TFS Rant *WARNING* negative opinions are being expressed.
- by ryanabr
It has happened several times now where I end up installing TFS "over the shoulder" of the system admin guy whose job it will be to "own" the server when I am gone. TFS is challenging enough to stand up when doing it myself on a completely open platform, but at these locations, networks are locked down, machines are locked down, and the unexpected always seems to pop up. I personally have the tolerance for these things as a software developer, but as we are installing I have to listen to all of 'colorful' remarks being made about: "why is it like this" or "this is a piece of crap". Generally the issues center around SharePoint integration. TFS on it's own is straightforward, but the last flavor in everyone's mouth is the SharePoint piece. As a product I like SharePoint, but installation is a nightmare. In this particular case, we are going to use WSS since the customer would like this separate from their corp SharePoint 2010 installations since there dev team is really small (1 developer) and it is being used as a VSS replacement, more than a full blown ALM tool. The server where it is being installed as a Cisco Security Agent on it that seems to block 'suspicious' activity, and as far as I can tell is preventing WSS from installing properly. The most confounding thing we can find no meaningful log entries to help diagnose the issue. it didn't help matters that when we tried to contact Microsoft for support, because we mentioned TFS in the list of things that we were trying to install, that after waiting 2 hours that we got a TFS support person NOT the SharePoint person that we really needed, so after another 2 hours the SharePoint support that we did get managed to corrupt the registry sufficiently with his 'tools' that we ended up starting over from scratch the next day anyway after going home at midnight. My point to this is: The System Administrator who is going to own this, now thinks it is a piece of crap because SharePoint wouldn't install properly. Perception is everything. Everyone today is conditioned that software installs and works in a very simple matter. When looking at the different options to install TFS with the different "modes" there is inconsistency in the information being presented which leads to choices that causes headaches and this bad perception before the product is even installed. I am highlighting this because I love TFS as a product, but I HATE installing it, and would like it to install as simply and elegantly as the product operates once it is installed.
