Much like starting a campfire with a gallon of gasoline and a flamethrower, installing TFS for managing your software development efforts is relatively easy. Once the gas runs out, you need to keep things going, and you want to reduce the time and effort needed to maintain it, while at the same time not letting it burn itself out or explode. But how do you configure TFS to support your organization and team structure over the long haul? How many team project collections do you need? Which backend SCM system do you use? Do you create multiple team projects, or one team project to rule them all? Which process templates should you use? How much should you customize? So many questions!!

There are a lot of things to consider when setting up any ALM system, and making the wrong choices early on can cause major headaches (and HUGE consulting bills) down the road. Join Angela Dugan in reviewing best practices, discussing the ins and outs of how to structure your TFS projects, tips and tricks for setting up flexible and low maintenance systems, and get your most burning questions about TFS configuration answered!

Angela Dugan is the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Practice Manager for Polaris Solutions, a small .NET development and ALM consulting firm based out of Chicago and St. Louis. Angela has been in software development since 1999, filling roles including business analyst, developer, tester, project manager, and architect. Angela spent 5 years as an ALM Tools evangelist with Microsoft, and in late 2011, left Microsoft to follow her passion back into the consulting world where she could be more hands-on with customers. Angela runs the Chicago Visual Studio ALM user group, is an active organizer and speaker at several local conferences, is a Microsoft ALM MVP, and is a Certified Scrum master.

Outside of wrangling TFS, Angela is an avid board gamer, an aspiring runner, and a Twitter addict. She lives in a 104 year old house in Oak Park that she is constantly working on/cursing at with her husband David.