Manage parallel work efforts in Microsoft TFS

Question

I have the following requirements for my agile project management tool...

1. To plan work for version 2 of my product while simultaneously planning work for the next hot fix release.

2. Each sprint will contain a selection of stories destined for release_2 and a selection for release_hot_fix.

3. I will be able to forecast completion dates, based on velocity, for both release_2, and release_hot_fix.

4. I will be able to ensure capacity for each sprint, for developers working on both releases.

Is this possible with Microsoft TFS? if so, how would I configure it please?

Answer 1

Typically you'd use one of three methods in TFS.

Option 1: Area paths

You can use area paths to match up to your major versions. Create a "V2" area path (and the requisite sub-paths) to segregate the work items.

Option 2: Iteration paths

If you aren't using the iteration paths for Scrum sprints, you can also use iteration paths for this purpose. Similar to area paths, you can create iteration paths to segregate the work. In this case, iteration paths also come with start and end dates for planning purposes.

Option 3: Tags

You can also use tags to track which work item belongs to which version. Simply tag a work item with "V2" or whatever, and you can then filter by tags.

More importantly than the method that you use to segregate your work, you need to consider the principle of the "single backlog". If your team always understands what the next highest priority thing to work on is, you'll pretty much be almost all the way home.