August 17, 2010 at 7:38 am
Hey everyone.
My small data warehouse team (3 people) is considering the use of Team Foundation Server + Visual Studio 2010 Prem with the database project templates to manage development and changes in our SQL Server 2005 environment.
I've installed the trials and, while the platform extremely feature rich, I find it quite complex to set up and imagine it would be complex to maintain (for a small group). In fact, I haven't been able to get TFS up and running so that I can connect VS to it, but I am working on the assumption that I would be able to get it working should we commit to the solution...
That said, I don't want to write TFS off entirely if there are significant benefits that make it worth the trouble (automated unit testing, work items, project builds, project tracking, etc).
Are any of you using TFS for your DB development?
If so, does it streamline your workflow and provide you with an efficient development/release process?
Or do you find it cumbersome and opt to bypass a lot of the dev/test/release features of the platform?
Today, we are using Red Gate's Developer Toolbelt and, with the addition of the SQL Source Control product, could easily build a process around it. But I'm certain that the process would not be as structured or easy to enforce/audit as a TFS process.
The ultimate solution, of course, is a process whose rules are enforced by software that has enough flexibility to meet the typical needs of a small group (low process overhead, quick turnaround, etc).
We don't have any meaningful development process today and are considering all options.
Thanks for your help!
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|Ted Pin >>
August 25, 2010 at 7:20 am
We use TFS and find it very useful. Not so much for development, but for source control and creating unit tests (the best feature I think). We create unit tests for all lgoic paths of a proc.
I have a project for each database. Then when I need to develop, I compare the project to a dev database and update the database to match the project (the project is the source). Once my database matches the project, I develop what I need and sync it back to the project. I tried developing in the project, then deploying to the database, but it just seems difficult.
Like I said, once the unit tests are created, they can be run over and over again to make sure nothing has been broken.
For better, quicker answers, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
For better answers on performance questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/
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