TFS Tips & Best Practices

1. © 2012 MPS Partners.. All rights reserved.
MPS Partners
August 15, 2013
TFS Tips & Best Practices

2. 2
Agenda
• What is TFS?
• What to Check-In
• The Right Way to Check-In
• Using Shelvesets
• Things to watch out for
• Demo

3. What is TFS (Short Answer)?
• Team Foundation Server
• Much more than just source control
– Integrated Testing via Microsoft Test Manager
– Team Web Access
– Integration with SharePoint
– Reporting (SSRS)
• Variety of clients
– Integrated in Visual Studio
– Microsoft Test Manager
– Excel
– 3rd Party IDE Plugins
• Eclipse
• Xcode (Apple)
• Etc.

4. 4
What to check in?
• Solution Files
– Solution
– Projects
• Nuget Packages
• Scripts
– PowerShell
– Batch Files
– SQL
• Documentation
– Deployment Instructions
– Technical Details
– Etc.

5. 5
The right way to check in code
• Get Latest before checking in!
• Get Latest before checking in again!
– More important with Visual Studio 2010
• Conflict Resolution
• Show Changes
– Show All Changes
– Show Solution Changes
• Check In Working Code
• Run UnitTests
– If Practical

6. 6
Using Shelvesets
• Why create a shelveset
– Interruption
– Collaboration
– Code Review
• Visual Studio Premium and up has a Code Review feature
– Private Build
– Backup
– Handoff
• See MSDN topic “Suspend Your Work and Manage your Shelvesets”
– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181403.aspx

7. 7
Things to watch out for
• Ignoring Solution (*.sln) and Project (*.csproj, etc.) Files
• Not Checking in NuGet packages
• DLLs in general
• Checking in app.config/web.config files with local settings
• Adding Solutions/Projects to source control manually
• Lazy Conflict Resolution
– Do not always keep local copy
– Be cautious of auto-merge
• Not including comments on your check-ins
• If you’re not sure Ask for Help