Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

Nightly Builds
This is the most common scheduled build frequency because it gives your test and
development team a new build every morning incorporating the changes from the
previous day, ready to be tested.
Weekly Builds
If you are working on a large, complex project, where the build time can last for days,
you should opt for weekly builds. This ensures that your test team has a build at the start
of each week incorporating the changes from the previous week, ready to be tested.
Scheduled Build in Team Foundation Server
The Team Build feature in TFS does not support scheduled builds from the user interface.
Instead, you can use the Microsoft Windows® Task Scheduler to run the TFSBuild
command utility to start builds at predetermined time.
Use the following steps to create a scheduled build:
1. Create a TFSBuild command line.
TfsBuild start
2. Place the command line in a batch file. Note that you must specify the full path to
the TFSBuild.exe file so that it can run from windows command prompt. An
example of the command used in the batch file is shown here:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\TFSBuild" start
3. Create a Windows Scheduled Task that runs the batch file at your desired interval.
For more information see “How To: Set Up a Scheduled Build in Visual Studio Team
Foundation Server.”
Summary
Use a scheduled build to produce consistent builds that you can give to your test team or
other build consumers who can provide feedback on the quality of the build. Team
Foundation Server does not support scheduled builds from its user interface. Instead you
can use the Windows Task Scheduler to run the TFSBuild command utility to start your
builds at a predetermined time.
You can configure scheduled builds to run hourly, daily, weekly, or at any time interval
that suits the requirements of your project.