How to: Add Related Work Item Links

When work items are similar but are not duplicates, or if they contain information relevant to one another, you can create a related link between them. The work items can reside in the same team project or in different team projects on the same Team Foundation Server.

Note

This procedure is based on the work item types for MSF for Agile Software Development that are included with Team Foundation. If your team project is using a different process, this procedure might not apply to your work items, and you might have to see the custom help created for the process you are using. For more information, see Finding and Using Process Guidance.

Security

To perform these procedures, you must be a member of the Contributors group or have the View work items in this node, and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

  1. Add a new work item or edit an existing one.

  2. Complete the fields at the top of the work item form.

  3. On the Links tab at the bottom of the form, click Add.

  4. In the Add Link dialog box, under Link Type, select Work Item.

  5. For Work Item ID, type the number.

  6. Or click Browse to find the work item in your team project. This displays the Choose Related Work Item dialog box, in which there are three methods to use to find the work item.

  7. If you want to receive the work items from a saved query, select Saved query, and select a query from the list.

  8. If you know the work item IDs you want to receive, select IDs, and enter the work item IDs. Separate each ID with a comma or a space.

  9. You can also receive work items that contain specific text in the title.

    1. Select Title contains, and type the search text. For example, entering "Setup" returns all work items with "Setup" in the title.

    2. Select the type of work items that you want to search in from the and type box.

  10. As soon as you have determined the criteria for finding your work items, click Find. The Choose Related Work Item dialog box displays the results of the find in a list at the bottom of the dialog box.

  11. Select the work item you want to link to from the list and then click OK.

  12. In the Comment box, type a comment that explains how the work item is related. The Description box is filled in automatically.

  13. Click OK.

    Note

    To test the link, click the Links tab, select the link, and then click Open. The related work item opens.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Add New Work Item Queries
How to: Edit Work Item Queries
How to: Delete Related Work Item Links