Work Item Instances

When a team project is created, you can specify an initial set of work item instances that are already created when team members begin working. MSF for Agile Software Development creates an initial set of tasks that serve as the project checklist to guide project leads and the team.

Specifying Work Item Instances

To specify work item instances, along with field values for those work items, use the WI and FIELD elements.

<WI type="">
   <FIELD refname="" value="" />
</WI>

The type attribute for the WI element specifies which work item type is being created, such as bug, scenario, or risk. You must provide one or more FIELD elements to specify the field values for the work item. The FIELD element has two attributes explained in the following table.

Attribute

Description

refname

The reference name of the field to set.

value

The value to set in the field.

The following example shows how to create a work item instance that is a task work item type. The name of the work item is Setup: Set Permissions. Note that required field values are provided.

<task
   id="WIs"
   name="WorkItems"
   plugin="Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.WorkItemTracking"
   completionMessage="Work items uploaded"
   completionDescription = "Processing the actual work items used by work item tracking">
   <dependencies>
      <dependency taskId="WITs" />
   </dependencies>
   <taskXml>
       <WORKITEMS>
       <WI type="Task">
          <FIELD refname="System.Title" value="Setup: Set Permissions" />
          <FIELD refname="System.IterationPath" value="$$PROJECTNAME$$\Iteration 0" />
          <FIELD refname="System.State" value="Active" />
          <FIELD refname="System.Reason" value="New" />
          <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Issue" value="No" />
          <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ExitCriteria" value="Yes" />
          <FIELD refname="System.Description" value="Using the admin UI in VS adds users to one of the 3 groups: Project administrators, Contributors, or Readers." />
         </WI>
      </WORKITEMS>
   </taskXml>
</task>

See Also

Tasks

How to: Verify Work Item Type Definition Changes

How to: Add a Query to a Process Template

Concepts

Work Item Types