Confusion over 'BuildProcessTemplates' in TFS 2013 and 2012 Agile Project templates - wrt Migration

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We are migrating a TFS 2012 project to TFS 2013 (project only has work items and no source code) and have a few questions about the agile project template.

  • In TFS 2012 if we want to create an Agile project then we have to choose: MSF for Agile Software Development 6.2
  • In TFS 2013 if we want to create an Agile project then we have to choose: MSF for Agile Software Development 2013.3

I want to know the following:

  1. Why is it that the TFS 2012 project with above template has a folder under it called 'BuildProcessTemplates', whereas the TFS 2013 project has no such folder?

  2. What is significance of the 'BuildProcessTemplates' folder, does the workitems data get stored in it? Can we get rid of it without affecting the workitem data?

  3. We are migrating a TFS 2012 project into TFS 2013 so we are wondering if we can delete the 'BuildProcessTemplates' folder after migrating to TFS 2013 without affecting the WorkItems.

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Daniel Mann On BEST ANSWER

It's confusing terminology.

"Process Templates" and "Build Process Templates" are totally different things with no overlap.

A Process Template controls what work items you have available, how they interact, and the reports you get.

A Build Process Template controls how the TFS build system works. They are orthogonal to work items. You could delete the BuildProcessTemplates folder and it would have no impact on your work items, but I don't recommend doing so -- the folder contain the workflows that TFS can use to build your software for continuous integration or continuous delivery.

As of TFS2013, the folder isn't created because the built-in templates are stored internally. You only need to create a folder for the build process templates if you want to use custom templates, or modify the existing templates.