How to generate reports based on TFS work items?

Question

Few years ago I saw functionality that allows building graphics using TFS that show amount of issues per priority for project (it involved . But I Cannot find how to do that now.

Please advise:

Question 1. How to configure TFS to generate reports?

Question 2. How to generate reports?

P.S. I've found one article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff647430.aspx it looks like you need to write 'own application' for reports generation... is that correct?

Question 3. Is there any out-of-the-box solution to generate reports?

Thank you.

Answer 1

You need to have SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) installed somewhere, then you need to configure your TFS install to use SSRS. If you didn't do this when you installed TFS you can always do it after the fact by bringing up the TFS Admin Console and going through the reporting configuration. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee712737.aspx

For all new Team Projects reports will be created as part of project creation, if you wish to create reports for existing projects you have to follow the steps here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/greggboer/archive/2010/02/24/creating-sharepoint-portals-reports-and-upgrading-reports-for-an-existing-team-project.aspx

Answer 2

Another nice solution is to query the cube with Excel. You can right click a work item query and choose "Open Report in Excel". This creates a start from which you can start tweaking further. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd433251.aspx for more information

Answer 3

Also, note that even if you have Reporting Services installed on your SQL installation and configured, if you have TFS installed on a client operating system, you'll be unable to access any of the reporting features (because the option will never show up in the TFS Admin Console)