Copying build process template or reuse exsisting [closed]

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I am wondering what the tradeoffs are when setting en new TFS build process template. Basically you have 2 options - Copy existing xaml. Essentially creating a copy of the template for the current team project. - Use existing xaml. Essentially sharing the same build process template for multiple team projects.

The screen i am talking about

As a programmer I would go for the second option so you have a single point of definition for the template greatly easing maintainability.

It seems to me the trade off is - Single point of definition, easier to maintain for multiple team projects - Multiple definitions, allowing for change in an independent manner.

Are there things i am missing and that i should be taking into consideration or should we simply go for option 1?

Any best practices or real life experience that will help me make this decision would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I always reuse the same template for the same reason you mentioned about maintainability and is a best practice(like anything there can be few exceptions). I create parameters for things that vary between the build definitions so that sharing the template is easy.

I worked in a project in the past where we created copy for each build definition and it was painful when we had to change something.