Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

parts of the system without having to load all code across all projects. You should design
your solution structure so that any projects that have dependencies are grouped together.
This enables you to use project references rather than file references. Consider creating a
master solution file that contains all of the projects, if you want to use this to build the
entire application.
Note: If you are building with Team Build (which relies upon MSBuild), it is possible to
create solution structures that do not include all referenced projects. As long as the entire
solution has been built first, generating the binary output from each solution, MSBuild
will be able to follow project references outside the bounds of your solution and build
successfully. Solutions created in this way will not build from the Visual Studio build
command, but will only work with Team Build and MSBuild.
Additional Resources
• For more information, see “Chapter 3 – Structuring Projects and Solutions in Source
Control” in this guide.
Use a Multiple-Solution Strategy if You Are Working on a Very Large
Team Project That Requires Many Dozens of Independent Sub-Projects
If you work on a very large solution requiring many dozens of projects, you may run up
against solution scalability limits. In this scenario, break your application into multiple
solutions but do not create a master solution for the entire application because all
references inside each solution are project references. References to projects outside of
each solution (for example, to third-party libraries or projects in another sub-solution) are
file references. This means that there can be no “master” solution. Instead, a script must
be used that understands the order in which the solutions must be built. One of the
maintenance tasks associated with a multiple-solution structure is ensuring that
developers do not inadvertently create circular references between solutions. This
structure requires complex build scripts and explicit mapping of dependency
relationships. In this structure, it is not possible to build the application in its entirety
within Visual Studio. Instead, you can use TFS Team Build or MSBuild directly.
Additional Resources
• For more information, see “Chapter 3 – Structuring Projects and Solutions in Source
Control” in this guide.
Scheduled Builds
• Use a scheduled build to produce regular builds.
Use a Scheduled Build to Produce Regular Builds
You should use a scheduled build to produce builds at regular, predictable intervals.
In general, builds provided to test teams and others need to be reliable and should be
made available at a fixed time frequency, so that feedback on the build can be collected
in a timely fashion.