Many popular engineering problems, regarded as optimization problems, can be successfully solved with intelligent optimization algorithms, one of which is named Team Progress Algorithm (TPA). It is a novel kind of two-group evolutionary algorithm that simulates a team upgrading process with member learning, exploring and renewal, possessing the abilities of global, local and directional search. The intrinsic mechanism of TPA makes itself highly competitive in solving optimization problems. This paper mainly focuses on the development and improvement of TPA, including the original procedure, several perfection researches and their applications in microwave component and antenna designs. The numerical results and design examples in available literatures well verify the accuracy, efficiency and feasibility of TPA in the engineering optimizations of all kinds.