Sharing a custom field across multiple team projects in TFS 2010

Question

I have a TFS 2010 installation with several Team Projects. Is there a good way to use the same field name across multiple Team Projects?

At current, when I try to add the field "Requested By" to the user store work item in one team project, I get the error:

TFS237094 : Field Name 'Requested By is used by the field 'SomeOtherTeamProject.RequestedBy' so it cannot be used by the field 'ThisTeamProject.RequestedBy'.

Update Based on discussion, this appears to be due to my trying to add a field with same Name but different Reference Name.

Answer 1

When creating Fields in TFS the "Name" and "RefName" have to be unique. Re-using a field "Name" with a different "RefName" is not allowed.

The common practice for custom fields is to use the RefName as Company.FieldName as opposed to the Team Project Name.

By default any new field you add is available to all Team Projects in the Collection to use.