Visual Studio Targets Architects

Visual Studio .NET (VS.NET) includes two new features to help software architects who lead large development teams to better communicate and enforce their design decisions: Enterprise Templates, which streamline the process of creating new applications, and Development Policy, which allows architects to limit the options available from within VS.NET. Although VS.NET is quite effective at enforcing policy set by architects, creating the templates that define the policy is cumbersome. In addition, the product contains few improvements to source code control—a key component of team development.

Architects Face Challenges

Many corporations rely on their most experienced developers (sometimes called software architects) to define the logical structure of applications and key technologies used in application development—not just for a single application, but consistently across the entire organization and development time frames. For example, an architect might specify that all line-of-business applications will use a common set of Web services to access corporate databases; which applications will be accessed via a Web interface; and which applications will have custom, thick-client interfaces. These specifications serve as blueprints for developers. In addition, many solution providers and consulting firms have architects who define reusable application architectures that developers tailor for specific client requirements.