Release Notes – http://tfsdemosetup.codeplex.com/  | Download | Source Code | Report a Bug | Ideas

In this blog post, I’ll show you how to use the ‘TfsDemoSetup’ application to configure and setup the TFS 2012 task board for a demo in well less than 1 minute

Step 1 – Note what you get with a newly created Team Project

1. Create a new Team Project on TFS Preview

       

2. Click Create Project

       

3. The project creation has completed

      

4. Open the team web access and have a look at the home page

Note – Since I created the project I am the only Team Member

     

A default Team by the name AdventureWorks Team has been created

     

A few sprints have been assigned to the default team but no dates for sprint start and end have been specified

      

A default Area Path for the team is missing

     

Step 2. Download the TFS Demo Setup Console application from Codeplex

1. Navigate to the TFS Demo Setup project on codeplex https://tfsdemosetup.codeplex.com/ 

    

2. Download Instructions and TFSDemo_<version>

    

3. Follow the steps in the Instructions.txt file

    

4. Unzip TFSDemo_<version> and open the target folder.

Two important files in this folder,

• DemoDictionary.xml – This file contains the settings using which the demo environment will be setup
• SetupTfsDemo.exe – This will run the TFS demo environment setup application

   

 

Step 3 – Configure the setup (i.e. team name, members, sprint dates, etc)

1. Open up DemoDictionary.xml

    

2. Walkthrough DemoDictionary.xml

       

    a. Basic Team Details

        <Name> – Specify the name of the team

        <Description> – Specify a description to go with the team

        <SetAsDefaultTeam> – This accepts a value “true/false” when set to true, the newly created team will be set as the default team in the project

        <BacklogIterationPath> – Specify a backlog iteration path for the team

    b. Iterations – The iterations you specify here will be set as the Teams iterations

       <Iterations> – Accepts multiple <Iteration> nodes.

       <Iteration> – This is the most granular level of an Iteration

       <Path> – The path to the sprint, sample values, Release 1\Sprint 1 or Release 2\Sprint 2

       <StartDate> – The sprint start date, this accepts the format yyyy-MM-dd

       <FinishDate> – The sprint finish date, this accepts the format yyyy-MM-dd

    c. Team Members – Team Members that need to be added to the newly created team will be added under this section

        <TeamMembers> – Accepts multiple <TeamMember> nodes.

        <TeamMember> – This is the most granular level of a Team Member

        <User> – This accepts the username, if you are running this against TFSPreview then the live id of the user will need to be passed. If you are running this against TFS Server then the user id i.e. Domain\UserName will need to be passed

         <Team> – Specify the name of the team that you want the user to be assigned to.

    d. WorkItems – This section will allow you to add work items (product backlog Items and linked tasks) to the current sprint of the team

        <WorkItems> – Accepts multiple <WorkItem> nodes.

        <WorkItem> – Accepts one <ProductBacklogItem> and multiple <Task> nodes

        <ProductBacklogItem> – Used to create a Product Backlog Item type work item

              <Title> – The title of the Product Backlog Item

              <Description> – The description of the Product Backlog Type Work Item

              <AssignedTo> – Used to assign the work item to a team member. The team member name or email address can be passed.

              <Effort> – The total effort required to complete the Product Backlog Item

        <Task> – Used to create a linked task to the Product Backlog type work item

              <Title> – The title of the task type work item

              <Description> – The description of the Task Type Work Item

              <AssignedTo> – Used to assign the work item to a team member. The team member name or email address can be passed.

              <RemainingWork> – The remaining effort to complete the task type work item

Step 4 – Setup the demo environment against the newly created Team Project

1. Run SetupTfsDemo.exe

  

2. Enter Y or y on the prompt to continue setting up TFS Demo setup.

   

3. Select the newly created Team project, for this blogpost I had created the Team Project – AdventureWorks, so that is what I’ll select in the Connect to TFS Server pop up

  

3. Click Connect and follow the messages that are written to the console application

   

 

Step 5 – Validate that the Demo environment is set up as per the configuration

1. The team web access is all lit up You have a Sprint, a burn down chart, team members…

  

2. The team Demo has been added and has been set up as the default team

  

3. The Sprint Backlog Iteration path, Sprints and Sprint start and finish dates have been set

  

4. The default area path has been setup

  

5. Taskboard – Backlog items view

  

6. Taskboard – Team members view

  

 

Step 6 – Exception Handling!

1. This solution has been tested against TFS 2012 Service/Server for the Scrum 2.1 process template.

2. You are likely to run into an exception if you mess up the config file

3. If the team already exists and you run the console app to set up the team (with the same name) you will run into exceptions.

Please remember this is just an alpha release, if you have any feedback please leave a comment!

Didn’t I say that it would just take 1 minute, Enjoy!