Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

How to Set Up Check-in Policies to Ensure That Developers Associate
Work Items with Check-ins
Configure the out-of-box Work Item check-in policy, so that developers are forced to
associate work items with a check-in. This association helps maintain traceability
between the changes made to the source code and the work items tracking bugs and tasks.
To configure the work item check-in policy to force developers to associate check-ins
with a work item
1. In Team Explorer, right-click your team project, select Team Project Settings, and
then click Source Control.
2. Click the Check-in Policy tab.
3. Click Add and then select and configure the Work Item check-in policy.
Additional Resources
• For more information about creating and using a custom check-in policy, see “How
To – Step Through Creating Custom Check-in Policies for TFS” in this guide.
• To learn how to customize a check-in policy, see “Walkthrough: Customizing Checkin
Policies and Notes” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/enus/library/ms181281(VS.80).aspx
How to Set Up Check-in Policies to Enforce Coding Standards
The code analysis check-in policies that ship with Team Foundation Server enable you to
automatically run static code analysis on code as it is checked in, to ensure that the
relevant rules are satisfied. You can fine-tune the code analysis policy to check many
different rules. For example, you can check rules governing design, interoperability,
maintainability, mobility, naming conventions, reliability, and more.
To enforce a code analysis check-in policy for a team project
1. In Team Explorer, right-click your team project, point to Team Project Settings, and
then click Source Control.
2. Click the Check-in Policy tab and then click Add.
3. In the Add Check-in Policy dialog box, select Code Analysis and then click OK.
4. In the Code Analysis Policy Editor, select either Enforce C/C++ Code Analysis
(/analyze) or Enforce Code Analysis For Managed Code. Select both if your
project contains a combination of managed and unmanaged code.
5. If you select manage code analysis, configure your required rule settings for managed
code analysis based on your required coding standards. This determines precisely
which rules are enforced.
You can also create a custom check-in policy to perform checks that are not available by
default. For example, you can disallow code patterns such as banned API calls, or you
can write a policy to enforce your team’s specific coding style guidelines, such as where
braces should be positioned within your source code.