Collaborate in a team room
Increase team productivity by discussing work in progress, asking questions, sharing status, and clarifying issues that arise.
Your team room provides an area for fostering and capturing communication among team members, both near and far.
.png "Team room with messages and links to events")
By using the team room instead of email threads, you automatically receive an audit trail of conversations and decisions. By reviewing the archive, you can quickly catch up with the team when you’ve been away or in a different time zone.
Join the conversation
From your team’s home page, open the room. If you don’t see the room tile, request Advanced access from your TFS administrator.
.png "Team room tile on team project home page")
If you can’t enter the room, get added as a member.
To switch to another team room, open it from the Rooms list.
.png "List of team rooms on Rooms page")
You’ll see all rooms that you have permission to enter.
Ways you can interact in the room
Target a message to a team member: type @UserName.
Include a hyperlink to a work item: type #Id. For example: @Jamal, can you take a look at bugs #564, #588, and #592?
Open a linked object, such as a work item, changeset, build definition, and more.
Add an emoticon: choose:
.png "Emoticon image selection")
.Review a previous day’s message: select the day from the calendar.
.png "Date link to review team room archives")
Add members
You can invite other TFS contributors to participate in your team room.
If you’re not a team administrator, get added as one.
Open Manage Members.
.png "Manage users link on the team room page")
Only team administrators can see the links for manage users and manage events.
Add a user account or group.
.png "Add menu on the Manage Members dialog")
Add events
Adding events lets your team know when builds finish, source code is checked in, work items are updated, and requests for code reviews occur.
Open Configure Events.
.png "Manage events link on the team room page")
If you don’t see the Manage events link, get added as a team administrator.
Add events.
.png "Code changes tab on the Configure Events dialog box")
Note
Room events appear with a hyperlink to the object. Although team room users can see the events, they might not have permission to open the object. To learn more, see Administer team activities.
Add another room
Adding other rooms provides areas for ad hoc discussions, cross-team interactions, virtual teams, or social discussions.
Add a room. If the New link is not active, get added as a team administrator.
.png "New link on the Rooms page, New Room dialog box")
Add members to the room as described in Add members.
Q & A
Q: How do other teams use rooms?
A: Here are a few ways teams use rooms:
Daily standup: Capture the review of what happened the previous day and discuss any issues or blocking items based on real history.
Remote team members: Geographically-dispersed team members can keep up with members in different time zones. This can be especially useful when there are different levels of language proficiency among team members.
Memory stream: Configuring all events gives you an archive where you can review changesets, work item updates, and build progress all in one place.
Q: How do I mute the sound?
A: Choose the .png "Audio icon on the Rooms page")
audio icon to turn the sound off or on.
Q: How do I exit a team room?
A: To completely exit a team room, close all browser instances where you’ve logged into the team room.
Q: What causes a work item event to appear in the room?
A: Any change in status or assignment triggers an event to appear in the room.
Q: How do I add my avatar image?
A: Change the picture from your profile.
.png "My Profile link on Account menu")
Q: How do I add another team?
A: A team room is automatically created when you add a team.
Q: How do I add members to my team?
A: Team members you add have automatic access to the team room.