Add Features Using a Manual Update Process

After you upgrade to Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012, you can update team projects created in earlier versions of Team Foundation Server (TFS) to use the new features for managing the application lifecycle. You should upgrade team projects by using the Configure Features wizard, as described in Update an Upgraded Team Project to Access New Features. However, if the wizard is unable to add one or more features, you can add them manually.

For more information about the new features, see What's New in Planning and Tracking.

To access all new features, you must add the definitions of new work item types, categories, and process configuration. These definitions are included in each of the latest versions of the process templates on the upgraded Team Foundation Server.

Important

The process configuration files provided in the latest version of process templates installed with the upgrade of TFS support the work item types defined for version 5.0 of the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) process templates, and for Visual Studio Scrum 1.0. If you have customized the type definitions provided with these process templates, you may need to modify the definition files for process configuration before you import them. In particular, if you have made changes to the workflow for those types that track backlog items, bugs, or tasks, you may need to modify the process configuration files prior to importing them. For more information, see Customize the Backlog and Board Pages Using Process Configuration.

In this topic

  1. Download the latest files from a Microsoft process template

  2. Import definitions for new work types

  3. (Agile only) Update the workflow for User Story and Task

  4. Import definitions for new categories

  5. Import process configuration files

  6. Add the Storyboard tab to the backlog item

  7. Verify availability of the new features

Important

The procedures in this topic assume that you are updating a team project that was either created from a process template provided with the previous version of Team Foundation Server, or was updated to include the new artifacts that were made available in that version. Specifically, your team project must include the type definitions of Test Case and Shared Steps. If either of these is missing, see Update a Team Project Based on an MSF v4.2 Process Template.

Requirements

  • To download and upload process templates, you must be a member of the Project Collection Administrators or Team Foundation Administrators groups. If the necessary security permissions are set explicitly, your Manage process template permission for the team project collection must be set to Allow.

  • To run the witadmin command-line tool, you must be a member of one of the following groups: Team Foundation Administrators, Project Collection Administrators, or Project Administrators group for the team project. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

  • To verify updates made to the Backlog page, your Team Web Access Permissions must be set to Full. Additional licensing requirements may apply. For more information, see Features Accessed Through Web Permissions.

  • To access My Work, you must have Visual Studio Premium or Visual Studio Ultimate installed. The My Work page in Team Explorer allows developers to manage their work in progress, suspend and resume work, and request code reviews. See Day in the Life of an ALM Developer: Write New Code for a User Story.

Note

You can perform some of the procedures described below using Process Editor, a power tool add-in for Visual Studio which you can download and install. Located under the Tools menu, Process Editor provides a graphical user interface for customizing objects used to track work items in Team Foundation Server. You can use this tool to import and export work item types and modify their definitions. For more information, see the following page on the Microsoft website: Team Foundation Server Power Tools.

1. Download the latest files from a Microsoft process template

Important

To get access to the latest versions of the default process templates, install the latest quarterly update for Team Foundation Server. Significant updates were made to the workflow for several work item types in the latest quarterly update. These changes support backward transitions so that when you inadvertently drag a work item on the Kanban board or the task board to a resolved or closed state, you can drag it back to an earlier workflow state.

You can obtain the upgrade from the Microsoft download site: Quarterly Update for Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012.

  1. On a computer where Visual Studio or Team Explorer is installed, download the latest version of the Microsoft process template used to create your team project. See Download the Latest Version of the Process Templates.

  2. Extract the files to a local folder. For more information, see Working with Process Template Files.

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2. Import definitions for new work types

You must import the definition files of four new types of work items: FeedbackRequest, FeedbackResponse, CodeReviewRequest, and CodeReviewResponse.

  1. Open a Command Prompt window where either Visual Studio or Team Explorer is installed and enter:

    cd %programfiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE
    

    On a 64-bit edition of Windows, replace %programfiles% with %programfiles(x86)%.

  2. Enter the following four commands, one at a time, substituting your data for the arguments that are shown, and then choose Enter.

    witadmin importwitd /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /f:"DirectoryPath\FeedbackRequest.xml"
    witadmin importwitd /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /f:"DirectoryPath\FeedbackResponse.xml"
    witadmin importwitd /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /f:"DirectoryPath\CodeReviewRequest.xml
    witadmin importwitd /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /f:"DirectoryPath\CodeReviewResponse.xml"
    

    For CollectionURL specify the URL of a team project collection and for ProjectName specify the name of a team project defined within the collection. You must specify the URL in the following format: **http://**ServerName:Port/VirtualDirectoryName/CollectionName, for example: http://srvalm:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection.

    For DirectoryPath, specify the path to the TypeDefinitions folder that holds the process template that you downloaded. The directory path must follow this structure: Drive:\MSFTemplateFolder\WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions.

