Why would I want to install SharePoint with TFS

Question

I'm looking at upgrading my current TFS instance and planning to copy and restore databases as per Microsofts Advanced Upgrade which means I am pretty much installing the new product from scratch and restoring the databases then running a migration tool.

I see in the installation notes that you can integrate SharePoint with it as an optional extra. Why would I do this? Is the idea to store project documentation in a SharePoint Document library per project and be able to link to that content rather than as an attachment to the Backlog Items and Bugs in TFS?

I'm having trouble finding any documentation of team workflows with SharePoint and TFS and I suspect that its because no one really does it.

More importantly would SharePoint integration impede future product upgrades or moving to Visual Studio Online?

Answer 1

In my eyes, SharePoint as a TFS portal has become much less desirable due to the improvements in Team Web Access (eg Charting) but it still has some uses.

With the integration enabled, you will see a Documents tab in Team Explorer which will take you to the dedicated SharePoint Portal (created when you create the TFS Team Project) where all your documentation can be stored. Of course without SharePoint integration you can still happily link Work Items to documents in SharePoint, you just don't have a dedicated portal created for you.

If you are using one of the MSF process templates then some useful documents are created for you on SharePoint when you create the Team Project (xlsx reports etc). However, if you are using the much better VS Scrum template then no documents are created even if you have SharePoint integration enabled.

If you are using the Enterprise edition of SharePoint then you get some good dashboards (bugs, code quality etc.) and you can also publish your custom excel reports easily. This functionality requires Excel Services and so is not available in the standard edition (there are some dashboards created but they aren't that useful).

Share information using the project portal https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms242883.aspx

Your team can use the SharePoint portal to share information in the following ways:

• Share data contained in reports or dashboards
• Share team progress using predefined or customized dashboards.
• Share documents, files, images.
• Share team knowledge and processes using the SharePoint wiki.
• Reference process guidance for select team project artifacts.

If you want to add a portal to an existing project: Configure or add a project portal https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms242865.aspx