Configuring the “Epics” for upgraded team projects in Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2015

Epics were introduced in TFS 2015 to support Scaled Agile Framework(SAFe). In TFS 2015, if you create a new team project, you would see “Epics”.
But if you have upgraded from previous versions of Team Foundation Server, then you won’t be able to see them without making few additional changes. You would see how we can make those additional changes to get “Epics” in the remainder of this post.

If you have tried to enable the new features using “Configure Features” wizard, you would see “Epics” were not included (Portfolio backlogs configured (will be skipped)).

Click on “Verify” and complete the wizard. Then in the Team Admin page, you won’t see “Epics” as an option to enable it.

Steps to enable “Epics” manually:

1. Download the latest process template from Process template manager (In Visual Studio IDE, Team -> Team Project Collection Settings -> Process Template Manager).

Note: I recommend you to download the Process template which is same as the current team project. I have used “Scrum” process template to create this team project and downloaded “Scrum” process template.

2. Import the “Epic” work item type from the downloaded process template. You can use the Powertools or witadmin command to import the WIT definition file. Below is the command for your reference:

witadmin importwitd /collection:CollectionURL /p:Project /f:FileName

3. Export the categories.xml file for this team project. Below is the command for reference:

witadmin exportcategories /collection:CollectionURL /p:Project /f:FileName

Below is the output

4. Open the categories.xml file and add the “Epic” category. You can add the snippet below:

<CATEGORY name="Epic Category" refname="Microsoft.EpicCategory">
<DEFAULTWORKITEMTYPE name="Epic" />
</CATEGORY>

5. Save the categories.xml file and then import it to the team project. Below is the command for your reference.

witadmin importcategories /collection:CollectionURL /p:Project /f:FileName

6. Export ProcessConfiguration.xml file from the team project. Below is the command for your reference:

witadmin exportprocessconfig /collection:CollectionURL /p:Project /f:FileName

7. Open the ProcessConfiguration.xml file in notepad or in any xml editor to make the changes below:

a. Add Portfoliobacklog of type “Epic” under the section < PortfolioBacklogs>

<PortfolioBacklog category="Microsoft.EpicCategory" pluralName="Epics" singularName="Epic" workItemCountLimit="1000">
<States>
<State value="New" type="Proposed" />
<State value="In Progress" type="InProgress" />
<State value="Done" type="Complete" />
</States>
<Columns>
<Column refname="System.WorkItemType" width="100" />
<Column refname="System.Title" width="400" />
<Column refname="System.State" width="100" />
<Column refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.Effort" width="50" />
<Column refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.BusinessValue" width="50" />
<Column refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ValueArea" width="100" />
<Column refname="System.Tags" width="200" />
</Columns>
<AddPanel>
<Fields>
<Field refname="System.Title" />
</Fields>
</AddPanel>
</PortfolioBacklog>

b. Add parent="Microsoft.EpicCategory" to the Portfoliobacklog feature as below (highlighted text):

<PortfolioBacklog category="Microsoft.FeatureCategory" pluralName="Features" singularName="Feature" parent="Microsoft.EpicCategory" workItemCountLimit="1000">

c. Add below line under < WorkItemColors>

<WorkItemColor primary="FFFF7B00" secondary="FFFFD7B5" name="Epic" />

d. Add the below line with in <Properties> section as below (highlighted text):

<Property name="HiddenBacklogs" value="Microsoft.EpicCategory" />

So, your XML looks like this,

<Properties>
<Property name="BugsBehavior" value="AsRequirements" />
<Property name="HiddenBacklogs" value="Microsoft.EpicCategory" />
</Properties>

Note: If entire <Properties> section is missing; you can add the above snippet.

e. Save the ProcessConfiguration.xml file

8. Import the ProcessConfiguration.xml file. Below is the command for your reference:

witadmin importprocessconfig /collection:CollectionURL /p:Project /f:FileName

9. Go to Team profile page. Now, you would see “Epics” to enable it.

Now, you can select “Epics” to enable it.

Note: If Portfolio backlogs features were not configured in TFS 2012/2013, then after upgrade to TFS 2015 the “configure Features” wizard will configure Features and Epics.

After configuring the features:

Hope this helps!

Content created By: Chandra Sekhar Viswanadha