SharePoint in software developement...

January 10, 2007 9:30 PM

Using SharePoint in a huge software development shop??

The company I work for wants to move to SharePoint to be the hub of its software development process.. that, unfortunately is a forgone conclusion.

They have asked me to see what are the options for bolting on issue tracking, source code versioning etc and make it as integrated as possible with SharePoint.

Is anyone out there using SharePoint as part of their software development process?

posted by tucsongal to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I work with SharePoint in my day job. We use it to store and collaboration on design and other technical documentation. We use it for keeping track of lists of items (Its ability to dynamically create new lists with any old columns you want is great for keeping lists of various types).

However, you would never want to use it for source code versioning. The product has no capabilities at all to tag a series of files as being part of a version. This would not work at all for a small software development shop and would fail miserablly with a "huge software development shop". To do source code management you need a special purpose tool that is designed for the task. Take you pick of CVS, Subversion, MS Team Foundation Server, Clearcase etc.

In short, SharePoint can support a software development team but in no way will it replace your entire toolset.
posted by mmascolino at 10:22 PM on January 10, 2007

Team Foundataion Server comes integrated with SharePoint and Souce Control and Issue Tracking, so maybe that is the angle you need to approach it from.
FWIW I switched to TFS a couple of months ago and am loving it.
posted by chill at 12:36 AM on January 11, 2007

Issue tracking, document management, etc is really great with sharepoint (stuff that's out of the box) - and you can customise it endlessly to provide different filters of information for the various users that will need to view/work with it.

I agree with the source code comments above - it's fairly rudimentary, but immediately useful and easy to use for general project requirements.

The major problem with Sharepoint however is support - so if you're going to work with a lot of 3rd party add ons and more elaborate customisations - you're pretty much going to be on your own.
posted by strawberryviagra at 2:11 AM on January 11, 2007

Isn't VSS integrated into Team Foundation Server? TFS would seem like the way to go.
posted by yerfatma at 6:33 AM on January 11, 2007

Everyone else has hit the nail-on-the-head.

One other thing - go with the recently released 2007 versions. They are far easier to customize and integrate.

(Note: I am highly biased, I am a SharePoint engineer with Microsoft ;-)
posted by jkaczor at 2:04 PM on January 12, 2007