Effort, schedules, and time tracking field reference

You use the fields described in this topic to track estimated, completed, and remaining work for a backlog item, bug, or task and to report on the progress toward completing tasks. By tracking work, you gain more detailed insight into which user stories, requirements, or backlog items are almost finished and what the team burn rate is. Several reports and dashboards provide charts that display the data that these fields contain.

You specify the level of effort for the tasks that you are assigned. For more information about how to track work, see Work in sprints.

Fields used to estimate and track work

The following table describes the fields that you can use to track work. This information is tracked only for task work items. For information about data types and default field attributes, see Define and modify work item fields.

Field name	Description	Reference name	Data type	Default value of the reportable type attribute	Default value of the index attribute
Activity	The type of activity that is required to perform a task. (Agile and Scrum process templates) Allowed values (See note 1): Deployment Design Development Documentation Requirements Testing Note This field is also used to calculate capacity by activity. It is assigned to type="Activity" in the ProcessConfiguration file. (2)	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Activity	String	Dimension	False
Completed Work	The amount of work that has been spent implementing a task. You can specify work in hours or in days. There are no inherent time units associated with this field.	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.CompletedWork	Double	Measure, Sum	False
Discipline	The type of activity or discipline that is assigned to a task. (CMMI process template) Allowed values (1): Analysis Development Test User Education User Experience Note This field is also used to calculate capacity by activity. It is assigned to type="Activity" in the ProcessConfiguration file. (2)	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Discipline	String	Dimension	False
Due Date	The forecasted due date for an issue to be resolved. (Agile process template only)	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.DueDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Target Date	The date by which a feature should be completed. (Feature work item type)	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.TargetDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Effort	A subjective unit of measure that captures the size of a bug or product backlog item. If you assign more effort to an item, you indicate that more work is required to implement it. (Scrum process template only) This field is also used to calculate team velocity and forecasting. It is assigned to type="Effort" in the CommonConfiguration file. (2, 3)	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.Effort	Double	Measure, Sum	False
Story Points	A subjective unit of measure that captures the size of a user story. If you assign more points to a user story, you indicate that more work is required to implement it. (Agile process template only) This field is also used to calculate team velocity and forecasting. It is assigned to type="Effort" in the ProcessConfiguration file. (2, 3)	Microsoft.VSTS. Scheduling.StoryPoints	Double	Measure, Sum	False
Size	A subjective unit of measure that captures the size of a requirement. The larger the size, the more work is required to implement it. (CMMI process template only) This field is also used to calculate team velocity and forecasting. It is assigned to type="Effort" in the ProcessConfiguration file. (2, 3)	Microsoft.VSTS. Scheduling.Size	Double	Measure, Sum	False
Original Estimate	The amount of work required to complete a task. You can specify work in hours or in days. There are no inherent time units associated with this field. (Agile and CMMI process templates)	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.OriginalEstimate	Double	Measure, Sum	False
Remaining	The amount of work that remains to finish a task. You can specify work in hours or in days. There are no inherent time units associated with this field. This field is also used to calculate burn down. It is assigned to type="RemainingWork" in the ProcessConfiguration file. (2)	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.RemainingWork	Double	Measure, Sum	False
Task Type	Specifies the kind of task to implement. (CMMI process template) Allowed values (1): Corrective Action Mitigation Action Planned	Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.TaskType	String	Dimension	False

Notes:

1. To change the menu selection, see Define pick lists.

2. To change the field assignment, see Configure and customize Agile planning tools for a team project.

   Note: The values displayed in the Agile planning tool Capacity page reflect a union of all values defined for the field in all team projects within the project collection instance. Therefore, to restrict the values that appear for Capacity on the sprint backlog pages, you must make the values match in all the team projects for the field assigned to type="Activity".

3. For additional guidance, see the white paper about Estimating.

Fields calculated by Office Project

The following table lists fields that are calculated if you create a project plan in Microsoft Project and then synchronize that plan with tasks that are stored in TFS. These fields do not appear on the work item form, but they are calculated for those backlog items and tasks that are linked to backlog items. You can view their read-only values in results from a query or from Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project. For more information, see Create your backlog and tasks using Project.

Field name	Description	Reference name	Data type	Default value of the reportable type attribute	Default value of the index attribute
Finish Date	The date and time when the schedule indicates that the task will be completed.	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.FinishDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Start Date	The date and time when the schedule indicates that the task will start.	Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.StartDate	DateTime	Dimension	False

See Also

Concepts

Add or change how Project fields map to TFS fields

Work item field reference for Visual Studio ALM