Reporting in Team Foundation Server 2010 – Part 1: Introduction

  • Article

This is the first chapter in the series on Reporting in Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010. In this series, I’ll cover the following topics:

  • Walkthroughs for out-of-the-box experience including customizations
  • Custom report authoring tools and walkthroughs
  • An overview of the reporting architecture

Out-of-the-box, we have several ways to report on the data in TFS to analyze and track project progress, quality and various other metrics:

  • SharePoint Dashboards

    • We have a brand new set of dashboards based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)/SharePoint Server as well as Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)/SharePoint Foundation.
      image  If you choose to integrate TFS with SharePoint Server deployment, then we enable a complete set of rich dashboards using Excel Reports that “light up” with Excel Services and Team Web Access web parts. Since the reports are based on Excel, they are very easy to customize.
      image  If you don’t have SharePoint Server in your deployment or you choose to integrate TFS with WSS/SharePoint Foundation then you still get a set of dashboards with reports and Team Web Access web parts. The reports on these dashboards are SQL Server Reporting Services reports written in Report Definition Language (RDL), so they are not as easy to customize as the Excel reports. The Excel Reports are still available on the SharePoint site, but you don’t get the light up experience since Excel Services isn’t available.

  • Rich SQL Reporting Services (SSRS/RS) Reports -

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<td>We have a whole set of new and improved RS reports, about 16 RDL reports in the MSF for Agile 5.0 template and 15 RDL reports in the MSF for CMMI 5.0 template, providing visibility into bugs, builds, tests etc.</td>
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  • Excel Reports from Work Item Queries -

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<td>This is one of the features that lower the barrier to entry in building your own reports that I like to highlight; the ability to generate a report in Excel based on a work item query.</td>
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I’ll cover each of these topics with detailed walkthroughs in the next few chapters. If you have questions or feedback please leave me a comment or send me an email at sunder.raman at microsoft.com

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2010
    Can the new dashboards be hosted on SharePoint 2007 using TFS 2010?

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2010
    Hi Greg, Yes, we support both SharePoint 2007 and 2010 with TFS 2010. The experience shown here are based on SharePoint 2007. Sunder

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2010
    Hello, I have failed in two different scenarios to display any reports via Excel Services under SharePoint 2010. Either the database connection fails or the user credentials arent delegated. I have tried setting up Kerberos but no luck. Any resources around how to properly configure this? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2010
    Hi Lambros, I missed the notification about your comment. Do you still need help here? Sunder

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2011
    Hi, before I didn't choose to integrate TFS with SharePoint Server and I have second option! So, now can I change this ?? Have you any guid??

  • Anonymous
    November 07, 2011
    Hi Sunder, Thanks for your post! Is it possible to export my query result from TFS to Excel? Regards, Kruba

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2012
    Hi Sundar, is it possible to drill down under the reports. for ex, if i have plot showing n number of bugs in active state and n number of bugs in closed state. can i click on the active state and get information about bugs in the active state? just wanted to know if i can drill down the SSRS reports?

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2012
    Hi Kumar, Kruba, zbiko, Sorry I missed your comments, I don't work on TFS anymore so I don't keep up with these posts anymore. But if you still need assistance, please send me an email from this blog and I'll connect you with people who can help answer your questions. Thanks! Sunder

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2013
    Hi Sunder, Why I'm not able to see "Burndown, Quality, Bugs, Test and Build" under Dashboards ? There's only my Dashboard. Thanks, Georges

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2013
    Hi Georges, Please send me an email from this blog and I'll connect you with people who can help. Thanks! Sunder

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2013
    Hi Sunder, I've done so. I just sent you an email. Thanks, Georges

  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2013
    Can I  get the dashboards  based on excel services  in  standard  edition of sharepoint.  Or Do we need to install  Enterprise edition of  Sharepoint 2007 or  2010  to get access to EXCEL.  As I can find only basic dashboards   i.e  My Dashboard  and  Project Dashboard.  MSDN says  you need to have  enterprise edition. Please let me know if we have any other alternative for this to display  excel reports on dashboards using standard versions