Today we learned that Microsoft has acquired devBiz with a view to integrating TeamPlain into the VSTS product range.

According to Brian Harry's blog, TeamPlain will be renamed Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Web Access and released as a VSTS Power Tool.

Why does this interest us?

Well ... we looked at TeamPlain and other TeamXXX products when we were looking to name our own product TeamGuide.  We deliberately chose TeamGuide to fit in with the growing product ecosystem surrounding Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server in particular.  So, I guess we're a little sad to see the name disappear - kind of feels like one of our children's best mates has left the playground ...

However, this was not a surprising capability acquisition - and removes an area of doubt for us.  Several of our TeamGuide customers have expressed a strong desire for web-access to TFS and we were actively debating whether this should make it on to the feature list for Release 2.0.

As per the press release:

[TeamPlain makes] 'it that much easier for users to participate in the development lifecycle'

This philosophy is at the heart of what we are trying to achieve with TeamGuide - so of course we were considering how we could provide web access to TFS.

This acquisition and free giveaway removes the imperative for us to address this ... but now means that we need to look at how we web-enable (some) functionality from the TeamGuide client.

Never a dull moment when you're working with a product!