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Recurring Tasks in Team Foundation Server

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While the vast majority of work items created for each iteration (sprint) are unique and therefore require some planning effort beforehand, I've gotten into the habit of creating a few recurring tasks in TFS each time I start a new iteration on a project.

For example, at the start of the most recent sprint on my current project, I added the following tasks:

  • Code cleanup - Sprint-10
  • Update Installation Guide for Sprint-10
  • Create branch for Sprint-10 release

There's nothing special about these tasks (in other words, I typically add the work items using Microsoft Excel just like the other work items for a particular sprint). For example, the first task simply provides me a work item to associate with "cleanup" check-ins (which are typically incidental changes, such as fixing a comment or refactoring a lengthy method). The other tasks remind me of things I need to ensure get done for each and every release (e.g. updating the Install Guide and branching the code for release).

In my next post, I'll talk more about the process I use to branch code for a particular release.