Work Item Types

A work item type defines the rules, fields, states, and transitions for an item of work that will be tracked on a team project; such as bugs, requirements, and risks. The work item type is specified in a type definition XML file under the Work Item Tracking folder in the TypeDefinitions folder. For example, MSF for Agile Software Development defines Bug, Quality of Service, Scenario, Risk, and Task work item types in the files Bug.xml, QoS.xml, Scenario.xml, Risk.xml, and Task.xml respectively.

Customize or create new type definition files in the TypeDefinitions folder. For more information about how to create or customize work item types, see Customizing Work Item Types.

To include work item types in the process template, you must create one or more tasks in the workitems.xml file. Use the WORKITEMTYPE element to specify the correct type definition file. The filename attribute is a relative path of the work item type definition file.

<WORKITEMTYPE fileName="WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\filename.xml"/>

The following example shows how to specify a task that creates all five work item types in MSF for Agile Software Development.

<task
   id="WITs"
   name="WorkItemType definitions"
   plugin="Microsoft.ProjectCreationWizard.WorkItemTracking"
   completionMessage="WorkItemTypes created"         
   completionDescription = "Processing work item types used by work item tracking">
   <taskXml>
   <WORKITEMTYPES>
      <WORKITEMTYPE fileName="WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\Bug.xml"/>
      <WORKITEMTYPE fileName="WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\Task.xml"/>
      <WORKITEMTYPE fileName="WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\Qos.xml"/>
      <WORKITEMTYPE fileName="WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\Scenario.xml"/>
      <WORKITEMTYPE fileName="WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\Risk.xml"/>
   </WORKITEMTYPES>
   </taskXml>
</task>

See Also

Tasks

How to: Verify Work Item Type Definition Changes

How to: Add a Query to a Process Template

Concepts

Process Template Customization Overview

Work Item Instances