Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

Chapter 6 - Managing Source Control Dependencies in Visual
Studio Team System
Objectives
• Manage source control dependencies in Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System.
• Reference projects and assemblies from different solutions in the same team project.
• Reference projects and assemblies from other team projects.
• Reference third-party assemblies.
• Manage Web service references in a team environment.
• Manage database references in a team environment.
Overview
This chapter explains how you should handle source control dependencies both within
and across Visual Studio solutions. A consistent approach to managing dependencies in a
team environment is necessary in order to reduce build instability and ongoing source
control maintenance costs.
Dependencies include other projects, external assemblies, Web services, and databases.
Dependencies inevitably change over time and as a result they impact the build process
and the build order of your application. A good dependency management approach
improves the integration process while making builds as seamless as possible.
How to Use This Chapter
Use this chapter to learn about managing dependencies in a team environment. You can
either read this chapter from start to finish or read the section that addresses your specific
dependency management requirement. Use the “Scenarios and Solutions” section to
understand the general dependency management scenarios in a team environment. This
section serves as a jumping-off point to following sections that describe each dependency
scenario in detail.
• Use the “Referencing Projects” section to learn how to manage dependencies on
other projects both inside and outside of your current team project.
• Use the “Referencing Third-Party Assemblies” section to learn how to manage
dependencies on third-party assemblies for which you do not own the source.
• Use the “Referencing Web Services” section to learn how to reference shared Web
services in a team environment.
• Use the “Referencing Databases” section to learn how to reference and connect to
shared databases in a team environment.
Scenarios and Solutions
The following scenarios are common when managing dependencies: