Operational Differences in Managing Projects Using Team Foundation and Project

Article
08/13/2012

You can schedule projects by using the features that are available in Microsoft Project or Project Professional, while maintaining the data and tracking work in Team Foundation. If you have Project Server deployed, you can best manage your enterprise project plans by installing the Feature Pack for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server Integration.

In this topic, you can learn about the benefits and operational differences of using the Team Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Project compared to integrating the two server products. For more information about Project Server, see the following page on the Microsoft website: Microsoft Project 2010.

In this topic

Benefits of Integrating Team Foundation Server with Project Server
Operational Differences Between Using the Team Foundation Plug-in to Project and Integrating Team Foundation Server with Project Server
Publishing from Project Professional versus Project

Benefits of Integrating Team Foundation Server with Project Server

Integration between Team Foundation Server and Project Server can become a considerable advantage for organizations that want to bridge the collaboration gap between their project management offices and their software development teams. By integrating the two server products, teams can work together more effectively in the following ways:

Acquire up-to-date insight into portfolio execution, alignment with strategic objectives, and resource usage of software development projects by leveraging the quantitative data in different systems.
Automate the sharing of project information across teams, and improve coordination between teams that use disparate methodologies, such as waterfall and agile, through common data and agreed-upon metrics.
Enable development and project-management teams to collaborate and communicate project timelines and progress by using familiar tools such as Visual Studio, Microsoft Project, and SharePoint Products.

If Project Server is not deployed, you can use the Team Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Project to manage projects based on work items in Team Foundation. When you install any version of Visual Studio 2010 or Team Explorer 2010, the Team Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Project is installed. By using the plug-in, you can add and change work item data by directly connecting to Team Foundation Server. The plug-in provides a view into the work item data in Team Foundation. You can plan projects, schedule tasks, assign resources, and track changes by using Project to manage data in Team Foundation. Different users can update work items from different project plans.

The following table compares the main tasks that you can perform by using the Team Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Project with those that require integration of the two server products. You can use the plug-in with all editions of Project 2007 and Project 2010. To integrate Team Foundation Server and Project Server, you must install Project Professional 2007 or Project Professional 2010.

Feature	Team Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Project	Team Foundation Server and Project Server Integration
Directly connect to Team Foundation Server, and change work items and their dependencies.
Initiate project planning, schedule work, and manage project calendars.
Manage and synchronize dependency links.
View project status, schedule, and resource allocation.
Work with subprojects, standard projects, and enterprise projects.
Control the level of collaboration and synchronization.
View and leverage enterprise resource pools.
View resource allocation across multiple enterprise project plans.
Leverage portfolio optimization, demand management, and reporting (features available only with Project Server)

For more information about the Team Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Project, see Scheduling Tasks and Assigning Resources Using Microsoft Project.

Operational Differences Between Using the Team Foundation Plug-in to Project and Integrating Team Foundation Server with Project Server

The following table summarizes the operational differences between using the Team Foundation plug-in to Project and integrating the two server products to track work that is simultaneously tracked in Team Foundation Server.

Operational area	Team Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Project	Team Foundation Server and Project Server Integration
Synchronization model	Supports a synchronization process in which project managers can directly publish to or refresh from Team Foundation on demand. Supports mapping a task field in Project to a field in Team Foundation. Tasks are not bound to work items. Project plans are bound to Team Foundation Server.	Supports a synchronization process in which project managers can control plan updates. Publish from Project Server to Team Foundation, submit updates from Team Foundation to a status queue, and send updates to Team Foundation based on approvals or rejections made by project managers. This model is designed to support the project plan as the default master so that project managers have full control of what gets added to the project plan. Supports mapping task and resource fields in Project to fields in Team Foundation. After synchronization, each task in Project is bound to a work item in Team Foundation. Project plans are mapped to team projects until they are unmapped.
Publish and refresh process	You manage which tasks you want to publish to or refresh from Team Foundation. In Project, you set the Publish and Refresh value to No, Refresh Only, or Yes. Different project plans and different tasks can synchronize to the same work item. You can assign only one resource per task. You can display Project fields in a work item form, and you can display Team Foundation fields in a project plan. Updates are traced through the History field in each work item.	You manage which types of work items participate in data synchronization and which specific tasks or work items are synchronized. In Project Professional, you set the Publish to Team Project value to Yes or No. In Team Foundation, you set the Submit to Enterprise Project to Yes or No. Only one task in one project plan can synchronize to a work item. You can assign only one resource to each task. However, the Resource field will show the rollup of resources that are assigned to child tasks. You can display Project fields in a work item form, and you can display Team Foundation fields in a project plan. Conflicts may require resolution. For more information, see Monitoring Work Item Submissions and Resolving Rejections. Provides robust traceability and history of each field and work item that was synchronized.
Rollup of work and resources	In work items that contain child tasks, the values in the Remaining Work and Completed Work fields are calculated and rolled up automatically. Hours are rolled up in Project but not in Team Foundation. Resources are not rolled up.	In work items that contain child tasks and that are synchronized, the values in the Remaining Work and Completed Work fields are calculated and rolled up automatically. Hours are rolled up in Project and Team Foundation mirror fields. Resources and resource allocation are rolled up within Project Professional and Project Server.
Setup and configuration	Requires Team Foundation Plug-in for Microsoft Project, which is installed with Visual Studio 2010 or Team Explorer 2010. Publish and refresh tasks based on a list of work items. Publish and refresh all types of work items without any mapping or setup. Control which fields get published and refreshed by customizing the mapping file for each collection. Exert granular control over how fields are published and refreshed based on the assignment of the PublishOnly and IfSummaryRefreshOnly attributes.	Requires the Feature Pack for Team Foundation Server and Project Server Integration, Project Server, and Project Professional with Team Foundation Plug-in. For more information, see System and Setup Requirements to Support Integration of Team Foundation Server and Project Server. Configure the team projects and types of work items that participate in synchronization. Control which fields get published and refreshed by customizing the mappings for a project collection. Exert granular control over how fields are published and updated based on the fields that are assigned to the tfsToTarget and targetToTfs elements.

