Team System Price Promotions

Promotional prices for some Visual Studio 2005 Team System (VSTS) products will make them more affordable for small teams of developers and for customers looking to upgrade to the complete suite of products. VSTS is a major upgrade to Visual Studio and includes many new features designed to help teams of developers work together more efficiently, along with new tools for software testers and architects, but the initial pricing for the product represents a steep increase for many developers.

Customers Surprised by Pricing

Microsoft began publicly discussing the features of VSTS in May 2004, but didn’t announce pricing until Mar. 2005. VSTS consists of Team Foundation Server and three client editions: Team Edition for Software Architects, Team Edition for Software Developers, and Team Edition for Software Testers. The client editions are available individually or in a bundle, called Team Suite, that provides the features of all three editions in a single development environment. (For details on the contents of each of the client editions, see the chart “Team System Components by Edition” on page 20 of the Feb. 2005 Update.)