Can you add validation for swimlanes in TFS 2018? - tfs

I have a "Blocked" swimlane that I would like to add validation to. Specifically, I'd like to make a field required to be filled in when a backlog item is moved into this swimlane. Is this possible in TFS 2018? I've looked in the "TFS Process Template Editor" extension but I can't see how to do this. Thanks

Yes, it's possible, I prefer to do it with exportwitd and importwitd.
Export the work item XML with exportwitd.
Add a transition with your Blocked state and make a field required.
<TRANSITION from="In Progress" to="Blocked">
<REASONS>
<DEFAULTREASON value="Fixed"/>
</REASONS>
<FIELDS>
<FIELD refname="MyCorp.SomeField" >
<REQUIRED />
</FIELD>
</FIELDS>
</TRANSITION>`
Import the XML again to TFS with importwitd.
Now when a user moves the work item from "In Progress" to "Blocked" the field "MyCorp.SomeField" will be required.
You can find good documenation regarding above here, here and here.

Related

TFS Assign Work Item By STATE ... with conditions

Our TFS is currently set up to assign a work item to our Tester (by capacity planning role) when the item goes from Active to Resolved state.
This is great, but it doesn't go far enough. When the Tester moves the item from Resolved to either Closed (tested and verified fixed) or Active (failed testing) I want to reassign the item back to whoever most recently transitioned it from Active to Resolved.
This way the person who fixed it is still associated with it when the defect is closed (get credit for your work) or if you didn't pass testing it gets reassigned back to the person that will be re-doing the work.
How can this be done?
Yes, your requirement can be achieved.
Automatically change AssignedTo field to a user when State field changes from Active to Resolved.
Assuming you have installed TFS Power Tool. You can modify the Transition from Active to Resolved (my example is from To Do to In Progress) by adding AssignedTo field and rules to this Transition:
The XML file should be like:
<Transition from="To Do" to="In Progress">
<ACTIONS>
<ACTION value="Microsoft.VSTS.Actions.StartWork" />
</ACTIONS>
<REASONS>
<DEFAULTREASON value="Work started" />
</REASONS>
<FIELDS>
<FIELD refname="System.AssignedTo">
<DEFAULT from="value" value="{Tester}" />
</FIELD>
</FIELDS>
</Transition>
In my example, when the State changes from To Do to In Progress, the AssignedTo field will change to Tester.
When the Tester changes State from Resolved to Active, the AssignedTo field will change back to whoever most recently change it
from Active to Resolved.
First, you need to customize a field to get ChangedBy value. In my example, I've customized a field named copy, the XML file looks like:
<FieldDefinition name="copy" refname="copy.copy" type="String">
<COPY from="field" field="System.ChangedBy" />
</FieldDefinition>
Then, similar to the item 1 above, you need to modify the Transition from Resolved to Active to (my example is from In Progress to To Do), the XML file looks like:
<Transition from="In Progress" to="To Do">
<ACTIONS>
<ACTION value="Microsoft.VSTS.Actions.StopWork" />
</ACTIONS>
<REASONS>
<DEFAULTREASON value="Work stopped" />
</REASONS>
<FIELDS>
<FIELD refname="System.AssignedTo">
<COPY from="field" field="copy.copy" />
</FIELD>
</FIELDS>
</Transition>
In my example, when the State changes from In Progress to To Do, the AssignedTo field will change to the user who change it most recently.
Might be there Solution for your question, but what I know is you don't need that just to see the person will be associate with it .
This is because if you see on right pane,when someone check-in the code for that work-item, or makes changes to that and saves the work-item ,automatically TFS shows in arrow with Steps continuously what have been done and by whom with date
and after failed testing. Developer who checked-in the code or try to solve that issue you can just select that developer name on dropdown on assign
I guess you were almost wanting similar the way i told but again if not forgive me.
Thanks,

TFS 2013 auto assign to myself

My question is, if it is possible in the TFS 2013 Scrum process template, to make a work item (task) on the scrum board, automatically assign to myself when moving it from "to do" to "in progress"? Should it be possible to add this in the process template on TFS?
We are using an on premise TFS 2013 environment.
I thought I have seen the configuration somewhere but I can't find it on the internet (maybe I am using the wrong search keywords).
You will need to edit the process template for the Task Work Item Type Definition.
Use witadmin.exe exportwitd to download the Task definition
Find the Transition from "To Do" to "In Progress" and change it like so:
<TRANSITION from="To Do" to="In Progress">
<ACTIONS>
<ACTION value="Microsoft.VSTS.Actions.StartWork" />
</ACTIONS>
<FIELDS>
<FIELD refname="System.AssignedTo">
<COPY from="currentuser" />
</FIELD>
</FIELDS>
<REASONS>
<DEFAULTREASON value="Work started" />
</REASONS>
</TRANSITION>
Use witadmin.exe importwitd to re-import the Task definition.

TFS Workitems always leave 'Closed By' blank

We have a TFS workitem workflow where developers set workitems to be 'done'. It is largely our of the box with little custom configuration. This populates the 'Closed Date' but not 'Closed By'. The workflow continues as testers assign it to themselves and set the state to be 'Tested', but now I can no longer see on a report which developer closed the item.
How can I get a report of who did the work?
Given that you have a "Tested" state, it seems that the transitions have been customized. Ensure that all transitions to the "Closed" state have the correct rule on them to update the "Closed By" field. The Closed By definition on the transition should look something like this:
<STATE value="Closed">
<FIELDS>
....
<FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedBy">
<ALLOWEXISTINGVALUE />
<COPY from="currentuser" />
<VALIDUSER />
<REQUIRED />
</FIELD>
....
</FIELDS>
</STATE>
More information on customizing work item transitions can be found here and here.

Failed to update the following work item error while tfs check-in

I have modified the tfs bug work item template as below so that while resolving a bug from active to resolved state root cause field is not empty.
AS Microsoft.VSTS.Actions.Checkin action is defined user can checkin in team explorer marking the work item as resolved.This cause error
Failed to update the following work item:
ID 39169. Reason: TF237124: Work Item is not ready to save
How can i allow user to update the root cause field while check-in from team explorer pend changes window
<TRANSITION from="Active" to="Resolved">
<REASONS>
....
</REASONS>
<FIELDS>
....
<FIELD refname="RootCause">
<REQUIRED />
</FIELD>
</FIELDS>
<ACTIONS>
<ACTION value="Microsoft.VSTS.Actions.Checkin" />
</ACTIONS>
</TRANSITION>
You are not able to update additional fields when you are associating work items with a checkin. I would recommend that you head over to http://visualstudio.uservoice.com and suggest that.
With your template above your developers would need to open and update the work item before the association to make it valid.
note: Your are also disabling Gated Checkin with this configuration.

TFS 2010 clear SystemAssignedTo in transition

We have introduced a "Code review" state for tasks, between "In progress" and "Done". When moving from "In progress" to "Code review" we would like to clear/unassign System.AssignedTo but I can't figure out how. Does anyone know where to put the logic in the WIT xml and what it should look like?
Thanks,
Mansos
Open your schema in an XML editor. Go down to the <TRANSITIONS> part and add
<TRANSITION from="In Progress" to="Code Review">
<FIELDS>
<FIELD name="Assigned To">
<EMPTY />
</FIELD>
<FIELDS>
</TRANSITION>
Make sure you don't have any <REQUIRED> for that field anywhere in the definition (there are a number of ways you can have that rule).
For reference, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa337653%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

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