| title | titleSuffix | description | ms.custom | f1_keywords | ms.service | ms.assetid | ms.author | author | ms.topic | monikerRange | ms.date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
View and add work items |
Azure Boards |
Learn how to view and filter work items like user stories, issues, and bugs, as well as create them. |
boards-work-items, devx-track-azurecli, engagement-fy23 |
|
azure-devops-boards |
EBDE0739-FAE6-4BEA-8F59-E9D20AFE5FE8 |
chcomley |
chcomley |
quickstart |
<=azure-devops |
10/02/2024 |
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View work items that you created or are assigned to you. The Work items page offers several personalized pivots and interactive filter functions to streamline listing work items. Use this page to quickly find work items defined across teams within a project.
This article shows how to add any type of work item. However, use the backlog or board to add backlog or portfolio items—such as user stories, product backlog items, features, or epics. For more information, see Create your backlog, Define features and epics, and Start using your board.
To create test cases and link them to user stories, see Add, run, and update inline tests and Create test plans and test suites.
You can add work items in the following ways:
- Add work items from the Work items page
- Add work items from a Boards, Backlogs, or Sprints page
- Add work items using the Azure DevOps CLI
These methods provide flexibility in how you manage and track your work items within Azure DevOps.
Note
The Work Items page is available from Azure DevOps Services, Azure DevOps Server 2019 and later versions, and Visual Studio 2019 RC1.
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From your project, select Boards > Work items.
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Open Visual Studio 2019, Team Explorer, and then select Work Items. To switch between the Work Items (default) view and the legacy view, see Set the Work Items experience in Visual Studio 2019.
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If you don't see the Work Items option, you're not connected to a project. From the Connect to a Project dialog. Use CTRL-Shift to select your options and then choose Connect.
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There's no az boards command that opens the Work Items page at this time. The Azure DevOps CLI commands are valid for Azure DevOps Services only.
Note
The types of work items you can create depend on the process chosen when the project was created—Agile, Basic, Scrum, or CMMI. For example, backlog items may be called user stories (Agile), issues (Basic), product backlog items (Scrum), or requirements (CMMI). All these types describe the customer value to deliver and the work to be performed.
For more information, see About processes and process templates.
You can view work items assigned to you, work items you're following, work items in which you're mentioned, and work items that you recently viewed or updated via the web portal and Visual studio.
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You can also view work items usings the Azure DevOps CLI.
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Use the drop-down menu to focus on relevant items within a project using one of seven pivots. Additionally, filter each pivot view.
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- Assigned to me: Lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. Doesn't include items moved to the Removed category state. To open or update a work item, select its title.
- Following: Lists work items that you're following.
- Mentioned: Lists work items in which you're mentioned in the last 30 days.
- My activity: Lists work items that you recently viewed or updated.
- My team(s): Lists work items that your team members recently viewed or updated.
::: moniker-end
::: moniker range="azure-devops-2020"
- Assigned to me: Lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. To open or update a work item, select its title.
- Following: Lists work items that you're following.
- Mentioned: Lists work items in which you're mentioned in the last 30 days.
- My activity: Lists work items that you recently viewed or updated.
- My team(s): Lists work items that your team members recently viewed or updated.
::: moniker-end
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- **Recently updated**: Lists work items recently updated in the project.
- **Recently completed**: Lists work items completed or closed in the project.
- **Recently created**: Lists work items created within the last 30 days in the project.
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You can sort your view by any column field selected from the Column Options dialog in the web portal. For more information, see Change column options.
To view a work item, double-select the title or open the context menu (right-select or select the menu key) and Open. A browser window opens with the work item form.
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- Assign to me: Changes the Assigned To field to your user name.
- New Branch...: Opens a dialog to create a new branch automatically linked to the work item. For more information, see Drive Git development.
- Complete work item: Updates the State field to Completed, Done, or Closed.
- Relate to changes: Links the work item to the current commit of recent changes.
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::: moniker range="azure-devops"
You can view a new work item with the az boards work-item show command. To get started, see Get started with Azure DevOps CLI.
az boards work-item show --id
[--open]
[--org]
- id: Required. The ID of the work item.
