Merging Two Team Projects
As you use Team Foundation Server to manage multiple team projects, you may encounter situations where it is desirable to merge two (or more) team projects into a single team project. Merging separate team projects might be useful when a:
Corporate reorganization changes management, reporting, or funding relationships.
Product reorganization changes schedule, scope, features, or staffing requirements.
Team project reorganization changes the scope, features, staffing, or resource requirements.
You must determine whether one team project is merged into another team project or whether the two (or more) team projects are merged into a third, new team project. The remainder of this topic assumes you are merging one team project (the source) into another, existing team project (the target). For more information on merging two existing team projects into a new, third team project, see Moving a Team Project from One Version to the Next.
Move the Work Items from the Source Team Project to the Target Team Project
There are likely to be unfinished work items in the source team project or work items that were created to be accomplished in the next version. You must copy the unfinished work items to the target team project one-by-one (Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of work items across projects). For more information about copying a work item from one project to another, see How to: Copy a Work Item.
Note
Making a copy of a work item sets the status of the new work item to Active by default. If you have work items in the source team project with a status other than Active, and you copy these work items to the target team project, be sure to set the status on the new work item to the same status as it had in the source team project.
Copy the Documents from the Source Team Project to the Target Team Project
There are likely to be documents and reports in the source team project that are still relevant to the merged team project. You can copy the documents to the target team project by dragging and dropping the documents within Team Explorer. For more information about copying documents from one project to another, see How to: Move or Delete a Document or Folder in Team Explorer.
Set the User Permission on Copied Items
It is important that you correctly set the permissions for the items that you copied over from the source team project. You must set the permissions on each item one-by-one (for security reasons Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of permissions from one project to another). For more information about setting permissions, see Managing Permissions.
Reassign the Copied Work Items to the Correct Areas and Iterations
The team project structure and classification used in the target team project must be applied to the work items copied from the source team project. For more information about assigning areas and iterations, see Setting Initial Project Areas or Iterations.
Create the Check-in Policies
The team project check-in policies used in the source team project may or may not be appropriate for the target team project. You must re-create check-in policies for the target team project one-by-one (Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of check-in policies from one project to another). For more information about check-in policies, see Working with Check-In Policies and Notes.
Create Alerts
If you are using alerts in the target team project, it is important that you set these event notifications correctly. If you want to continue the same alerts used in the source team project, you must re-create the alerts for the target team project one-by-one (Team Foundation Server does not support the bulk copying or moving of alerts from one project to another). For more information about creating alerts, see Setting Alerts.
Revoke Permissions on the Discontinued Team Project
After you have copied over all relevant items and recreated the policies, alerts, and so forth in the target team project, revoke all permissions on the source team project. Revoking permissions will protect the source team project from any further changes and enable you to save it for historical reference.
Determine if a New Backup is Appropriate
Because the process of merging team projects, copying work items individually, and recreating permissions, areas, iterations, check-in policies, and alerts can take a significant amount of time, it is important that your work be protected from loss due to computer hardware failures. You may want to check with your Team Foundation Server administrator to determine if a special backup of the server is warranted.