Is it possible to synchronize tfs (2008 or 2010) or project 2010 work items with outlook tasks (without the project server)? Is it possible to send a work item from tfs or project 2010 as an outlook task?
Short answer: Yes
Option 1: Server side
You can connect a Sharepoint Tasks list with Outlook
You get the items into Sharepoint by:
I am sure project has some pretty good Sharepoint integration (not 100% but I think it does)
You can use the TFS Integration Platfrom to do a two way sync from TFS to Sharepoint
http://tfsintegration.codeplex.com/
Option 2: Client side only (no server)
So the best option in this regard is to use a tool that makes it look like your work items are inside Outlook and give you the same facilities as tasks. Remember Work Items have a lot more fields and statuses than Tasks so you can't do a direct link without loosing information.
I would recommend using Team Companion which I think is your best solution.
Related
I have been tasked with creating a custom planning view from TFS.
I have a reasonable amount of experience with the TFS Api but I want to try and avoid having to create and maintain a new application for this.
I have looked at SSRS for TFS but I am unable to access all of the data I need (tags etc.) so this is not an option (as it will invalidate support).
I would ideally like to create a "widget" to appear on one of the TFS dashboards but am not sure where to start. The widget would also need to allow access to the TFS api to gather the data it needs to generate.
Please can someone advise where I may look to start or an alternative approach.
You may want to take a look at http://integrate.visualstudio.com where you can find documentation for the TFS API. The REST API works for TFS 2015 and above.
While you can extend the web interface with Extensions (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/) in Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), this feature is not yet available in TFS on-premises as of TFS 2015 Update 1.
You can check the published feature timeline for updates, but at this time extensions for TFS are marked as "TBD".
If you're working with TFS2013 + Update2 or a higher version of TFS, it is allowed for Team Administrators to customize TFS dashboard via pinning items to the homepage without writing any code.
For example, if you would like to add a chart into the dashboard, you just need to go to the query’s Charts page and pin it to the home page. See the following image (quoted from this MSDN article)
I'd like to know if there is some way to make a checkin on a TFS server associated to a Work Item that's on another.
Currently some of our developers use a TFS that's hosted offshore containing the source code and we need to install another TFS locally to use Work Items as a project management tool and for the rest of our developers.
Beeing able to associate the two (work items + checkins) would be nice but I presume it's not possible.
Thanks
Apparently it's not possible: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsgeneral/thread/d3ddf813-dc13-48a2-808e-7887ddc4d9b1
I'm aware of the stand-alone Work Item Manager from Telerik, and an outdated project on Codeplex that doesn't work with TFS 2010.
Are there any other tools that end-users to easily enter bug-reports and have them submitted to TFS as work items? Something web-based would be preferrable, but i'd be ok with stand-alone.
WIM looks nice, but it's a little too much for end users to simply submit bugs. And they're not in TFS and don't have Team Explorer. So what other options are there?
Like John said in his comments, there is Web Access (http://mytfsserver:8080/tfs/web) which you can use to report bugs. It is even possible to let external users to create new bugs and track them without needing a CAL (license): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc668124.aspx
You can give users a url that opens a new bug form and prepopulates some values for them: http://www.ewaldhofman.nl/post/2009/05/06/Initial-values-in-a-work-item.aspx
Usersnap for TFS is exactly what you need.
Add Usersnap to your web project and connect Usersnap with TFS - you will get bug screenshots directly added to your TFS tickets as attachment:
Your users don't need to login and you don't need any CALs for them.
Full disclosure: I'm CTO and Co-Founder of Usersnap.
If you have a Team Project SharePoint site associated with your TFS project, you can even use the shipped and ready to use SharePoint Product Backlog webpart that comes with the Agile process template to enter new Bugs. Very low threshold and little pre-requisites for users.
What should I use for syncing TFS 2008 Work Items with an external database? I just want basic functionality such as creating and updating work items in TFS so that they match our QA department's bug tracking software.
You can consider to use the Integration platform of TFS: http://tfsintegration.codeplex.com/
If you need to do it in an automated fashion, it is straightforward to do it with the API. Just modify your work item template to have an external reference for the bug-tracking system's key. That way you can keep things straight.
we're transitioning to doing all our task tracking in TFS 2010 and I'm wondering if there is a more lightweight way of working with it than through Visual Studio?
Just some sort of web-interface or a lightweight client, or even some powershell commandlets where I can create new tasks and add information to existing ones.
You could use a tool called Eylean Board. It integrates with TFS allowing to create and manage TFS tasks in a more user-friendly interface. Besides that Eylean offers additional features such as reports, time tracking and others.
There was a web interface for TFS2008. As far as I can tell it is included by default with the 2010 edition
I use Scrum Taskboard für Team Systems for the Daily Scrum, its easy and fast to change status of SPIs and create new SPIs. There is also a planning mode to add new BPIs.
A other comprehensive tool is Telerik Work Item Manager. It provides dash board, interactive task board and many ways to sort, filter and grouping items.