Create a planning folder

Create and populate all the planning folders you need to capture the work you are planning.

A planning folder is a way to organize work into feasible chunks and monitor its progress.

Tip: It often makes sense to set up planning folders after you have outlined and analyzed the features you plan to deliver. See Define the scope of your project.

When you've thought about the general categories the work falls into, you are ready to create planning folders that reflect those ideas.

A planning folder can represent:

A set of tasks, such as Iteration 3, or "Initial infrastructure development."
A period of time, such as "April," or "Q2-2010."
A phase of development, such as "Testing" or "Deployment."
A component of the product, such as "Chapter 12" or "Rear stabilizer."

Click TRACKERS in the project navigation bar.
Under Planning Folders, select a node, for example the Root Folder, then New.
Tip: The new folder becomes the child of the node you select from the planning folder tree structure.
The Create Planning Folder window appears.
Give your planning folder a brief and descriptive name. For example, in an agile project, you'll probably want two or more iterations. Make a planning folder called "Iteration 1," another called "Iteration 2," and so on. In a phased, waterfall-style project, you might name your first planning folder "Design," the next "Build," and so on.
Tip: Don't worry if you don't have anything of interest to put into your planning folders yet. The parallel process of filling out the feature tree will provide plenty of material for this.
Use the Description to briefly signal the kind of work that will be contained in this planning folder. Include enough information to help people get up to speed quickly whey they join your project. But save most of the detail for the individual tracker artifacts, where project members will spend most of their time.
Select a start and end date for the work that this planning folder will contain. You can change these dates at any time. It's important to specify dates even if they're not firm, however, because a variety of useful visual aids and reports depend on them.
Select a unit of measurement from the Display Effort in drop-down list.
Select a value from the Burndown View By drop-down list to view the burndown chart by the selected unit.
Click Create.