Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Overview

"Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to address the latest needs of developers, Visual Studio and the .NET Framework deliver key innovations in the following pillars:

• Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
  Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) crosses many roles within an organization and traditionally not every one of the roles has been an equal player in the process. Visual Studio Team System 2010 continues to build the platform for functional equality and shared commitment across an organization’s ALM process.
• Enabling emerging trends
  Every year the industry develops new technologies and new trends. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft delivers tooling and framework support for the latest innovations in application architecture, development and deployment.
• Inspiring developer delight
  Ever since the first release of Visual Studio, Microsoft has set the bar for developer productivity and flexibility. Visual Studio 2010 continues to deliver on the core developer experience by significantly improving upon it for roles involved with the software development process.
• Riding the next generation platform wave
  Microsoft continues to invest in the market leading operating system, productivity application and server platforms to deliver increased customer value in these offerings. With Visual Studio 2010 customers will have the tooling support needed to create amazing solutions around these technologies.
• Breakthrough Departmental Applications
  Customers continue to build applications that span from department to the enterprise. Visual Studio 2010 will ensure development is supported across this wide spectrum of applications.

Over the next few months we will provide more detail in each of these pillars. We will start with “Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management.”

Please check back shortly to see the next pillar, “Enabling emerging trends.”

Among the great new functionality in VSTS 2010:

• Discover and identify existing code assets and architecture with the new Architecture Explorer.
• Design and share multiple diagram types, including use case, activity and sequence diagrams.
• Improve testing efforts with tooling for better documentation of test scenarios and more thorough collection of test data.
• Identify and run only the tests impacted by a code change easily with the new Test Impact View.
• Enhanced version control capabilities including gated check-in, branch visualization and build workflow.

Key to a shared understanding of the application is the use of modeling tools. Modeling has traditionally been done by professional architects and system designers. Our approach is to enable both technical and non-technical users to create and use models to collaborate and to define business and system functionality graphically.

Visual Studio Team System 2010 includes a new Architecture Explorer for the discovery and exploration of existing code assets and application architectures.

From the design of the application through to the actual writing of the code, one of the most difficult problems has always been that of the bug that can’t be reproduced – the “no-repro” bug. There are a lot of factors that drive these types of bugs and we have worked to create tools to help isolate the issue and allow faster fixes. One of the common blockers to reproducing a bug is the collection of actionable data on the bug.  By dramatically simplifying the tools required to integrate testing across the lifecycle, we are further introducing new non-technical users to the application lifecycle.

Visual Studio Team System 2010 provides testers with a set of tools for managing test cases and execution as well as improved support for filing actionable bugs.

Better Together – Visual Studio Team System Development Edition and Database Edition
In recognition of the increased need to integrate more of the lifecycle members together, we will provide a unified Development and Database product in Visual Studio Team System 2010. Beginning October 1, 2008 Development Edition and Database Edition MSDN subscribers will have access to both products.

See Visual Studio 2010 in Action on Channel 9
During the week of September 29, 2008, Channel 9 will be publishing new Visual Studio Team System 2010 videos daily. During the week you can watch videos covering many of the aspects of Visual Studio Team System 2010, including an overview of new capabilities, software quality, project management and Team Foundation Server, featuring Brian Harry. Watch the videos now.

Learn More About Visual Studio Team System 2010

To learn more about the new features and capabilities in Visual Studio Team System 2010 follow the links below.

• Modeling that Works with Code
  Powerful modeling tools are important for both defining new systems as well as discovering architectural information about existing systems. Our new modeling tools have tight integration into the actual code of the application enabling a developer or architect to use models to enforce constraints on code, as well as to explore existing code assets. Learn more.
• Eliminating “No-Repro”
  One of the most difficult problems has always been that of the bug that can’t be reproduced – the “no repro” bug. There are a lot of factors that drive these types of bugs and we have worked to create tools to isolate the issue and enable faster fixes. Learn more.
• Identify the Test Impact
• After making a change to the code it is critical to test the changes to prove they work as expected and to ensure no unexpected downstream effect. Test Impact Analysis helps developers quickly check-in code with confidence by running only the necessary tests. Learn more" (Microsoft).

Source ( Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Overview )