Synchronization model

Supports a synchronization process in which project managers can directly publish to or refresh from Team Foundation on demand.

Supports mapping a task field in Project to a field in Team Foundation.
Tasks are not bound to work items.
Project plans are bound to Team Foundation Server.

Supports a synchronization process in which project managers can control plan updates.

Publish from Project Server to Team Foundation, submit updates from Team Foundation to a status queue, and send updates to Team Foundation based on approvals or rejections made by project managers.

This model is designed to support the project plan as the default master so that project managers have full control of what gets added to the project plan.
Supports mapping task and resource fields in Project to fields in Team Foundation.
After synchronization, each task in Project is bound to a work item in Team Foundation.
Project plans are mapped to team projects until they are unmapped.

Publish and refresh process

You manage which tasks you want to publish to or refresh from Team Foundation.
In Project, you set the Publish and Refresh value to No, Refresh Only, or Yes.
Different project plans and different tasks can synchronize to the same work item.
You can assign only one resource per task.
You can display Project fields in a work item form, and you can display Team Foundation fields in a project plan.
Updates are traced through the History field in each work item.

You manage which types of work items participate in data synchronization and which specific tasks or work items are synchronized.
In Project Professional, you set the Publish to Team Project value to Yes or No. In Team Foundation, you set the Submit to Enterprise Project to Yes or No.
Only one task in one project plan can synchronize to a work item.
You can assign only one resource to each task. However, the Resource field will show the rollup of resources that are assigned to child tasks.
You can display Project fields in a work item form, and you can display Team Foundation fields in a project plan.
Conflicts may require resolution. For more information, see Monitoring Work Item Submissions and Resolving Rejections.
Provides robust traceability and history of each field and work item that was synchronized.

Rollup of work and resources

In work items that contain child tasks, the values in the Remaining Work and Completed Work fields are calculated and rolled up automatically.
Hours are rolled up in Project but not in Team Foundation.
Resources are not rolled up.

In work items that contain child tasks and that are synchronized, the values in the Remaining Work and Completed Work fields are calculated and rolled up automatically.
Hours are rolled up in Project and Team Foundation mirror fields.
Resources and resource allocation are rolled up within Project Professional and Project Server.

Setup and configuration

Requires Team Foundation Plug-in for Microsoft Project, which is installed with Visual Studio 2010 or Team Explorer 2010.
Publish and refresh tasks based on a list of work items.
Publish and refresh all types of work items without any mapping or setup.
Control which fields get published and refreshed by customizing the mapping file for each collection.
Exert granular control over how fields are published and refreshed based on the assignment of the PublishOnly and IfSummaryRefreshOnly attributes.

Requires the Feature Pack for Team Foundation Server and Project Server Integration, Project Server, and Project Professional with Team Foundation Plug-in. For more information, see System and Setup Requirements to Support Integration of Team Foundation Server and Project Server.
Configure the team projects and types of work items that participate in synchronization.
Control which fields get published and refreshed by customizing the mappings for a project collection.
Exert granular control over how fields are published and updated based on the fields that are assigned to the tfsToTarget and targetToTfs elements.

Publishing from Project Professional versus Project

When you publish tasks from Project Professional, you open the File menu, and then you click Publish to publish the project plan to Project Server. After Project Server is updated, the synchronization engine pulls data from Project Server and determines what data to update in Team Foundation based on the data that is configured for synchronization. Only those team projects, work items, and fields that are configured for synchronization are updated.

When you publish tasks from Project, you click Publish on the Team ribbon or the Team menu.

Operational Differences in Managing Projects Using Team Foundation and Project

Benefits of Integrating Team Foundation Server with Project Server

Operational Differences Between Using the Team Foundation Plug-in to Project and Integrating Team Foundation Server with Project Server

Publishing from Project Professional versus Project

See Also

Other Resources

Additional resources