Using Bug Work items on Task Board?

Question

I've managed to make the appropriate changes to get the Task Board showing my User Stories and Tasks correctly. I just followed the steps here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh500412

and they worked great.

However, I've also changed it so that my Task Board shows Bugs. However, they don't work properly. Bug doesn't have a New state, and doesn't have transitions involving new, etc.

When I try to do it based on the Task changes, I get the TF400917 error "The current configuration is not valid for this feature. This feature cannot be used until you correct the configuration" when I go back to the Task Board.

Is there a guide on how to make the appropriate changes to the Bug work item to allow for this? And will this even work? or am I stuck with Bugs going straight into the Active state and whatnot?

Answer 1

Hi TimMulholland,

Thank you for your post.

Seems you want to add bugs in addition to tasks to appear on the task board. You can follow steps in this article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh739066.aspx

After you customize task board by following above steps, task board support shows bugs, but when meet following two conditions, bugs then will really show up in the board.
1. The bugs should be a child of a backlog.
2. The bugs should be assigned to current iteration.

Regards,

---

Lily Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I have already done the steps in that article and I successfully have bugs showing up.

However, they act differently from Tasks - they only have Active and Resolved. Tasks have New, Active and Closed. Of course, this was only after I modified the Tasks WIT from the article I mentioned in the first post (had to do that configuration to add the New state and the transitions).

So my question is - is there a way to change the Bug work item the same way as the article describes for Tasks; to add the New state and the transitions that go with it?

Answer 3

Hi TimMulholland,

I think you need to edit Bug WIT to add New state and the workflow, then add bug WIT to task board.

You can refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb668982.aspx and http://tedgustaf.com/en/blog/2011/1/how-to-customize-tfs-2010-work-items-and-workflows/

Regards,

---

Lily Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 4

Are you trying to say that I need to do it in that order (edit the WIT then add it)? Because if the order doesn't matter, then you're just telling me to do exactly what I've already done (when I get the error that I mentioned in my first post).

Answer 5

OK, after further investigation, it just flat out doesn't work. I can't edit the Bug work item to add the new states and workflows. I get the TF400917 error that I mention in the first post in this thread. They don't even have to be part of the Task Board - once I edit the Bug, the Task Board dies.

Answer 6

Hi TimMulholland,

Thank you for the response.

Hope you can provide following information to help us reproduce the issue in your side:
1. Do the project is upgrade from older template project? If yes, what template it use, agile v5.0, cmmi v5.0, or scrum v1.0?
2. Do you successfully add New state and transition to Bug work item template?
3. Do you edit commonprocessconfig xml file to define the New state?
4. Is there any detail log?

I test the issue again, for agile v5.0 and agile v6.0 project, bug wotk item type both have the same state "Active", "Resolved" and "Closed", do not have "New" state. So i first edit Bug WIT through process editor, add New state to Bug WIT, add transition from Active to New for emample, at last save it properly. When i create a new bug, i can change state from active to new. Also, i check the commonprocessconfig xml file that workflow states like following
<TaskWorkItems category="Microsoft.TaskCategory">
    <States>
      <State type="Proposed" value="New" />
      <State type="InProgress" value="Active" />
      <State type="Complete" value="Closed" />
      <State type="InProgress" value="Resolved"  />
    </States>
  </TaskWorkItems>
  <TypeFields>

At web acess task board, bug with new state can show in NEW board.

Regards,

---

Lily Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 7

So I have narrowed down the issue further. I was intrigued by the fact that you got it to work, so I did a lot more digging. The problem seems to come down to one particular change which is necessary for this to really work but that you didn't do in your repro.

For this to work completely, you want to have a <TRANSITION from="" to="New"></TRANSITION> block in the bug work item. After all, you want them to be new when they are created, not active.

I am able to add the New state and the Removed state to the Bug work item. I am able to add all of the TRANSITION blocks described here for the Task item:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh500412

EXCEPT for the from="" to="New" transition. If I just straight out add it, it complains that there can only be one TRANSITION that goes from="". If I change it, I get error TF400917 that I mentioned earlier when I go to the Task Board.

I tried adding it like this:

        <TRANSITION from="" to="New">
          <REASONS>
            <DEFAULTREASON value="New" />
            <REASON value="Build Failure" />
          </REASONS>
        </TRANSITION>

And of course I removed the from="" to="Active" transition. Can you please tell me why this won't work?

Edit: I should add that this error shows up on the Task Board before I even add bugs to the Task Board. This is just after making changes to the Bug Work item.

Answer 8

Hi TimMulholland,

I did fillowing two steps, the result like the screenshot.

1. I edit Bug WIT according to your words like following.
     </TRANSITION>
        <TRANSITION from="" to="New">
          <REASONS>
            <REASON value="Build Failure" />
            <DEFAULTREASON value="New" />
          </REASONS>
        </TRANSITION>
This step let me successfully add New state, anf the transition is from "" to "New".

2. I think you may forget to add New state to Bugworkitems in commonprocessconfig file. I export and edit commonprocessconfig xml file "BugWorkItems" section to let it contain "New" state. Because the New and Approved states are associated with the Proposed metastate, so the stste type is Proposed. Save the xml file, use witadmin importcommonprocessconfig command import the file to server, refresh IE browser. Bugs can still show there.
<BugWorkItems category="Microsoft.BugCategory">
    <States>
      <State type="Proposed" value="New" />
      <State type="InProgress" value="Active" />
      <State type="Complete" value="Closed" />
      <State type="Resolved" value="Resolved" />
    </States>
  </BugWorkItems>

Regards,

---

Lily Wu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 9

Thank you Lily. You've found the issue I was having. It was the ButWorkItems section that I wasn't making changes to.

That should probably be added to the instructions here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh739066.aspx

as it is a crucial step that is not mentioned.

Thanks again!