More about Linked Reports and Team Foundation Server

Here’s a common problem. Several teams are using the same TFS team project, which means they share a single set of reports. But each team has different parameters they use when they run a report. But you don’t want to have to enter the start and end date, etc. each time you open the report. What do you do?

There is a way to customize the default parameter values that are used when you first open a report, which I described in a previous post on customizing report parameters. But if you have multiple teams using the same report and they need different defaults, what do you do? You use linked reports.

Linked reports are essentially a new set of default parameter values that are linked to the original report. That means each team can create their own linked report that will have their own default values.

Here is a common example. Your team uses the Burndown and Burnrate report, but with iteration start and end dates that doesn’t match other teams’ dates, and you’re also using the area path to differentiate your work from other teams.

First you would create a linked report, and then change the default parameters for your new report:

1. Click on the Properties tab for the report (just like in the previous section)
2. Click on the Create Linked Report button on the Properties page
3. Type in the name you want to use for this new linked report, and then click on the OK button
4. Click on the Properties tab of this new linked report
5. Click on the Parameters link on the left side to customize the parameter values that will be used for the linked report, and click on the Apply button to accept the new default values

This “new report” will look exactly like the original report, but it will have your own default values. From now on, you can simply open the report and it will render with the values you normally want to use.