Team System: Using process templates to simplify the project

This article uses the following techniques:

Visual Studio team Foundation Server 2008

You can now collect and track all of the work and projects within your team project in the teams Foundation Server (TFS). A team project is simply a storage container for storing and dividing all the projects tracked and used during development projects. Use the New Team Project Wizard in Foundation Client (TFC) to help you collect and track.

This wizard is very simple. Click "File" | " New team project launches the wizard. After you open, you must provide the name of the team project. Click Next to use the combo box to select the Process method template. Click Next again and add a description, which will be displayed on the portal's home page by SharePoint. Once again, click Next, and you have the option to determine how versioning is defined. You can choose to create new trunks, create new trunks by branching from existing trunks, or choose not to create new trunks. After you've made your decision, click Finish, and after a few minutes, you'll get a new team project that you can use at any time.

If it is just that simple, then this article should be a very short article. My editors are most likely to refuse to pay, and even reconsider my position in the column. But it's not as simple as it says. In fact, when using Visual Studio team System (VSTS), the development project has a good start, and selecting the Process Template's wizard page plays a key role. This is because the process template defines the initial structure and content of the team project.

Process Template

As mentioned earlier, you can centrally manage all projects for your team through a team project. Of course, you store version-controlled projects (such as source files) in your team project. You also manage and store all work items and work item queries. You store documents in SharePoint document libraries, which are part of the team project portal. Finally, run reports against the data warehouse to track the team's work.

A process template defines the default project templates that are included in a team project. Specifically, it defines the types of work items that you can use, also defines the user interface and structure of the SharePoint site, and the default documents-Files and templates that are loaded into the document library. It also provides default reporting for the Reporting Service site and defines default security groups, zones, iterations, and versioning settings. Finally, the process template provides a descriptive guide as part of a SharePoint site.

When you first install TFS, you will find that it provides two process templates. In the 2008 release of TFS, their official names are the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software Development (MSF Agile) and the MSF for CMMI Process Improvement (MSF CMMI).

MSF facilitates the iterative development process with strong customer interaction. The current version of MSF is version 4.0 and affects the TFS process guide, although it has its own rich set of MSF guidance resources. You can further find useful information in the Microsoft Solutions Framework Essentials (Microsoft press,2006) book written by Michael Turner.

The explanatory guides included in the Microsoft process template delve into the ways to run development projects and build workflows. This guide focuses on the development process, not the mechanism of Visual Studio or TFS. You can access the guide through the process Guidance link on the SharePoint Portal home page of your team project. For MSF Agile and MSF CMMI, this guide can also be downloaded separately from Microsoft.