Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

To branch from Source Control Explorer, right-click the top-level folder containing your
project source, click Branch, and then specify a target folder location with a folder name
to indicate the purpose of the branch; for example, MyProject_Release1.0_Branch.
To branch from the command line, use the tf branch command from a Visual Studio
2005 Command Prompt; for example:
tf branch C:\MyProject $/MyProject_Release1.0_Branch
Use branches only when you need to provide isolation while you do parallel
development. When using branches you will have to eventually merge the changes to the
main branch and as merging incurs overhead and requires you to manage conflicts, do not
branch unless you need the file isolation that branching provides. You can label a build
and branch later if needed.
Additional Resources
• For an introduction to branching and merging, see “Branching and Merging Primer”
at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730834(VS.80).aspx
• For more information about branching, see “How to: Branch Files and Folders” at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181425(VS.80).aspx
• For more information about merging, see “How to: Merge Files and Folders” at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181428(VS.80).aspx
• For additional descriptions of how to branch and merge in Visual Studio 2005, see
“Branching and Merging Team Foundation Source Control” at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181423(VS.80).aspx
How to Plan Your Branching Structure
Branches are a mechanism to enable isolation; they are used to allow multiple developers
to work on the same files in isolation. To plan your branching approach, evaluate
common branching scenarios and choose a strategy based on team size, composition,
release schedule, and build stability requirements.
Common branch scenarios include:
• Release – Branch to stabilize code you want to release. You can branch before
release, avoiding the need to lock down the main branch.
• Maintenance – Branch to maintain a previously released build.
• Feature – Branch to isolate feature development that might make the rest of the
project unstable.
• Team – Branch to isolate sub-teams so that they can work without being subject
to breaking changes, or that they can work towards unique milestones. These are
very similar to feature branches.
Do not branch unless it becomes necessary for your development team. Branching
introduces additional source tree maintenance and merging tasks. Most development
teams working on short release cycles (e.g., Line-of-Business [LOB] applications) will