Publishing and Refreshing Work Items

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Work items in a Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Project document are copies of the original work items in the work item database. Changes you make to work items in the document are not reflected in the work item database. Periodically, you must publish document changes back to the work item database. Also, changes that you made to the work item database are not reflected in your document. Therefore you must refresh the document periodically so that it matches the work item database.

  • **Data Conflicts   **Data conflicts occur when the published version of a work item differs from the version in the work item database. The work item database tracks changes for each work item. Consider a scenario where you create a new work item in the work item database. You then create a work item list in Microsoft Excel, which contains a copy of the same work item. While you are editing the work item in the work item list, another team member changes the work item in the work item database. When you publish your changes, a conflict occurs because the changes you and the other team member entered are different. At this point, you must use the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box to resolve the data conflict.

  • Validation Errors   Validation errors occur when changes that you made in the document violate rules in the work item type. For example, MSF for Agile Software Development bugs cannot move from the Active state directly to the Closed state. This is an invalid state transition. Also, if you create a new work item and forget to complete a required field, you receive a validation error. The Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box is used to fix validation errors.

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Managing Work Items in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project