Designing the Workflow

You design the workflow for a work item type to support your business and team processes. The workflow determines the logical progression of tasks that will be performed and by whom. You define the workflow by first identifying the states and the valid transitions between them. The WORKFLOW section of the definition for the work item type defines the valid states, transitions, reasons for the transitions, and optional actions that will be performed when a team member changes the state of a work item. For more information about type definitions, see All WITD XML Elements Reference.

In general, you associate each state with a team member role and a task that a person in that role must perform to process the work item before changing its state. Transitions define the valid progressions and regressions between states. Reasons identify why a team member changes a work item from one state to another, and actions support automation of the transition of a work item at a point in the workflow.

For example, the State is set to Active when a tester opens a new bug that is based on the process template for Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software Development 5.0. After fixing the bug, the developer changes its state to Resolved and sets the value of the Reason field to Fixed. After verifying the fix, the tester changes the state of the bug to Closed and leaves the value of the Reason field as Fixed. If the tester determined that the developer had not fixed the bug, the tester would change the state of the bug to Active and specify the Reason as Resolution Denied or Test Failed.

In this topic

• Workflow Design Guidelines

• Workflow Diagram and Code Example

• Determining the Number and Types of States

• Defining the Transitions

  • Specifying the Reasons

  • Specifying Actions

• Updating a Field when the State Changes

  • Defining a Field When the State Changes

  • Clearing the Value of a Field

  • Defining a Field Based on the Contents of Another Field

• Viewing the Workflow State Diagram

Workflow Design Guidelines

As you design or modify a workflow, consider the following guidelines:

• By using the STATE element, you define a unique state for each team member role that will take a specific action on a work item. The more states you define, the more transitions you must define. Regardless of the sequence in which you define the states, they are listed in alphanumeric order in the State list.

• By using the TRANSITION element, you define a transition for each valid progression and regression from one state to another.

• At a minimum, you must define one transition for each state, and the transition from the null state to the initial state.

• For each transition, you must define a default reason by using the DEFAULTREASON element. You can define as many optional reasons as you want by using the REASON element.

• You can define only one transition from unassigned (null) to the initial state. When you save a new work item, it is automatically assigned to the initial state.

• When a team member changes the state of a work item, that change triggers the transition and the actions that you define to be performed for the selected state and the transition. Users can specify only those states that are valid based on the transitions that you define for the current state. In addition, an ACTION element, which is a child element of TRANSITION, can change the state of a work item.

• You can define conditional rules to any field that will be applied when the work item changes state, when it transitions, or when a user selects a specific reason. Many of these rules supplement the conditional rules that you can apply when you define the fields in the FIELDS section under the WORKITEMTYPE definition. For more information, see Updating Fields When a State Changes later in this topic.

• You should try to minimize the number of conditions that you define for any one type of work item. With each conditional rule that you add, you increase the complexity of the validation process that occurs every time that a team member saves a work item. Complex rule sets may increase the time that is required to save the work item.

• The names that you assign to states and reasons are case insensitive.

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Workflow Diagram and Code Example

The following table shows the WORKFLOW section of the definition for a work item type that tracks code defects, and the workflow state diagram that it defines. This example defines three states, six transitions, and nine reasons. The STATE elements specify the Active, Resolved, and Closed states. All possible combinations for progression and regression transitions are defined for the three states, except one. The transition from Closed to Resolved is not defined. Therefore, team members cannot resolve a work item of this type if the work item is closed.

<WORKFLOW> <STATES>   <STATE value="Active">     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS>   </STATE>   <STATE value="Resolved">     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS>   </STATE>   <STATE value="Closed" /> </STATES> <TRANSITIONS>   <TRANSITION from="" to="Active">     <REASONS>       <DEFAULTREASON value="New" />     </REASONS>     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS>   </TRANSITION>   <TRANSITION from="Active" to="Resolved">     <REASONS> . . . </REASONS>     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS>     < ACTIONS > . . . </ ACTIONS > </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="Resolved" to="Closed">     <REASONS> . . . </REASONS>     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS>     < ACTIONS > . . . </ ACTIONS > </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="Resolved" to="Active">     <REASONS> . . . </REASONS>     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS> </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="Active" to="Closed ">     <REASONS> . . . </REASONS>     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS> </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="Closed" to="Active">     <REASONS> . . . </REASONS>     <FIELDS> . . . </FIELDS> </TRANSITION> </TRANSITIONS> </WORKFLOW>

Example Workflow State Diagram

Determining the Number and Types of States

You determine the number and types of valid states based on the number of distinct logical states in which you want the work items of that type to exist. Also, if different team members perform different actions, then you can consider defining a state based on a member role. Each state corresponds to an action that a team member must perform on the work item to move it to the next state. For each state, you should define the specific actions and the team members who are allowed to perform those actions.

