Create a Team Project
You create a team project for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS) to provide a central point for developing a specific software technology or product. A team project provides a repository for source code and work items.
If you already have a team project and want to start coding an application project, then see Develop Your App in a Version-Controlled Codebase and Creating Solutions and Projects.
Note
To create a team project on Visual Studio Online, go to the here. This topic applies only to creating a team project when you have deployed TFS on site.
As the following illustration shows, you create a team project by choosing a process template, which defines the artifacts—work items, queries, documents, reports, and more—that support planning and tracking activities. When the team project collection has been configured to connect with SharePoint Products and SQL Server Reporting Services, then your team project may also access additional portal and reporting functions and features.
.png "Process Template is used to create a Team Project")
You can create a team project only from Team Explorer. Each team project corresponds to a default team. After you create the team project, you can organize work to meet the needs of smaller teams. For more information, see Collaborate (dig deeper) and Understanding teams.
Important
Before you create a team project, check with your administrator for Team Foundation Server to determine the team project collection where you will create your team project, and if the following resources have been configured: SharePoint Products, SQL Server Analysis Services and SQL Server Reporting Services. If these resources are available, then you will need permissions on each of the corresponding servers to create your team project.
Requirements
To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the following security groups:
For the project collection on the application tier for Team Foundation: Team Foundation Administrators or Project Administrators group and your Create new projects permission must be set to Allow.
(Optional) On the server that will host SharePoint Products for your team project: the appropriate groups in SharePoint Central Administration. These groups vary depending on your version of SharePoint Products. You do not need this permission if you do not specify that a portal is created for your team project.
If the portal site is being created under a site collection for the team project collection, you must have Full Control permissions set for the site collection. If the project site is created as a site collection itself, you must have farm administrator permissions.
For more information, see Set Administrator Permissions for Team Project Collections.
(Optional) On the server that will host SQL Server Reporting Services for your team project: Team Foundation Content Managers group. You do not need this permission if there are no Reporting Services configured as a resource for the team project collection where you will define your team project.
For more information, see Set Administrator Permissions for Team Project Collections.
Create a team project
Note
The process template that you select when you run the wizard and the resources configured for the team project collection determine which pages the wizard displays. The following procedure uses the Visual Studio Scrum 2.0 process. You might see different pages if you select a different process template.
.png "Connect to Team Foundation Server")
Tip
If you're running Visual Studio on the same machine on which you installed Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio will recognize that server automatically, so you can skip steps 3-5.
To connect to a team project collection
Choose the Team Explorer tab.
Note
If you are running Team Explorer from a server that hosts SharePoint Products and SQL Server Reporting Services, you may need to run Visual Studio as an administrator.
In Team Explorer, choose Connect to Team Foundation Server.
In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, select from the Team Foundation Server list, choose the server that contains the team project collection to which you want to add your team project and that is running Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012.
If the drop-down list is empty, choose the Servers button to manually enter the server connection settings.
In the Add/Remove Team Foundation Server dialog box, choose the Add button.
In the Add Team Foundation Server dialog box, in the Name or URL of Team Foundation Server box, specify the name of the server, choose the OK button, and then choose the Close button.
Contact your Team Foundation administrator or team project administrator to obtain the connection settings.
In the Select a Team Foundation Server drop-down menu of the Connect to Team Project dialog box, choose the server that you just added, and then choose the OK button.
Choose the name of the team project collection to which you want to add your team project from the Directory list.
Choose the Connect button.
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.png "Select Team Explorer, Create a New Team Project")
To create a team project
In Team Explorer, choose the Create a New Team Project link, or choose File, New, Team Project.
The New Team Project wizard appears.
Note
If you have not connected to a Team Foundation Server, you will be prompted to connect to one now. Review steps 1 through 7 in the previous procedure.
On the Specify the Team Project Settings page, type a name for the team project that you want to create in the What is the name of the team project? box.
You must specify a unique name that is no more than 64 characters. The name should be descriptive enough that your team members can easily associate it with the software product. Your team members will use this name to connect to the team project.
(Optional) Type a description of the project in the What is the description of the team project? text box. The description is stored in Team Foundation Server and provides the site description for the optional team project portal SharePoint site.
Choose the Next button.
On the Select a Process Template page, choose a process template from the Which process template should be used to create the team project? list.
Note
If you want to use a process template that is not listed, you must first upload the template to Team Foundation Server. For more information, see Manage process templates for a team project collection.
If you want to accept the default settings on the remaining wizard pages, choose the Finish button. Otherwise, choose the Next button.
Note
We recommend that you accept the default settings by choosing Finish. If you choose the Finish button, you can jump to step 9.
If you choose the Finish button, the following tasks are performed automatically:
A SharePoint site for your team project is created when your team project collection is configured with SharePoint Products.
