The big question is - When

This week Microsoft announced that "Visual Studio 2008" will be released by the end of this month (November 2007).

And now begins the real question: When will Visual Studio code name "Rosario" will be released...

Why do I take it as the real question?

Because also VS 2008 does give you a lot of new Development & Testing options and upgrade the Build Integration ability  - its really doesn't step you forward regarding Application Life cycle Management.

What do I miss the most:

1. Built in Hierarchy between work items.
2. Word Integration for Requirements Management
3. Real Integration with Project Server (with the Hierarchy from the first bullet)

You can, of course, develop those abilities yourself, or use open source & third parties tools.

in fact Steve Lange discussed some of those options in his extremely clear article series about Requirements Management in TFS.

And for Hierarchy - you can use Loïc Baumann's Work Item Creator application, or Custom Work Item Hierarchy on CodePlex.

So why is the Rosario's Release date so critical? because it influence directly on the decision whether to implement / buy third parties tools or to wait...

Do you know something about the scheduled release? if you do (and of course allowed to tell) please post back.