Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

Chapter 10 - Large Project Considerations
Objectives
• Understand large project workflow in Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System
Team Foundation Server (TFS).
• Learn how to optimize source control and builds for large teams.
• Learn how source control is impacted by large projects.
• Learn how your branching and merging strategy may need to change if you are
involved in a large project.
• Learn how build strategy is influenced by large projects.
Overview
This chapter describes additional considerations for large-scale development efforts with
TFS. A large project typically differs from a smaller project in the following ways:
• They require a more complex branching and merging structure.
• They must deal with a greater number of dependencies across solutions and team
projects.
• They are more likely to maintain multiple builds for components and teams.
For example, in a large project you might need to support multiple branches in order to
support the parallel development efforts of multiple feature teams. In this scenario, you
are likely to need to manage dependencies across solutions and team projects and to share
common Web services and databases. Each sub-team may need to maintain its own build
server and output builds to a specific drop point.
How to Use This Chapter
Use this chapter if you need to manage, support or participate in large-scale development
project. Chapters 3, 5, and 7 also provide specific “Large Project Considerations”
sections. Use this chapter to review all of the large project considerations in a single
place.
Logical Workflow for Large Projects
Figure 10.1 outlines a common scenario of multiple sub-teams working together to
produce a complex application.