Moving a Team Project from One Version to the Next

Article
09/24/2007

If the team project you are managing has completed a major iteration or milestone, and has grown too large or is not compatible with the desired workflow going forward, you can create a new team project based on the existing one. Moving a team project from one version to the next involves some combination of branching source code, copying items, and recreating existing items in the new team project.

Create the New Team Project

The first step in moving the team project to the new version is to create the new team project using the New Team Project Wizard. Follow the instructions on the wizard pages filling in the name and other information for the new team project. When asked to specify the source control settings, create a new source control branch from the old team project. For more information about using the New Team Project Wizard, see New Team Project Wizard.

Move the Work Items from the Old Team Project to the New Team Project

There are likely to be unfinished work items in the old team project or work items that were created to be accomplished in the next version. You must copy the unfinished work items to the new project one-by-one (Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of work items across projects). For more information about copying a work item from one project to another, see How to: Copy a Work Item.

Note

Making a copy of a work item sets the status of the new work item to Active by default. If you have work items in the old team project with a status other than Active and you copy these work items to the new team project, be sure to set the status on the new work item to the same status it had in the old team project.

Set the User Permission for the New Team Project

It is important that you correctly set the permissions for the new team project. You must set the permissions on each item one-by-one (for security reasons Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of permissions from one project to another). For more information about setting permissions, see Managing Permissions.

Copy the Documents from the Old Team Project to the New Team Project

There are likely to be documents and reports in the old team project that are still relevant to the new team project. You can copy the documents to the new project by dragging and dropping the documents within Team Explorer. For more information about copying documents from one project to another, see How to: Move or Delete a Document or Folder in Team Explorer.

Create the Areas and Iterations for the New Team Project

The team project structure and classification used in the old team project may or may not be appropriate for the new team project. You must create the areas and iterations for the new team project one-by-one (Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of areas or iterations from one project to another). For more information about creating areas and iterations, see Setting Initial Project Areas or Iterations.

Create the Check-in Policies

The team project check-in policies used in the old team project may or may not be appropriate for the new team project. You must create check-in policies for the new team project one-by-one (Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of check-in policies from one project to another). For more information about check-in policies, see Working with Check-in Policies and Notes.

Create Alerts

If you are using alerts in the new team project, it is important that you set these event notifications correctly. If you want to continue to use the same type of alerts used in the old team project, you must create the alerts for the new team project one-by-one (Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of alerts from one project to another). For more information about creating alerts, see Setting Alerts.

Determine if a New Backup is Appropriate

Because the process of creating a new team project, copying work items individually, and recreating permissions, areas, iterations, check-in policies, and alerts can take a significant amount of time, it is important that your work be protected from loss due to computer hardware failures. You may want to check with your Team Foundation Server administrator to determine if a special backup of the server is warranted.