TFS Branching Guide v 2.0 Shipped!

  • Article

Branching strategy is one of the most important aspects of TFS deployment. The right strategy can lead to optimized team cooperation, increased productivity and a successful adoption. On the other hand, a bad branching strategy can cause frustrations, damage production and derail TFS adoption in an organization. We have therefore put a lot of effort in creating a set of practical guidance to educate our customers and partners and support their VSTS adoption efforts.

The 2nd major release of the TFS Branching Guide has been posted HERE on Codeplex.

An important goal for this release is to go beyond just publishing this guide and create a living and ticking community. With your help and contribution, we would like to incrementally grow our libraries for scenarios, Q&As and labs. If for example, you are not able to find a suitable scenario for your branching needs, we encourage you to post a request for a new scenario. This will trigger a small process with a team which owns the development of the new scenario with your cooperation. Your name will then appear as the coauthor of that scenario.

Release 2.0 scenarios

The following scenarios are included in this release:

  • Single Team Branching Model 
  • Concurrent Hot Fix, Service Pack, and v.Next
  • Branching by Version Scenario

Why the 2nd release?

Since the first release, we have received lots of feedback and change requests. Most feedback indicated a desire for a more practical approach to branching compared to the first release which is more theoretical. With that in mind, we decided to reduce the conceptual part and focus on branching practices with Team Foundation Server.

What is in the package?

  • TFS Branching Guide - Main 2.0
    • This is the main article which briefly explains branching concepts and introduces 3 levels of the most common branching scenario
  • TFS Branching Guide - Scenarios 2.0
    • A collection of less common branching scenarios
  • TFS Branching Guide - Q&A 2.0
    • A set of most frequently asked questions with answers
  • TFS Branching Guide - Drawings 2.0
    • A set of branching drawings in different formats including a large branching poster
  • TFS Branching Guide - Labs 2.0
    • A couple of examples for hands on labs with step by step instruction for practicing the branching scenarios

Again, it can be downloaded here:  https://www.codeplex.com/TFSBranchingGuideII