viet can continue to use its preferred development technologies and software. These include the Gizmox developer tooland the Ext JS application framework, which programmers use to create Java scriptGUI interfaces. And if Lac Viet decided to use the Eclipse web development environment, instead of Visual Studio, TFS 2012, can support that as well.
To improve cross-platform collaboration, Lac Viet integrated TFS 2012 with their Microsoft SharePoint document-management system. This enables developers, project managers and stakeholders to easily share project documents and burndown charts generated in TFS 2012. Lac Viet also linked TFS 2012 with two database tools: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services and Microsoft SQL Server2008 Reporting Services. This enables project managers to quickly create highly-customised reports from TFS 2012 data.
The new ALM tool took three days to install, and developers found new features easy to use. With all customer information and source code stored in one system, developers can quickly connect individual units of code with related tasks, customer requirements, and defect rectifications.
Task and project management is also easier. Programmerscan quickly create task lists andautomatically generated reports for daily scrum meetings. With real-time reporting in TFS 2012, project managers can instantly judge progress towards completion. Managers can also utilise data generated from TFS 2012 to measure developer performance. This helps them improve business processes and fine-tune the company bonus program.
“Now, when we have problems, they are resolved faster. TFS creates a really good team environment, because we always know exactly what to do.”Nguen Tran, Lead Developer, Lac Viet
Benefits
With Team Foundation Server 2012, Lac Viet has doubled the proportion of projects completed on time. Developers are happier because they enjoy working in TFS 2012, and project managers have better control over all development.
An integrated environment
Productivity is higher, because Lac Viet developers now workin a fully integrated environment. “Now, our developers can see all customer requirements,” adds Tran. “As a result, they find it much easier to create exactly what the customer wants.
“Also, change requests are much easier.
The developer can see what change the customer wants, track all of the software dependencies and test the response—all in the one platform.
“I finish my tasks on time, because I control my tasks better,” says Nguen Tran, Lead Developer, Lac Viet. “Now, when we have problems, they are resolved faster.
TFS creates a really good team environment, because we always know exactly what to do.”
Cross-team collaboration
The other main reason for better productivity is improved collaboration.
“It only takes a short time to get TFS 2012 working well with other Microsoft products,” he says. “For example, developers love being able to access each other’s daily task lists in SharePoint. “Knowing what their colleagues are doing helps them prioritise tasks.”
For executives, cross-team capabilities improve overall management. Now, they can instantly see the status of all software projects in SharePoint, and analyse performance using SQL tools. “Project managers can accurately assess time to completion,” says Tran. “With this information, they can manage their resources better—switching developers to more urgent projects if they need to.”
The fact that SharePoint is web-basedmeans that customers also benefit.“Now, project managers can easily share real-time TFS progress reports with customers,” says Tran. “This helps customers track software progress towards the expected completion date.”
On-time project completion, up 100%
With an integrated platform, and closer collaboration, Lac Viet has dramatically improved developer performance.
“TFS reporting saves developers and administrative staff lots of time,” says Tran. “For example, creating daily scrum reports now take 15 minutes instead of hours.
“With all the collaboration and reporting improvements, developers finish an average of 90 percent of their daily tasks now, instead of 70 percent before,” he adds. “As a result the number of software projects we complete on time has doubled —from 40 percent to 80 percent. Our product managers are very happy.
“TFS is also a great support for efficient, Agile development. Our customers are also very happy, because we are giving them what they want, on time.”
Team Foundation Server 2012
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 (TFS) is the collaboration platform at the core of Microsoft's application lifecycle management (ALM) solution. TFS supports agile development practices, multiple IDEs and platforms locally or in the cloud and gives you the tools you need to effectively manage software development projects throughout the IT lifecycle.
For more information about Team Foundation Server, visit: