Best practice for TFS hierarchy

Question

In my company there are several divisions, and many projects done in different versions of visual studio so I have thought in making below tfs structure under only one project collection:

My_Project_Collection
   |
   |___ Division_1
   |       |
   |       |__ VS2010
   |       |__ VS2012
   |       |__ VS2013
   |             |
   |             |__ Team_Project_1
   |             |      |__ Main
   |             |      |__ Dev
   |             |      |__ Release
   |             |
   |             |__ Team_Project_2
   |                    |__ Main
   |                    |__ Dev
   |                    |__ Release
   |
   |___ Division_2
   |
   |___ Division_N

My question is: Is it worth to classify team projects by version of visual studio (VS2010, VS2012, VS2013 and so on) or is it not necessary?

Division_2, ... Division_N have the same structure as Division_1

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 29 '19 at 15:33

I don't think that you do want to subdivide it like that, because subdividing it by VS versions doesn't really reflect reality (I would think you'll want to eventually move those projects to different versions of VSTS). Unless you think they'll be that way in perpetuity and the distinction provides a useful advantage, I think there will be more work to divide them like that. Consider using area paths for some of the concepts in your hierarchy.

E.g.

My_Project_Collection
   |
   |___ Division_1
   |       |
   |       |
   |       |__ Team_Project_1 - AP VS2013
   |       |      |__ Main
   |       |      |__ Dev
   |       |      |__ Release
   |       |
   |       |__ Team_Project_2 - AP VS2010
   |              |__ Main
   |              |__ Dev
   |              |__ Release
   |
   |___ Division_2
   |
   |___ Division_N

See this SO for a similar question: Should I create a single VSTS team project or multiple? which, you're already doing by having one project collection from what I can gather.

And also check out this blog linked in that answer as well: Why You Should use a Single (Giant) TFS Team Project. The same benefits/disadvantages should apply... really just think about where you want your boundaries and have your structure reflect that.

Best practice for TFS hierarchy

1 Answers1