(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

Getting ready

Using Team Foundation Server Extensions for the Project Server, project managers can make the Project Server access real-time project status and resource availability of teams who work in Team Foundation Server. Following the successful configuration of the two server products, the synchronization engine maintains the scheduling of data and resource usage in the mapped Project Server enterprise project plan and Team Foundation Server team project.

How to do it…

There are a few pieces of information we need to collect and a few configuration tasks that we need to make sure have been completed properly.

Here is an installation and configuration requirement checklist to make sure that we are ready to begin:

Now that the common pre-configuration items are out of the way, we can move on with the planning.

How it works…

At the core of this integration are the work items in Team Foundation Server, which synchronize with the Tasks in Microsoft Project plans in Project Server. Using this integration, project managers and software development teams can use whichever tools work best for them, and share information transparently.

The integration and all products involved in it are scalable from installations of a few users to several thousands. You can easily scale this integration out by using multiple Project Web Access servers mapped to a multi-server, that is, TFS deployment. This is a good spot for an overview diagram.

There’s more…

We have a few final points to keep in mind, and some valuable tips to make your installations go smoothly. This will not be a complicated integration if we follow the given advice.

A time saver for your test installations

We all know it can take a serious amount of time to build your own testing and demonstration virtual machines. This is especially tough when you are just going to use it for a test installation or a pitch to technical management. Although the following VM link provided by Microsoft is one revision older than the one discussed here, it is much quicker to upgrade this one than to do a fresh installation. For more information, see the following page on the Microsoft website:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=196413

You weren’t planning a test environment? Now would also be a good time to plan a test system in your deployment schedule. It will not only help you to have an environment to test out configuration changes but will also be a good safety measure to ensure all your mapping is correct before you deploy to a production environment.

Active Directory — Highly recommended for production installations

Active Directory is technically not required; however, it is highly recommended that you deploy Active Directory in your network. It will help with synchronization of the user accounts, groups, and services within Team Foundation Server and Project Server. Otherwise you’ll be doing this manually between the two environments. If you haven’t deployed Active Directory yet, but are planning to deploy it, now would be a good time to begin that.

SharePoint Authentication mode

We mentioned this in the previous checklist, but it bears repeating here. The authentication that is assigned to the SharePoint web application for the instance of PWA must be set to Classic Mode Authentication. You will not be able to register the instance of PWA if the authentication is set to Claims Based Authentication.

Backup

A server-based product cannot be mentioned completely without a discussion of backup. Do not begin any production installation or upgrade of any product mentioned here without involving a prior backup of all systems. Special attention should be paid to the backup of the Team Foundation Server system. If done improperly, the backup will put your TFS installation into an unusable state after a restore operation, and the worst part will be you won’t know this until you start using it again. Please review Microsoft’s current recommendation about using marked transactions in your backup strategy with the help of the Understanding Backing Up Team Foundation Server document, which is is available at:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms253151.aspx

Summary

In this article we started off with the requirements for a successful implementation, a short overview of integration, and some valuable tips to make your installations go smoothly. This is a very systematic and non-complicated planning of integration of Instant Team Foundation Server 2012 and Project Sever 2010.

Resources for Article :

Further resources on this subject:

• Getting Started with TeamCity [Article]
• How to Focus on Business Results [Article]
• Visual Studio 2010 Test Types [Article]