Having customized template, cant add bug to PBI in some places

Question

We use Scrum 2.1 Template.  Our team wanted to have bugs assigned to PBIs, so I have followed the steps outlined in a comment to me at the bottom of this post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/02/12/add-bugs-to-the-task-board-or-backlog-pages.aspx

This generally works.  From the board page I can add Tasks or Bugs as child items using the plus icon, I can add Tasks and bugs from the product and Sprint backlog pages also.

In an open PBI on the tasks Tab Page, if one clicks New Linked Work Item, Bug is not a selectable type in the Work Item Type drop down.

The steps I followed for modifying the templates are these:

1. Add the following to the Bug work item type definition:

a. Activity field

b. Remaining Work field

2. Remove the Bug work item type from the Requirements Category and add it to the Task Category (category definition file).

3. Swap out the workflow section defined for the Bug wit with that defined for Task:

a. Task states are To Do, In Progress, and Done.

b. Bug states are New, Approved, Committed, and Done.

How can I get the Tasks tab page to let me add bugs?

Answer 1

Hi Cory,

Thanks for your post!

The following elements determine which work items appear on the task board page.

• Backlog items correspond to those types of work items assigned to the Requirements Category. Only backlog items that have been assigned to the current iteration or that have tasks that have been assigned to the current iteration appear on the task board. They can be in any workflow state.

• Task items that can be added as child tasks to the backlog items correspond to the types of work items assigned to the Task Category.

  Only tasks that have been assigned to the current iteration appear on the task board.

  Tasks appear under the column heading of their workflow state. As you drag and drop the tasks from one column to another, the state field is automatically updated.

For more information, please refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh739066.aspx

and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12536132/how-to-add-bugs-to-tfs-2012-task-board

Hope it helps!

Best Regards,

---

Cathy Kong
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Develop and promote your apps in Windows Store
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 2

I can add bugs as tasks from the board page.  That is working.  

However, when I open a PBI detail view and try to add a bug there, there is no listbox item for Bug, only task.  Since I cannot post links or images at this time  I will describe my actions:

1. In the web access site, click WORK then backlog.
2. Double click a Product Backlog Item.
3. Click over to the TASKS page (middle left side of form).
4. Click the New linked work item... button
5. Drop down the Work Item Type control, and see that there is only Tasks in it.

As I said, in other places of the web access (such as the Board page and the PBI List) I can add both Tasks and Bugs.  But not when looking at a PBI Detail.

Answer 3

Hi Cory,

Thank you for your feedback! 

You will also need to make sure that the Bug has the same States as shown for Task or change them to match in the COmmonCOnfiguration.xml

<TaskWorkItems category="Microsoft.TaskCategory">
    <States>
      <State value="New" type="Proposed" />
      <State value="Active" type="InProgress" />
      <State value="Closed" type="Complete" />
    </States>
  </TaskWorkItems>

Finally, you need to make sure that Bug has the same fields as what is displayed in the Iteration Backlog or change them to match the AgileConfiguration.xml

<IterationBacklog>
    <Columns>
      <Column refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.StoryPoints" width="50" />
      <Column refname="System.Title" width="400" />
      <Column refname="System.State" width="100" />
      <Column refname="System.AssignedTo" width="100" />
      <Column refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.RemainingWork" width="50" />
    </Columns>
  </IterationBacklog>

You should have gotten some detailed errors in the project creation log.

Best Regards,

 

---

Cathy Kong
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Develop and promote your apps in Windows Store
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 4

When I initially did this customization, I copied the workflow from the Task WIT to the Bug WIT, so states match.  Additionally the Bug WIT has the fields specified in the IterationBacklog section of the AgileConfiguration document.  There were no changes to make.

Is there perhaps somewhere one must explicitly set bug as a Child of PBI?  How does the Add New Linked Work Item to Product Backlog Item page work exactly?  If I knew which properties it used to determine what types of items it could suggest in the drop down box, then I could change my bug accordingly.

Answer 5

Hi Cory,

Thanks for your feedback!

As far as I know, this is by design. I can repro what you described. If you want to add a bug to a PBI work item, I think you can use the link in the PBI work item. Please refer to the following screenshot:

For more information, please refer to

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ff731576.aspx#AddTask

If this cannot meet your requirements, I would suggest you to report this issue on our Connect Portal:

    https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/

Every feedback submitted will be evaluated carefully by our engineers. If they have some feedback on it, they will let us know their comments further through that portal. This would be helpful to improve Visual Studio products.

Best Regards,

---

Cathy Kong
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Develop and promote your apps in Windows Store
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.