Microsoft formally announced on Thursday at the SD West 2006 conference that Friday, March 17, is the release-to-manufacturing date for its long-awaited collaboration server for ALM, officially known as Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server.

The date represents when Microsoft sends the software to be pressed at the factory. The product is expected to be available for download on MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) in a few days.

"This is a long time coming for us, but we're very excited to be finally making the server available," said Rick LaPlante, general manager of Visual Studio Team System at Microsoft. Team System features client ALM components, which shipped this in November.

Several in the room applauded LaPlante's announcement. Team Foundation Server serves as a data warehouse for collaboration in software development projects. Microsoft's ALM platform was developed in recognition that development involves many persons and roles, LaPlante said.

"There are very few teams of one and even then, that person isn't just a developer," but also is a project manager, architect or is serving other roles as well, LaPlante said.