An empty version control folder for your team project is created.
Complete the Team Site Settings page which appears only when your team project collection is configured with SharePoint Products:
Choose the Create a new SharePoint site radio button if you want to create a SharePoint site for your project.
Choose the Configure radio button to verify or modify the settings for your SharePoint site.
In the Select Location to Create SharePoint Site dialog box, verify or choose the URL for the Web application and the Relative site path to which you want to connect.
Note
You can choose a Web application only if it has been added to the team project collection to which you are connected. For more information, see Add a SharePoint Web Application to Your Deployment.
If you want a project portal name that differs from the team project name, you can type a name that is easily identified by your team members.
The relative site path is part of the home page of the project portal.
On the Specify Source Control Settings page, choose one of the following options:
Choose the Create an empty source control folder radio button to use the name of the team project for the new folder.
Choose the Create a new source control branch radio button, and specify the folder from which you want to branch.
On the Confirm Team Project Settings page, review the choices and values that you specified. If the information is correct, choose the Finish button. Otherwise, choose the Previous button to make changes.
The New Team Project wizard creates your team project.
Note
It may take several minutes for the wizard to finish.
On the Team Project Creation Status page, view the status messages and status bar for information about the components that are being created.
On the Team Project Created page, if you want to read more details about the work items, roles, activities, and other aspects of the team process, select the Launch the process guidance for more information about how to run the team project check box.
Note
Process guidance is available only if you created or configured a SharePoint site in step 7.
Choose the Close button.
You can now switch your context to the new team project in Team Explorer. If the wizard encounters a problem when creating the team project, an error message appears that states the problem and suggests corrective action. If this message appears, choose the View the team project creation log link, and review the log for specific errors and exceptions. For more information, see Troubleshoot team project creation later in this topic.
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Troubleshoot team project creation
When a team project creation activity does not successfully complete, some components may be created while others are not. If so, you should determine what caused the partial creation, delete the partially created project, resolve any issues, and then create another team project.
Note
You can gather diagnostic information about your deployment of Team Foundation Server, take a snapshot of its configuration, and obtain usage data by using the Best Practices Analyzer for Team Foundation Server. This tool performs specific checks to determine whether the deployment is configured to support the creation of a team project. For more information, see the following page on the Microsoft Web site: Team Foundation Server Power Tools.
Review the information in the following table, and perform the corresponding resolution task for the symptom or error message that matches what you receive.
Symptom or error message
Problem
Resolution
An error message indicates that you do not have permission to create a team project, connect to a server, or access a server.
You do not have the required permissions set on one or more servers to create a team project.
Contact the system administrators for each server that hosts Team Foundation Server, SharePoint Products, or SQL Server Reporting Services for the project collection to request the required permissions.
For more information, see Set Administrator Permissions for Team Project Collections.
Error TF30169: The New Team Project Wizard was unable to download the process template {0}.
Process templates are not available on the server that hosts SharePoint Products.
Contact the system administrator for the server that hosts SharePoint Products and request the required process templates be added to the server.
Error TF30321: The name you typed is already used for another team project on the Team Foundation Server.
The name may be in use for any of the following reasons:
An active project uses this name
A project that uses this name has been flagged for deletion but has not yet been deleted
A project with this name was only partially created or only partially deleted
Try again using a different project name.
Note
You may be unable to create a team project that has the same name as a team project that was deleted. Some components of the deleted team project may be scheduled for deletion but not yet deleted.
An error message indicates a problem connecting to a server, retrieving information from a server, or checking permissions to create projects.
A server in the Team Foundation deployment is incorrectly configured. This problem is especially common after a server move, failover, or other maintenance activity.
Contact the system administrator for Team Foundation Server, and request that they verify the server configuration.
An error message indicates a problem with a plug-in.
The process template used to create the team project contains several XML plug-in files. If one of these files contains a format or other error, then an error message appears.
Review the project creation log to determine the plug-in that caused the error. After you discover the problem, you can either contact the developer or vendor that provided the plug-in, or attempt to fix the problem yourself. For more information, see Working with Process Template Files.
If the problem does not resolve by performing step 1, review the team project creation log and follow any instructions that are provided.
The log shows each action taken by the wizard at the time of the failure and may include additional details about the error.
To open the log, look in one of the following folder locations:
$:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\Temp.
$:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Temp.
Log files are labeled VSTS_TeamProjectCreation_yyyy_mm_dd_hh_mm_ss.log.
Search for entries that contain Exception or Error.
Review the log entries to find network or file-related issues.
If the problem persists, contact your Team Foundation Server administrator.
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See Also
Tasks
Delete a Team Project (Using the Administration Console)
Reference
Delete a Team Project [TFSDeleteProject]
Concepts
Planning and Tracking Projects