--- title: "A Simple Version Control Strategy Using Team System" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2006/6/19/a-simple-version-control-strategy-using-team-system.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2006/6/19/a-simple-version-control-strategy-using-team-system.html" published: "2006-06-19T19:48:00" updated: "2006-06-19T19:48:00" tags: [".NET", "General Software Devel...", "Team System", "Visual Studio"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "To Skip this Intro, read the full article here: A Simple Version Control Strategy Using Team System I was recently asked by a client who I'm helping to integrate Team System, to create a strategy for the organization…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # A Simple Version Control Strategy Using Team System By Roy Osherove June 19, 2006 In [.NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net), [General Software Devel...](https://osherove.com/blog/category/general-software-devel), [Team System](https://osherove.com/blog/category/team-system), [Visual Studio](https://osherove.com/blog/category/visual-studio) **Historical article** · Originally published June 19, 2006; technical details may be outdated. _To Skip this Intro, read the full article here:_ [_A Simple Version Control Strategy Using Team System_](https://osherove.com/rosherove/pages/VersionControlStrategyForTeamSystem.aspx) I was recently asked by a client who I'm helping to integrate Team System, to create a strategy for the organization and future projects for managing multiple versions of applications and code - A version Control Strategy. Since there are some major difference between the way Team System Works and its current abilities compared to past versions of Microsoft Source Control Products like VSS (or other 3rd party products such as CVS), I turned to look for a good source of information on this. The more I searched I less I found that made sense. There are tons of scattered material out there on the **technical** aspects of version control (very little on Team System but there is some) but almost none about the strategy you might want to use when dealing with multiple versions. I asked several of my colleagues, all working with Team System, to tell me what strategy they use for versioning control of applications. They all said that they are also “re-inventing the wheel” – They couldn’t find any clear guidance either on this. So I decided to put my (oh so simple) thoughts on paper and publish it, so that : - I can get feedback - You won’t have to reinvent the wheel yourself. It’s important to understand that besides the simple “What do I do when I have a new version”, the technicalities of what you do in team system were compiled from other sources, mainly the one listed at the top of this page. This short guide is nothing more than that –a short guide, that tells you the basic strategy you need to follow. That mindset is what’s important. It’s not a 90 page document. It’s a strategy document, and as that is should be simple. Over time I will sprinkle various “HOWTO” links around the article to point to various “gotchas” when trying to accomplish some of the stuff mentioned here. A good example might be coming up with the appropriate versioning scheme that automatically changes the last build number based on your input. It’s a relatively simple task, but with the current crop of Team System Tooling (namely- none),  it’s pretty hard to achive without lots of manual labour. I will add that link later on when I’ve written a short essay on those little pitfalls we like to call “Extending Team Build”. The article is in the form of Questions (FAQ) that you ask yourself during development. The first two are just background and opening though. Hope the format is useful. Read it: [A Simple Version Control Strategy Using Team System](https://osherove.com/rosherove/pages/VersionControlStrategyForTeamSystem.aspx) ## More in .NET [All posts in .NET](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net) - Jul 18, 2006 ### [Understanding the different generic collections in .NET (List, BindingList, Collection)](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/7/18/understanding-the-different-generic-collections-in-net-listl.html) - Jun 27, 2006 ### [ORMappers.Com is open for business (sort of)](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/6/27/ormapperscom-is-open-for-business-sort-of.html) - Jun 18, 2006 ### [This week at the C# User group - Hardcore ASP.NET 2.0 \[Dan Amiga\]](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/6/18/this-week-at-the-c-user-group-hardcore-aspnet-20-dan-amiga.html) - Jun 14, 2006 ### [Mapping CLR, Winfx and .NET Framework 3.0 upcoming versions](https://osherove.com/blog/2006/6/14/mapping-clr-winfx-and-net-framework-30-upcoming-versions.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/