Microsoft linking project, ALM servers

(InfoWorld) - Microsoft is boosting integration between its project management and application lifecycle management servers, enabling better communications between project managers and software development teams.

Available Monday, the company's Visual Studio Team Foundation Server - Project Server 2007 Connector (PS-TFS Connector) is free software that links the two products. Customers get a holistic view and up-to-date information to better manage software development projects across an organization, Microsoft said.

Project Server enables scheduling of projects. Team Foundation Server manages software development assets, tracking work items, and managing source code.

"What [the connector] does is it enables project managers to participate more actively in the software development process," said Prashant Sridharan, Microsoft group product manager for Visual Studio.

"What we did was rather than forcing people to connect to two different servers, we created a connector point," Sridharan said. A lot of customers use both products, he said. With the integration, project managers continue in their project management environment and get information on the software development process while software developers can get information on projects, Sridharan said.

Accessible on the Microsoft CodePlex project hosting site, users will have access to the connector's source code and be able to customize to suit their organizations’ needs.

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