TFS: How can I create a project group before creating the project?

Question

One of my colleagues quit last year and I am now responsible for some of his old tasks. He created a customized process template for us. I downloaded it now from TFS and am trying to upload it again into a new collection.

This does not work, because some of the work item type definitions uses a group called "[Project]\Project Managers". The following error appears:

VS402504: User or group cannot be found: [Project]\Project Managers. Verify that the users and groups used in your work item type definition exist.

I added the group "Project Managers" to TFS but still the same error appears. But how can I create such a group without creating a project?

Answer 1

It's an validation error, custom project scoped groups are not supported. You can only reference account level scoped groups.

So you need to create a new account (collection) level group "Project Managers" and reference it accordingly in the specific work item type definition file (XML).

Please refer to VS402504: User or group cannot be found [project]\Group Name. Verify that the users and groups used in your work item type definition exist. for details.

Error example

Bug.xml is referencing a project scoped group.

... "[project]\Project Managers"

Resolution example

Create a new account (collection) level group "Organization Leaders" and reference it accordingly in the XML.

... "[global]\Project Managers"

Answer 2

You can add a new groups in the process template by editing the file GroupsAndPermissions.xml (exist in the folder "Groups And Permissions"):

<group name="New Group" description="Test Desc">
  <permissions>
   ... add here the permissions
  </permissions>
</group>

When you add there the new groups you can use them in the workitems.xml in the regular way:

"[project]\New Group"