An iteration plan itemizes the work to be accomplished within an iteration. There are two possible ways to draft an iteration plan in MSF for Agile Software Development. The first way utilizes Microsoft Project and presents an entire view of the iterations over the life of the project. The second way is to use Microsoft Excel. A new iteration plan is created in each iteration using this method.

Procedures:

1. In Visual Studio Team System, open Team Explorer. Locate your team project and expand the Documents folder.
2. In the Project Management folder, find the file "Development Project Plan.mpp." Open the file. A new project plan appears in Microsoft Project.
3. In Microsoft Project, find the "Choose Team Project" on the toolbar. Click the icon and select the server name and team project in the dialog box. 
4. From the "Get Work Items" dialog box, choose the "Query" radio button. From the selection list to the right of the radio button, choose the query "Project Checklist."
5. Press the "run" button. The new work items appear in the dialog box. Close the "Get Work Items" dialog box by clicking the "OK" button. The work items are transferred into the project plan.
6. Select the first task in the project if it is not chosen already. From the Insert menu, click New Task to create a new task above this first task. Name the new task "Iteration 0".
7. Look for the "Publish and Refresh" column for the new task in the task list. Set the value "Do Not Publish" for the iteration task.
8. Choose all of the tasks in "Iteration 0"  by pressing the shift button and simultaneously selecting the last task. All of the tasks in "Iteration 0" are now selected. On the toolbar, find the right arrow and press it, making "Iteration 0" a summary task.
9. While the tasks below "Iteration 0" are highlighted, right-click to open the context menu. Select "Task Information" from the menu. In the "Advanced" tab, change "Task type" to "Fixed Duration." Set the "Duration" to the iteration length if it has been determined. If not, use a default of 14 days.
10. From the File menu, click Save to save the file to the project portal.
     

• To create an initial iteration plan in Microsoft Project 

1. In the Microsoft Project task list, collapse all of the subtasks under the single summary tasks. Type "Iteration n+1" in the empty task slot below the collapsed summary task, where iteration n is the previous iteration that was just collapsed. Make sure the "Iteration n+1" task is fully outdented.
2. Link the n and n+1 iterations by selecting both tasks and clicking the chain icon for linking tasks on the toolbar. The "finish to start" relationship should appear in the Gantt chart.
3. Look for the "Publish and Refresh" column in the task list. Set the value "Do Not Publish" for the iteration task. . 

4. In Visual Studio Team System, be sure that any scenario or quality of service requirement work items scheduled for the iteration have the "Exit Criteria" flag set to "Yes."

5. On the Microsoft Project toolbar, click "Get Work Items". From the "Get Work Items" dialog box, choose the "Query" radio button. From the selection list to the right of the radio button, choose the query "Project Checklist."
6. Press the "run" button. The new work items should appear in the dialog box. Close the "Get Work Items" dialog box by clicking the "OK" button. The work items should be transferred into the project plan.
7. Select the new work items and press the right arrow button to move them into the iteration.
8. Select the tasks below the iteration, right-click, and select "Task Information" from the menu. On the "Advanced" tab, change "Task type" to "Fixed Duration" and set "Duration" to the iteration length.
9. On the File menu, click Save to save the file to the project portal.

• Break down scenarios into tasks in Microsoft 

1. In the task view in Microsoft Project, choose the task below the desired scenario or quality of service requirement that you wish to separate into tasks.
2. From the Insert menu, click New Task.

3. Enter the name of the new task in the empty row.

4. Set the Work Item Type to Task.
5. Set the name of the task owner in the Assigned To field.
6. While the desired tasks in Iteration 0 selected, right-click and select Task Information. On the Advanced tab, change the Task type to Fixed Duration and set the Duration to the iteration length in days.
7. On the Work Items menu, click Publish to create the new tasks.
8. From the File menu, click Save to save the Project Plan.