Creating a New Team Project

When you have everything you need to create the Team Project, your next step is to create it in Visual Studio Team System, which you will be able to do only if you have been granted appropriate permissions on the computer running Team Foundation Server. In fact, many organizations restrict the creation of Team Projects to Visual Studio Team System administrators; in this case, you would likely make a request to create your Team Project by supplying your organization’s Visual Studio Team System administrators with the Team Project information you have already assembled. If the responsibility of creating new Team Projects lies with you, here are the steps you can take to do so:

Note 

This book assumes that you have all of the required software installed on your computer. In most cases, project managers will have only Team Explorer installed, which also provides integration between Visual Studio Team System and Microsoft Office Project and Microsoft Office Excel.

1. Launch Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 by choosing Start | All Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 | Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

   Tip 

   You’re a Project Manager, so why are you being asked to launch Visual Studio? Even though you may not have Visual Studio 2005 installed on your computer, when you install the client software for Team Foundation Server, you will get the Visual Studio 2005 IDE shell. It is within this environment that you will access Team Explorer.

2. Connect to the computer running Team Foundation Server by choosing Tools | Connect To Team Foundation Server. If your computer has already connected to a computer running Team Foundation Server, the name of that computer will appear in the dropdown list of computers in the Connect To Team Foundation Server dialog box. If no computers appear in this list, you will need to add the computer by clicking Server and then in the resulting dialog box, clicking Add. At this point, you will be required to type the name of your computer running Team Foundation Server and some technical details regarding the port number and protocol. You should contact your Team Foundation Server administrator for these details. After you have either added a new computer running Team Foundation Server or selected one from the Server drop-down list, click OK.

3. Launch the New Team Project Wizard by choosing File | New | Team Project. The New Team Project Wizard will appear.

4. Type the name of your new Team Project in the first page of the wizard and then click Next.

5. Select a process template from the Process Template list. Only registered process templates will be listed at this point, and by default, you should see two process templates, MSF for Agile Software Development and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement. Click Next to continue. If you have chosen to perform customizations to an existing process template, the modified process template must be properly installed to Team Foundation Server to appear in this list. Please refer to Chapter 7 for more information on process template customization processes.

6. Provide a name for the project portal. By default, the name of the project portal will be the name of the Team Project you specified in step 1. Take note of the Team Project Portal Site Address that appears at the bottom of the Wizard page. This will be the URL by which team members can access the portal through their browser.

7. Specify Source Control Settings for your new Team Project. Here you will have three options: Create an empty source control folder, Create a new source control branch, or Do not create a source control folder at this time. You should consult with your project team when deciding the best action to take. Click Next to continue.

   Note 

   Your decision about whether to create a source code repository for your new Team Project likely depends on whether you are building new software or extending existing software. If you are working on version 2 of a project, you will likely branch from the existing code base, which must reside within the version control system of Visual Studio Team System. Choose not to create a source code repository if your project will not have any new code associated with it.

8. Confirm the settings for your new Team Project, and when you are satisfied, click Finish to create the Team Project. After the project has been successfully created, the Wizard will display a completion message and provide you with the opportunity to view the project’s associated process guidance Web page.