Set and enforce quality gates
TFS 2017 | TFS 2015 | TFS 2013
Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2017 | Visual Studio 2015 | Visual Studio 2013
Check-in policies are a mechanism for enforcing development practices across your development team. Check-in notes are a communication mechanism for collecting data from team members during the check-in process. Both of these are customizable to meet the needs of a team. This section explains the purpose of these items and also describes how to configure them.
Check-in policies
Check-in policies are used to enforce mandatory software development practices. Policy is enforced during the check-in process in the Check In and Pending Changes windows. If a user attempts to perform a check-in, in violation of a policy, their check-in is blocked. If necessary, these policies may be overridden. For more information, see Check in your work to the team's codebase.
Policies are configured and established in the Source Control Settings window. A sample policy constraint is "You must associate your changes with one or more work items." This policy prevents users from submitting changes without having a specific bug or feature they are working on.
When policies are violated, they are presented to the user during the source control check-in process in the Check In and Pending Changes window. For more information, see Using the Check In and Pending Changes Windows.
Check-in notes
Check-in notes are used for capturing specific pieces of information during the check-in process by prompting the user for specific data. Check-in notes can be configured and made mandatory in the Source Control Settings window. The information archived in check-in notes can be vital when viewing the details of a Working with Changesets. For more information, see Viewing Historical Data about an Item.
Check-in notes are presented to the user during the source control check-in process in the Check In and Pending Changes windows. For more information, see Using the Check In and Pending Changes Windows.