Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

How To: Structure Your Source Control Folders in Team
Foundation Server
Applies To
• Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Foundation Server (TFS)
• Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (VSTS)
Summary
This How To article walks you through the process of structuring your folders in TFS.
The recommendations in this article were created using lessons learned in practice by
Microsoft teams as well as Microsoft customers in the field. The folder structure
presented here is a starting point; more important than the structure is the rationale behind
it. Use the rationale to help evaluate an appropriate folder structure and folder-naming
convention for your own scenario.
Contents
• Objectives
• Overview
• Summary of Steps
• Step 1 – Create a Workspace Mapping
• Step 2 – Create Your Main Folder
• Step 3 – Create Folders for Your Project Artifacts
• Step 4 – Add Your Solution to Your Source Tree
• Step 5 – Create a Branched Development Folder for Isolation (Optional)
• Step 6 – Create a Releases Folder for Release Builds Isolation (Optional)
• Additional Resources
Objectives
• Learn how to create a workspace mapping.
• Learn how to structure and name your source control folders.
• Learn how branching effects your source structure.
Overview
This How To article shows you how to build an appropriate source control folder
structure that you can use with most common project types. The folder structure
presented in this article uses three top level folders:
• Main. This is the main root folder that acts as a container folder for your main source
tree, together with accompanying project artifacts such as design documentation,
scripts, and test cases. The Main folder also contains your Visual Studio Solution
(.sln) files.