Managing Team Development with SSAS, TFS, & BIDS

Question

I am currently a single BI developer over a corporate datawarehouse and cube. I use SQL Server 2008, SSAS, and SSIS as my basic toolkit. I use Visual Studio +BIDS and TFS for my IDE and source control. I am about to take on multiple projects with an offshore vendor and I am worried about managing change. My major concern is manging merges and changes between me and the offshore team. Merging and managing changes to SQL & XML for just one person is bad enough but with multiple developers it seems like a nightmare. Any thoughts on how best to structure development knowing that sometimes there is no way to avoid multiple individuals making changes to the same file?

Answer 1

SSIS, SSAS and SSRS files are not merge-friendly. They are stored in an xml file that is changed drastically - even with minor changes (such as changing a property) - so it becomes really impossible to merge.

So stop thinking about parallel development on one file. You need to think how you can achieve that people are not need to do parallel development on one file. So start with disabling the multiple checkout of a file. You might even want to consider to enable the option to get the latest version on a checkout.

Then start thinking how you can achieve that people can work independent. This is more in the way you structure the work and files:

• Give people their own area they can work on. One SSIS package is only developed by person X at any given moment in time.
• Make smaller files so the change that two people need to work in the same file is small.

I have given feedback to the product team of the imcompatability of BIDS to merge. It is a known issue, but will be hard to tackle. They don't know when it will be possible to really do parallel development on these files. Until then keep away from parallel development.