    The following example shows how to import the FeedbackRequest file:

    witadmin importwitd /collection:"http://MyServer:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection"/p:MyProject /f:"C:\MyTemplates\WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\FeedbackRequest.xml"

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3. (Agile only) Update the workflow of User Story and Task

Version 6.0 of the MSF Agile process template adds New and Removed states to the User Story and Task workflows. These states support transitioning work items from a New state to an Active or a Removed state. Without these states, a User Story assigned to an iteration remains on the product backlog until it is resolved, which is not the desired or expected behavior. Also, the team cannot cut stories and tasks from the backlog.

To update the workflow, see Update the Workflow for Agile Team Projects.

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4. Import definitions of new categories

The latest version of the category definition file contains five new categories in addition to the four categories defined in the previous versions. Several of the new features depend on the new category definitions. To update the categories defined for your team project, you must import the new categories file.

Note

Importing the categories XML file into a project will overwrite all existing categories. Categories that were previously defined but not specified in the file will be deleted.

If you have customized the categories file of your team project, then you may want to add the same customizations to the new categories definition file prior to importing it. For more information, see Define Categories to Group Work Item Types.

To import the definition file of categories

  • From the command prompt window for witadmin, type the following command, substituting your data for the arguments that are shown, and then choose Enter.

    witadmin importcategories /collection:CollectionURL /p:ProjectName /f:"DirectoryPath\categories.xml"
    

    For DirectoryPath, specify the location of the WorkItem Tracking folder for the process template that you downloaded. The directory path should follow this structure:

    Drive:\MSFTemplateFolder\Agile\Files\WorkItem Tracking\

    The following example shows how to import definition files of categories:

    witadmin importcategories /collection:"http://MyServer:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection" /p:MyProject /f:"C:\MyTemplates\WorkItem Tracking\categories.xml"

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5. Import process configuration files

The process configuration files determine the layout and features available through the backlog and board pages of Team Web Access. To use these pages, you must import the process configuration files.

Note

Importing the definition files for the agile or common process configuration will overwrite any existing configurations defined for the team project.

You may customize the process configuration files prior to import. For more information, see Customize the Backlog and Board Pages Using Process Configuration.

To import the process configuration files

  • To import the definition files for process configuration, type the following two commands, one at a time, substituting your data for the arguments that are shown, and then choose Enter.

    witadmin importagileprocessconfig /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /f:"DirectoryPath\AgileConfiguration.xml"
    witadmin importcommonprocessconfig /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /f:"DirectoryPath\CommonConfiguration.xml"
    

    For DirectoryPath, specify the path to the Process folder for the process template that you downloaded. The directory path should follow this structure:

    Drive:\MSFTemplateFolder\WorkItem Tracking\Process

    The following example shows how to import definition files for the agile process configuration:

    witadmin importagileprocessconfig /collection:"http://MyServer:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection" /p:MyProject /f:"C:\MyTemplates\WorkItem Tracking\Process\AgileConfiguration.xml"

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6. Add the Storyboard tab to the backlog item

With the addition of Storyboarding, you can now link work items to storyboards. To do this, you add the Storyboard links control tab to the definition of the work item type. In the latest versions of the default process templates TFS provides, the Storyboard links control tab appears on all backlog work item types, such as Product Backlog, User Story, and Requirement.

  1. From the command prompt window for witadmin, type the following command, substituting your data for the arguments that are shown, and then choose Enter. Export the type definition file that your team uses to manage backlog items.

    witadmin exportwitd /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /n:"TypeName" /f:"DirectoryPath\FileName.xml"
    

    For CollectionURL specify the URL of the team project collection, and for ProjectName specify the name of your team project defined within the collection. Use this format for the URL : **http://**ServerName:Port/VirtualDirectoryName/CollectionName, for example: http://srvalm:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection.

    For TypeName, specify the name for your backlog item, for example User Story or Product Backlog Item.

  2. Open the file using a text editor, such as Notepad.

  3. Add this code snippet within the <TabGroup > section:

    <Tab Label="Storyboards"> 
       <Control Name="StoryboardsControl" Type="LinksControl"> 
          <LinksControlOptions> 
             <WorkItemLinkFilters FilterType="excludeAll" /> 
             <ExternalLinkFilters FilterType="include"> 
                <Filter LinkType="Storyboard" /> 
             </ExternalLinkFilters> 
             <LinkColumns> 
                <LinkColumn RefName="System.Title" /> 
                <LinkColumn LinkAttribute="System.Links.Comment" /> 
             </LinkColumns> 
          </LinksControlOptions> 
       </Control> 
    </Tab> 
    
  4. Save and close the file.

  5. Import the type definition file by typing this command:

    witadmin importwitd /collection:CollectionURL /p:"ProjectName" /f:"DirectoryPath\FileName.xml"
    
  6. Verify that the tab shows up in the backlog item.

7. Verify availability of new features

See Verify Availability of New Features.

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See Also

Concepts

Customize Process Templates

Update an Upgraded Team Project to Access New Features