Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

configurations (debug/release) synchronized, and to track versioning to
determine when projects need to be rebuilt. Try to minimize the number of
cross-solution project references.
• Consider source sharing. Place projects that share the same source in the same
solution.
• Consider team structure. Structure your solutions to make it easy for teams to
work on a set of related projects together.
• Keep a flat project structure so that it is easy for you to group projects into solutions
without needing to make file system or source control folder structure changes.
Single Solution
If you work on a small system, consider using a single Visual Studio solution to contain
all of your projects. This structure simplifies development because all of the code is
available when you open the solution. This strategy also makes it easy to set up
references, because all references are between projects in your solution. You might still
need to use file references to reference third-party assemblies, such as purchased
components, that are outside your solution. Figure 3.1 shows the single solution
approach.
Figure 3.1 Single Solution Approach
The main reasons to choose this structure include:
• You can keep build scripts simple.
• You can easily map dependencies across projects within the solution.
You should use this structure if all developers use the same solution and have the same
set of projects. This could be a problem for large systems where you want to organize
projects by sub-system or feature.
Partitioned Solution
If you work on a large system, consider using multiple solutions, each representing a subsystem
in your application. These solutions can be used by developers in order to work