VSTS or TFS2015 Teams, areas and iterations structure for multi product team

1
votes

Currently we are using TFS 2015v3 (an upgraded from 2013 TFS using Agile template). We are using only 1 TFS project (following advice from a few years ago). We are a team of 6 at the root level, using areas for products. That worked fine while we predominantly used it as Source Control (git repo’s), but now we are wanting to start to use it for Project management, work items, backlogs, sprints, etc. so want to ensure we have a setup that’ll work for what we want.

Our scenario

  • One company, with two teams of 6, both who maintain multiple separate products. Occasionally collaborate on projects/products, but mostly our own products per team.
  • Open to using latest VSTS/VSO or TFS on prem.

Goal

  • To be able to plan/backlog refinement per team/product respectively if possible. We have multiple Product Owners, goes with having multiple products.
  • Iteration (sprint dates) to be common across the teams.
  • To see a sprint for Team 1, with PBI’s spanning more than 1 product.
  • To see the same sprint time box for Team 2, with PBI’s spanning more than 1 product.
  • And be repeatable per sprint.

Main question

  1. How do we setup the structure of areas, teams, iterations, etc to achieve this? Assuming it sounds sensible!

Other questions

  1. Should we ever set up a team per product? Even if the same people may appear on more than 1 team?
  2. Is iteration per team?
1
tfsazure-devopsscrum

1 Answers

1
votes

Should we ever set up a team per product? Even if the same people may appear on more than 1 team?

You can still use the Single Team Project.

How do we setup the structure of areas, teams, iterations, etc to achieve this? Assuming it sounds sensible!

Areas:

You should create a root area for each sub-project.

TFS Teams:

Create a TFS Team for each sub-project. You can create a hierarchy of Teams, so each sub-project could potentially have many teams each with their own Product Backlog, then then roll-up into the parent team for that sub-project.

Iterations:

Just like with Area hierarchy you should create a root node in the Iteration Hierarchy for each sub-project. Then you can maintain/manage the sprints/iterations for each sub-project separately.

Is iteration per team?

For single team project, yes.

More information, you can refer to this article.