Get a Grip on Version Control!

Technorati tags: TFS Source Control, Codeplex, TFS, TFS Guidance

I often have customers ask me questions like: "What is the best way to handle my code migration?", or "What exactly IS a baseless merge", or most often, "Why would I ever want to allow multiple developers to work on a file at the same time, only to have to merge their results later?".  Well, TFS has some swank new version control capabilities that make your life MUCH easier when talking about version control of yoursource code, database code, documents, anything you need to version.

Honestly, there is no one best way to do source control management.  Every organization is different, and sometimes you have to try a few different ways to get it "right" for you.  Here is a great primer to get you going: https://www.codeplex.com/BranchingGuidance.  Written by a bunch of really smart dudes like Mario Rodriguez who is the Program Manager for TFS source control, as well as some folks from MCS and the Patterns and Practices team.  You may have met one of them (Clark Sell) at a previous VSTS User Group I held. 

CodePlex in general is a fantastic place to start when looking for best practices, guidance, community support, or handy widgets and add-ons for anything in the Team System product suite.  Give it a go if you're not a regular there: https://www.codeplex.com/