TFS 2013 Seperate process templates for different teams in the same team project.

Question

Hello

We have one tfs 2013 team project where all the code is and all PBI's and under it we have many teams (about 9-10 teams). Most teams are using scrum and the base process template is a scrum template (old one), but at least 2 teams want to use kanban and a kanban process template.

Note that a PBI that starts in a scrum team might flow over to a kanban team in some situations.

How can we achieve this?
Is there any process template that supports both scrum and kanban ... which is basicly just "agile"?
And can we set up many Backlogs, one for the scrum teams and one for each of the kanban teams (three backlogs)?

And one final thing. How can I see the current process template set on the team project?

Btw, I'm new to TFS so please explain like I'm a 3year old :)
But I know scrum and kanban.

Regards,
Kristjan

Answer 1

hi Kristjan,

you can't use different process template within a single TFS Team Project.

please read this overview Organize your server with team project collections and Work with team project artifacts, choose a process template to get an impression what is possible

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Answer 2

Thank you Daniel.

That's what I suspected about using different templates in one team project.
The "Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 2013" template will work for both scrum and kanban.

But how about having many backlogs?
Can I use Areas for that ... or maybe Features?
It looks complicated.

Regards,
Kristjan

Answer 3

Hi Kristjan,

You might need to use Agile portfolio management for your Agile team project. Check this page for more details.

Best regards,

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Answer 4

Thanks Charles.

This looks like what we need.

Then there is only one question left from that original post of mine.
"And one final thing. How can I see the current process template set on the team project?"

Anyone have an answer to that?

Regards,
Kristjan

Answer 5

The easiest way is to learn about the TFS process template main distinctions, and do a quick look for the work items that define which is which.

Each team project is created with some XML configuration named after the original template. However after creation, you could only see this by going against the original SharePoint site template. And once you apply a template to a team project, project administrators can change it so even though SharePoint remains the same, it does not match the original anymore.  

You could use the feature "Work Item Configuration - Compare" from Team Project Manager in Codeplex to find out how much the current process template for a team project compares with an original unmodified template.

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Clementino de Mendonça ALM Ranger

Answer 6

How does SharePoint come into this, I don't understand that part?

So what you are saying is that there is no (simple) way to see what process template is being used in the TFS team project unless you open a work item and compare it to the process templates in the path you gave.

Am I understanding you correctly?

Regards,
Kristan

Answer 7

For older templates there was some sort of "signature" in the files used by the SharePoint site that were the only way we could figure it out, after extensive modification, which one was the original. For newer ones, it might be that there are other more rational ways of doing it. I have not yet had a chance to verify in code what Team Project Manager does to compare the templates, but I think it traverses the process template xml/folders and compare each item with what is there on the server team project, which is what I used to do manually.

The key term here is "template": process templates are uploaded to a collection level storage. From there they are used to define new team projects at their inception.

After the team project is created with a process template, its work item definitions are independent of any other team project or collection templates, therefore they can be modified independently.

The only way I have seen to manage this centrally was to centralize all update changes through a common process, and do mandatory process template elements refreshes every time something changes, therefore overwriting ad hoc changes made by project administrators.

Of course you need to announce and enforce this policy, but if you don't, you will end up with dozens of variants of the same template (once I had to "harmonize" 10 variants of the same Bug work item, all from the same original template).

Hence why Team Project Manager will sometimes give you 90% or 60% when comparing some customized team project templates with the out of box or other customized by collection ones. That said, some teams have added a custom field just to hold the original version, even if it gets modified later at the team project level. 

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Clementino de Mendonça ALM Ranger

Answer 8

Ok, now its getting clearer.

Thanks for the explanation.

Regards,
Kristjan