Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

• Read the “Customizing Process Guidance” section. To learn how to customize the
existing process templates to better suit your team’s needs.
MSF Agile and MSF CMMI Process Templates
Team Foundation Server comes with two process templates: MSF Agile and MSF CMMI. These
two process templates are aimed at two different styles of software development. You should use
MSF Agile if you are employing an agile methodology to build your software. MSF Agile
encourages test-driven development and other agile practices. You should use MSF CMMI if
you are following the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model®
Integration methodology. This is a formal process aimed at improving existing development
processes.
The templates differ in what they provide. For example, they create different types of default
reports and work item types. These templates can easily be edited to suit your project’s needs.
Customizing Process Guidance
The project you are creating may not fit the process templates provided with VSTS. You might
need a different work item type or you are using an entirely different process methodology. For
example, if you are using SCRUM there is no mention of sprints in the current process template.
In this case you need to amend or replace the existing process template to fit the methodology
your team uses.
Process Template Architecture
There are three key pieces to the process template architecture:
• Process template plug-ins
• XML process definition files
• New Team Project Wizard
Process Template Plug-ins
Process template plug-ins are components that run when a new team project is created. A plug-in
sets up required files and configures data for a specific area of the template. The following plugins
are available out-of-box with TFS.
• Classification – Defines a team project’s initial iteration and areas.
• Groups and Permissions – Defines a team project’s initial security groups and their
permissions.
• Windows SharePoint Services – Defines the project portal for the team based on a
Microsoft Windows SharePoint® site template. It also defines template files and process
guidance.
• Work Item Tracking – Defines a team project's initial work item types, queries, and work
item instances.
• Reports – Defines a team project's initial reports and sets up the report site.
• Version Control –Defines a team project's initial version control security permissions, and
check-in notes.