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We are planning to use TFS 2010 as ALM. If we go for default installation it will install and configure WSS 3.0. But, the installation documentation says that we can use SharePoint 2010 also with TFS 2010. So, my question is what are the benefits I am going to get from SharePoint 2010 in place of WSS 3.0 ?

One benefit I am aware of is the powerful Dashboards because of excel services in SharePoint 2010.

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The main difference between using these is that with the server editions of SharePoint that are licensed separately (i.e., not free), including MOSS 2007 Enterprise Edition or SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition, TFS will utilize Excel Services. Utilizing Excel Services makes adding fancy reports and "TFS Dashboards" much more easy than the alternative, which is showing SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports in web parts; This is because it is very easy to create fancy pivot tables and then graphs that consume data from the TFS_Analysis reporting database behind TFS; one can make a fancy graph using pivot tables (which many businesss users are already comfortable with making) and Excel services will pretty much show it in SharePoint Server with little to no configuration each time you add one - this can be a big win for companies that have a lot of TFS data and want their users to be able to customize their TFS project portals with ease. The the initial configuration to get Excel Services to work with TFS can be tricky, but it's a one-time configuration.

The basic (free) editions of SharePoint (WSS 3.0 or SharePoint Foundation 2010) will enable you to show graphs and data from SSRS only. Most of the SSRS that come out of the box use the same database I mentioned earlier (TFS_Analysis) as a data source, and these reports can be more robust that Excel pivot tables since you can program the SSRS reports to perform data acrobatics, BUT they typically require a developer - and even then there is a learning curve to customizing them, so most companies are stuck with showing the few graphs and charts that come in the form of the out of the box SSRS reports unless they want to invest in programming them otherwise.

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  • Thanks. What i got from your explanation is that the main advantage or difference is in reporting part and that too because of Excel Services.
    – Amit Tyagi
    Jun 28, 2012 at 13:23
  • Well, yes. So there is no effect on document management, but depending if you are using the MSF Agile or MSF CMMI template you will see additional "TFS Dashboards" that appear because Excel services is available in SharePoint Enterprise Editions; otherwise, the only grpahs you can show are from Reporting Services. Jun 28, 2012 at 20:27
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It sounds like you are looking to compare WSS 3.0 to SharePoint Foundation 2010. If that is the case then this article might be what you are looking for. There is also a summary view available.

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  • The links provided by you are very informative. I am actually looking for "TFS 2010 + WSS 3.0" vs "TFS 2010 + MOSS 2010".
    – Amit Tyagi
    Mar 14, 2012 at 6:52
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The main difference is the "three years" between SharePoint 2007 (WSS 3.0) and SharePoint 2010. Microsoft didn't do nothing for three years.

The wiki is far better, with more of a WSYIWYG editing experience. This experience extends across all page editing situations. It also allows you to embed list items from other lists into a wiki page.

Overall, the experience is much nicer, through good use of a ribbon interface. SharePoint has always had a lot of capability, but it could be too much all at once. With the use of the ribbon, sets of functionality are presented together, and are hidden if you don't want to think about them.

Note that these are simply differences between the SharePoint releases, and have nothing to do with how TFS uses the portals. But you need to keep in mind that the portal functionality is based on the SharePoint platform, so the benefit is multiplied.

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