[VSTS] Branching Guidance for Team Foundation Version Control

Have you ever wondered what would the right branching strategy for your project be, what are the possibilities and best practices in regard to branching anyway, what is baseless merge and what is a quality gate? How Microsoft uses branching? How it all can be done using MS Team System?

You don’t have to wonder anymore; MS has published a Branching Guidance for Team Foundation Version Control!

From the Jeff Beehler’s announcement:
“…what you'll read in this guidance isn't some theoretical description of how things should work in a perfect world but instead has been pressure tested and proved to be effective through actual TFS projects. In fact, you'll find examples pulled directly from our own teams experiences as well.”

Here's the high level overview:

Introduction
Parallel Development
Branching Defined
Creating Isolation in Team Foundation Server
General Branching Structure Guidance
Branching Strategies
Broad Areas of Branching Isolation
Creating Your Branching Strategy
Defining Your Code Promotion Model
Feature Crews: How Microsoft Does It
End-to-End Implementation Scenario
Appendix

Find it here: Branching Guidance for Team Foundation Version Control on CodePlex.