Professional Team Foundation Server

7.4. Configuring Project Areas and Iterations

One of the nice things about Team Projects is the concept of project areas and iterations. You can use these two hierarchies to help organize your work items and other information in the Team Project. A process template will usually define a base hierarchy for you, which you can then customize to fit the project. Once you have created your Team Project, you should configure the areas and iterations for the project, so team members can assign work items appropriately.

You can think of a project area as a logical division of your project, a breakdown of the components and features to include in the project. For example, you could look at your project from an architecture standpoint, and have a GUI area, a business object area, and a data access area. You can also have subsections as well, so in each area you can break things down into as much detail as you like. You can then use this structure to group your work items logically. This structure can be modified as the project progresses and changes.

The project iterations are the different lifecycle events into which the project can be divided. For example, if you were utilizing the classic waterfall model, you would have an iteration each for requirements gathering, design, development, testing, and deployment. Depending on the lifecycle model you will be following, you may have more or less iterations, or subcategories of iterations. As with the project areas, you can modify the iterations ...