Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

• Development – Container for isolation development branches
o Feature A
• Source
o Feature B
• Source
• Main – Main integration build branch
o Source
o Other asset folders
• Releases– Container for Release branches
o Release 1
• Source
o Release 2 – Release currently locked down
• Source
In this case, active development is occurring in the Feature branches and you have two
merge frequency decisions to make:
1. How often should feature teams merge changes from the Main branch into their
Feature branch?
2. How often should feature teams merge their changes into the Main branch?
The following merge frequency is a proven strategy to reduce breaking changes and
reduce migration times:
1. Feature teams should merge their changes into the Main branch as soon as the
feature is complete.
2. Feature teams should merge changes from the Main on a regular basis to ensure
integration compatibility of their features when they are complete. Ideally, you
should merge once per day, and not go more than two days between merges.
Additional Resources
• To learn how to merge files and folders, see “How to: Merge Files and Folders” at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181428(VS.80).aspx
Check-in and Check-in Policies
• What is a changeset?
• What is a check-in policy?
• When and how can I override a check-in policy?
• How do I enforce a policy?
• How do I use a check-in verification system?
• If I modify file names or delete files on the disk, does version control get out of
sync?
• How does automatic conflict resolution work?
• How do I resolve conflicts manually?
• How do I avoid conflicts?