You can have the best coders in the world working in your teams, but if your project management isn't up to scratch, your project is almost certain to be delayed, to come in over budget, and in some cases to fail entirely. By taking precise control of your application development process, you can make changes, both large and small, throughout your project's life cycle that will lead to better--quality finished products that are consistently delivered on time and within budget. Application lifecycle management (ALM) is an area of rapidly growing interest within the development community. Because its techniques allow you to deal with the process of developing applications across many areas of responsibility and across many different disciplines, its effects on your project can be wide ranging and pronounced. It is a project management tool that has practical implications for the whole team--from architects to designers, from developers to testers. Pro Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio 2012 focuses on the most powerful ALM tool available for the Microsoft .NET Framework: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. It demonstrates the key concepts and techniques of ALM at first with a guide to the overall methodology, and then delves into architecture and testing--illustrating all of the concepts, tips and tricks using the tools TFS provides. The book serves as a complete guide to the ALM style--with no fluff and many relevant code samples and examples. After reading the book, you will understand how TFS can be used to generate continuous meaningful reporting on your project's health for the decision makers on your team as well as for your project's sponsors. What you'll learn * What ALM is and what it can do for you * How to achieve traceability in your projects * How to improve your development process * Why TFS is so much more than just a version control tool * The new features in TFS that help encourage ALM best practices, especially within Metro and .NET 4.5 applications * What the importance of well--designed and well--defined processes is and how to implement these things Who this book is for This book will be of value for anyone developing applications with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, whether they are working in a small team of just a few people or in a large enterprise environment. Table of Contents * Why Application Lifecycle Management Matters * Introduction to Application Lifecycle Management * Development Processes and Frameworks * ALM Assessments * Working with TFS to Enhance the ALM Process * Introduction to Agile Planning * Work Item Tracking and Process Customization * Agile Project Management with TFS * Metrics and ALM Assessment * Prototyping/Storyboarding + Feedback Tracking * Top Down Design Studies (UML) * Using Architecture Explorer * Using Layer Diagrams * Metrics and ALM Assessment * Version Control * Unit Testing * Code Analysis, Code Metrics, Code Clones, Code Review * Performance and Profiling * Metrics and ALM Assessment * Overview of Software Testing * Manual Testing * Automated Testing * Test Lab Management * Metrics and ALM Assessment * Continuous Delivery * Build Automation * Deployment * Release Management * Metrics and ALM Assessment * Architecture, Implementation and Planning * Installation, Migration and Administration * TFS Reporting * Working in Heterogeneous Environments * TFS in the Cloud