Making a TFS project read only

Question

I want to make a TFS 2010 project read-only so users can view the info in work items but not add any details or new work items. I think I need to change the security permission on the project but it's not clear which permission I would change from the Contributors list.

Answer 1

In my opinion the right way is to alter the group memberships. Remove all users from the constributors and higher groups and move them to the Readers group.

Answer 2

Two choices.

Choice 1: If this is a common pattern where the prevailing default is that folks are restricted, but some people have access (i.e. devs cannot change things but Tech Leads can), modify contributors and create a secondary group (for example, 'Tech Leads') that has the additional read rights. In this scenario, the Contributors group would contain tech leads, but only specific individuals with the extra rights would be in the Tech Leads group.

Choice 2: If the prevailing default is normal contributor access, but specific individuals (i.e. external contractors) need to be denied access, and you need to be 100% sure this goes through, regardless of any other group membership, then leave Contributors as is, and add a new group called (in this example) 'Contractors' and DENY specific access as needed.

Like before, everyone is a contrib, but contractors have some absolute limitations imposed on them, and the 'DENY' in the Contractors group overrides the 'Allow' from contrib. A use case for this would be cases where specific code has to be hidden from external vendors or some other sub-group and needs to be 100% rock solid - just be careful with denies as they will trump any number of allows you inherit from other groups.

Hope that helps!

Addendum: For restricting or changing rights on workitems, you need to do two things. First, set up appropriate group mempership (noted above), then in the project, under Team Project Settings -> Areas and Iterations, click the Security button to set this up on a node by node basis (or at the root if you want to do these restrictions project wide).