The following table provides an example of four states that are defined to track the progress of a feature and the valid users who must perform the indicated actions:

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Defining the Transitions

You control the states to and from which team members can change a work item if you define the valid state progressions and regressions. If you do not define a transition from one state to another state, team members cannot change a work item of a particular type from a particular state to another particular state.

The following table defines the valid transitions for each of the four states that were described earlier in this topic, together with the default reason for each.

You can restrict who is allowed to make a transition from one state to another by using the for and not attributes of the TRANSITION element. As the following example shows, testers can reopen a bug but developers cannot.

<TRANSITION from="Closed" to="Active"
     for="[Project]\Testers"
      not="[Project]\Developers">
    . . .
</TRANSITION>

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Specifying the Reasons

When a team member changes the State field, that user can retain the default reason for that transition or specify a different reason if you define additional options. You must use the DEFAULTREASON element to specify one and only one default reason. You should specify additional reasons only if they help the team track or report data.

For example, a developer can specify one of the following reasons when they resolve a bug: Fixed (Default), Deferred, Duplicate, As Designed, Cannot Reproduce, or Obsolete. Each reason specifies a particular action for the tester to perform with regard to the bug.

The following example shows the elements that define the reasons why a member of the team might resolve a bug:

<TRANSITION from="Active" to="Resolved">
   . . .
   <REASONS>
      <DEFAULTREASON value="Fixed"/>
      <REASON value="Deferred"/>
      <REASON value="Duplicate"/>
      <REASON value="As Designed"/>
      <REASON value="Unable to Reproduce"/>
      <REASON value="Obsolete"/>
   </REASONS>
   . . .
</TRANSITION>

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Specifying Actions

In general, team members change the state of a work item by specifying a different value for the State field and then saving the work item. However, you can also define an ACTION element that automatically changes the state of a work item when that transition occurs. As the following example shows, you can specify that bug work items should be resolved automatically if they are associated with files that a developer checks into version control:

<TRANSITION from="Active" to="Resolved">
   <ACTIONS>
   <ACTION value="Microsoft.VSTS.Actions.Checkin"/>
   </ACTIONS>
. . .
</TRANSITION>

You can use the ACTION element to automatically change the state of work items of a particular type when events occur elsewhere in Microsoft Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management or outside Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management (for example, from a tool that tracks calls). For more information, see Automating Field Assignments Based on State, Transition, or Reason.

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Updating a Field

You can define rules that update fields whenever the following events occur:

• Assign a field rule under STATE when you want the rule to apply for all transitions to and reasons for entering that state.

• Assign a field rule under TRANSITION when you want the rule to apply for that transition and all reasons for making that transition.

• Assign a field rule under DEFAULTREASON or REASON when you want the rules to apply only for that specific reason.

If a field should always contain the same value, you define the rule under the FIELD element that defines that field. For more information, see Setting Conditions on a Work Item Field.

The following examples show some of the rules that are applied to system fields in the process template for MSF Agile Software Development v5.0.

• Changing the Value of a Field When the State Changes

• Clearing the Value of a Field When the Value of Another Field Changes

• Defining a Field Based on the Contents of Another Field

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Changing the Value of a Field When the State Changes

When the value of the State field for a work item is set to Active and the work item is saved, the values of the Activated By and Assigned To fields are automatically set to the name of the current user. That user must be a member of the Team Foundation Server Valid Users group. The value of the Activated Date field is also set automatically. The following example shows the elements that enforce this rule:

<STATE value="Active">
<FIELDS>
   <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ActivatedBy">
      <COPY from="currentuser"/>
      <VALIDUSER/>
      <REQUIRED/>
   </FIELD>
   <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ActivatedDate">
      <SERVERDEFAULT from="clock"/></FIELD>
   <FIELD refname="System.AssignedTo">
      <DEFAULT from="currentuser"/>
   </FIELD>
. . .
</FIELDS>
</STATE>

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Clearing the Value of a Field When the Value of Another Field Changes

When the value of the State field for a work item is set to Active and the work item is saved, the Closed Date and Closed By fields are automatically set to null and made read-only if you use the EMPTY element, as the following example shows.

<STATE value="Active">
   <FIELDS>
. . .
      <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedDate"><EMPTY/></FIELD>
      <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedBy"><EMPTY/></FIELD>
   </FIELDS>
</STATE>

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Defining a Field Based on the Contents of Another Field

When the value of the State field for a work item changes to Resolved and the work item is saved, the value of the Resolved Reason field is set to the value that the user specified in the Reason field. The following example shows the elements that enforce this rule:

<STATE value="Resolved">
   <FIELDS>
. . .
      <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ResolvedReason">
         <COPY from="field" field="System.Reason"/>
      </FIELD>
   </FIELDS>
</STATE>

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Viewing the Workflow State Diagram

You can view the workflow definition of any type of work item if you use Team Web Access to open the state diagram for any work item of that type. For more information, see Managing Work Using Team Web Access.

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See Also

Other Resources

Defining and Customizing Work Item Workflow