- open: Optional. Open the work item in the default web browser.
- org: Azure DevOps organization URL. You can configure the default organization using
az devops configure -d organization=ORG_URL. Required if not configured as default or picked up usinggit config. Example:--org https://dev.azure.com/MyOrganizationName/.
The following command opens the bug with the ID 864 in your default web browser. It also displays the results in the Azure DevOps CLI in table format.
az boards work-item show --id 864 --open --output table
ID Type Title Assigned To State
---- ------ --------- ------------------- -------
864 Bug fix-issue contoso@contoso.com New
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Filter each work item pivot view by entering a keyword or using fields like work item type (Types), State, Area Path, and Tags. The page remembers your filters for each pivot, providing personalized views across all pivots. For more information, see Filter backlogs, boards, queries, and plans.
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No az boards command applies to filtering. Azure DevOps CLI commands are only valid for Azure DevOps Services.
You can add work items from the Work Items page or from a Boards, Backlogs, or Sprints page in the web portal, from Visual Studio, or by using the Azure DevOps CLI.
Note
New work items are assigned the last Area Path and Iteration Path selected by the user.
Select New Work Item and choose the work item type from the drop-down menu. For example, here we choose User Story.
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Tip
Work items you add are automatically assigned to the current team's area and iteration paths. To change the team context, see Switch project or team focus. Enter a title and save the work item. You must save it before changing its initial default state.
- Select New Work Item and choose the work item type you want. For example, we choose User Story.
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A browser window opens, displaying the work item form for you to complete.
- Enter a title and then Save the work item. You must save it before changing its initial default state.
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Add tags to any work item to filter backlogs, queries, and work item lists. Users with Basic access can create new tags, while users with Stakeholder access can only add existing tags.
Do the following steps to add a work item from your Boards, Backlogs, or Sprints page.
-
From your Boards, Backlogs, or Sprints page, choose the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/blue-add.png" border="false"::: plus icon or + New Work Item. The following example shows creating a work item from a board.
:::image type="content" source="media/new-work-item-button.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing highlighted New item button, for creating a work item.":::
[!NOTE] Depending on the process chosen when the project was created—Agile, Basic, Scrum, or CMMI—the types of work items you can create are different. For example, backlog items may be called user stories (Agile), issues (Basic) product backlog items (Scrum), or requirements (CMMI). All four are similar: they describe the customer value to deliver and the work to be performed.
For more information, see About processes and process templates. The Basic process requires Azure DevOps Server 2019.1 or later version.
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Select a work item type from the dropdown menu, enter a title, and then select Enter. From a board, for example, you can also select Add to top. Before you can change the state from its initial default, save it.
You can add tags to any work item to filter backlogs and queries.
Added work items are automatically scoped to your team's default area path and iteration path. To change the team context, see Switch project or team focus.
Create as many work items as you need of the type you need to track the work you want to manage.
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Open Visual Studio 2019, Team Explorer, and then choose Work Items.
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If you don't see the Work Items option, you need to connect to a project and not just a repository. From the Connect to a Project dialog. Use CTRL-Shift to select your options and then choose Connect.
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Choose New Work Item and select the work item type you want.
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When you work within Visual Studio 2017 or later version, a browser window opens with the work item form to complete. If you work within Visual Studio 2015 or earlier version, a work item form opens within Visual Studio.
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From the web portal, you can open any view, filtered view, or selected set of work items as a query. Choose Open in Queries or the Open selected items in Queries option from the context menu.
Queries provide the following features and more:
- Edit one or more fields of several work items
- Add or remove tags from several work items
- Change the work item type
- Delete work items
- Apply work item templates
For more information, see Bulk modify work items. For more information about queries, see Use the query editor to list and manage queries and Query fields, operators, and macros.
Use the following three controls to manage your views in the web portal.
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Control Function View/hide completed items Turn filtering On/Off /
Enter or exit full screen mode
[!div class="nextstepaction"] Manage work items