Walkthrough: Creating a New Team Project

This walkthrough shows you how to use Team Explorer to create a team project named Adventure Works.

This walkthrough includes the following tasks:

• Creating a team project that uses the process template MSF for Agile Software Development.

• Configuring project area and iteration settings for a team project.

• Opening the project checklist.

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you need:

• Team Explorer installed on your computer.

• Permissions on a Team Foundation Server to create a new team project as described in the following section.

Required Permissions

To perform this walkthrough, you must be a member of the Team Foundation Administrators security group or have the server-level View server-level information and Create new projects permissions set to Allow. Additionally, your user account must be a member of the Windows SharePoint Services Administrator role and a member of the SQL Server Reporting Services Content Manager role. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Creating a Team Project

Software projects in Team Foundation are called team projects and they are very different from the software projects (.csprj or .vbproj) in Visual Studio. The team project is the central point for sharing all team activities necessary to create a specific software technology or product. The New Team Project Wizard creates several different key components of the new team project. It creates a team project Web site that contains document templates and predefined reports. It creates a work item database for tracking all effort on the project. It installs a process template that determines rules, policies, security groups, and queries for all work effort. Finally, it creates a source code branch for version control.

You can use a Team Foundation Server to create team projects. Therefore, you must connect to a Team Foundation Server. For more information, see How to: Connect to Team Foundation Server

After you have connected, you can create a team project.

To create a team project

1. On the File menu, click New Team Project.

   The New Team Project wizard appears.

   Note

   If you are not using the Project Management, Visual Basic Development, or Web Development environment settings, then on the File menu, point to New and click Team Project.

2. On the Specify the Team Project Settings page, type AdventureWorks in the What is the name of the team project? box, and click Next.

3. On the Select a Process Template page, in the Which process template should be used to create the team project? drop-down list, select MSF for Agile Software Development - v4.2, and then click Next.

   Team Explorer includes process templates based on the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). By default, two process templates are available: MSF for Agile Software Development - v4.2, and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement - v4.2. Your team or organization may provide additional process templates or may remove the MSF templates.

   You can see a description for each process template by selecting the template and reading the text in the The following describes the process template in more detail: box.

4. On the Specify the Setting for the Project Portal page, keep the default title, and type Adventure Works Sample Team Project in the What is the description of the team project portal? box.

   The project portal is a team Web site (using Windows SharePoint Services) that stores and versions team project-related documents. The address of the project portal is displayed in the Team project portal site address box.

   Click Next.

5. On the Specify the Source Control Settings page, keep the default values and click Next.

6. On the Confirm the Team Project Settings page, click Finish.

   The New Team Project wizard creates your new team project.

   Note

   It may take several minutes for the wizard to finish.

7. On the Team Project Created page, click Close.

   Because the check box for Launch the process guidance for more information about running the team project is the default selection, the wizard opens the overview page for the process guidance for MSF for Agile Software Development.

   The AdventureWorks team project displays in Team Explorer. Take a moment to explore the team project hierarchy by expanding the nodes. There are several top-level nodes:

   • Work Items   This node enables you to add work items and to create and view queries against the work item database.

   • Documents   This node provides access to documents such as the process guidance, functional specifications, and risk assessments that are stored on the project portal.

   • Reports   This node provides access to reports that contain metrics for the team project.

   • Team Builds   This node provides access to the builds of your team project.

   • Source Control   This node provides access to the team project source control management hierarchy.

Configuring Team Project Settings

After you create a team project, you must configure settings such as groups, permissions, areas and iterations, build configurations, and source control. You can modify team project settings from the Team menu or Team Explorer.

In this walkthrough, you will modify the team project classifications. The classifications are used to categorize work items by project areas and iterations. The project structure is a hierarchy of nodes representing feature areas or teams. An iteration is a period of development effort dedicated to achieving a specific milestone.

In this walkthrough, you will modify the team project structure to map to the organization structure of Adventure Works. There is a Kiosk team that will handle the work of creating software for in-store kiosks that customers can use to order or receive products. There is also a Web team working on an Internet Web site. Modifying the project structure to match the organization will enable you to map work items to the teams that are working on them. You can then use the categories to classify, query, and report on work items.

To modify the team project structure

1. In Team Explorer, click the AdventureWorks team project.

2. On the Team menu, point to Team Project Settings, and then click Areas and Iterations.

3. In the Areas and Iterations dialog box, be sure that the Area tab is selected.

4. Click the Add a child node toolbar button.

5. Right-click the new node, click Rename, and then in the edit box type Kiosk.

6. Click the Area node.

7. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 to create an additional area named Web.

Next, modify the team project to specify the iterations that are planned. In this walkthrough scenario, there are three milestones. Each milestone marks the end of an iteration: M1 Prototype, M2 Beta, and M3 Release.

To modify the team project iterations

1. In the Areas and Iterations dialog box, click the Iteration tab.

   Note

   The MSF for Agile Software development template includes three predefined iterations. For this procedure, you can delete those iterations, rename them instead of creating new ones, or just leave them unchanged.

2. Click the Add a child node toolbar button.

3. Right-click the new node, click Rename, and then in the edit box type M1 Prototype.

4. Click the Iteration node.

5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 to create two additional items named M2 Beta, and M3 Release.

6. Click Close.

Opening the Project Checklist

Finally, open the project checklist and review the initial set of tasks created by the MSF for Agile Software Development template. The checklist provides you a sequence of tasks to follow to get started on your project.

To open the project checklist

1. In Team Explorer, expand the AdventureWorks node, expand the Documents node, and then expand the Project Management node.

2. Right-click Project checklist.xls, and click Open.

3. In the File Download dialog box, click OK.

   The project checklist opens as a spreadsheet inside Microsoft Excel.

4. Review the list of tasks.

5. Close the checklist.

Next Steps

Now that you have created a team project, you need to enable your team members to start work in the team project. Consider following these additional steps:

• Set up groups and permissions for the team. For more information, see Walkthrough: Setting up Groups and Permissions.

• Set up permissions for project leads, contributors, and readers on your group. For more information see the following topics.

  • How to: Set Team Foundation Server Project Lead Permissions.

  • How to: Set Team Foundation Server Contributor Permissions.

  • How to: Set Team Foundation Server Reader Permissions.

• Assign and track work by creating work items. For more information, see Walkthrough: Tracking Work Items.

• Configure additional team project settings. For more information, see Walkthrough: Customizing Check-In Policies and Notes.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Joining a Team Project

Concepts

Team Foundation Process Guidance