MSF for Agile software development for Visual Studio ALM

Using the work item types (WITs), reports, and dashboards shown in the illustration, teams can plan projects, then track, view, and report their progress. These artifacts, which are based on Agile principles and values, are created when you create a team project using the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software Development process template.

The latest version of the Agile process template is automatically uploaded to Team Foundation Server (TFS) when you install or upgrade to the latest version of TFS. Use the Process Template Manager to download and upload process templates.

In addition to the WITs, reports, and dashboards, teams have access to a set of shared work item queries to track information, analyze progress, and make decisions.

Plan and track work using work item types

Teams plan their project by capturing features and requirements as user stories. They track bugs, work, and blocking issues using the bug, task, and issue WITs. To support portfolio management, teams create features to view a roll up of user stories across teams. For details about using these WITs, see Agile process template work item types and workflow

A work item is a TFS database record that contains the definition, assignment, priority, and state of work. Work item types define the template of fields, workflow, and form for each type. Work items can be linked to each other to support tracking dependencies, roll up of work, and reports.

List work items using work item queries

You can use the shared work item queries that the Agile template provides to list work items for a current sprint or the product backlog.

You can open a query from the work items page and then use the query editor to apply different filter criteria. Also, you can add a query as a team query and it will appear on the team home page.

Tip

Queries listed under the Current Iteration folder do not automatically update when a new iteration becomes current. The current iteration is based on the dates that you assign to your sprint schedules. You must manually update the iteration path of each query to have it point to the iteration path that corresponds to the current iteration.

From Team Explorer, you can open any work item query in Excel to perform bulk edits. In addition, you can open the Triage workbook and Issue workbook from your project portal to prioritize bugs and review issues.

Monitor progress using reports

The Agile process template provides the following reports. For these reports to be useful, teams must perform certain activities, such as define build processes, link work items, and update status or remaining work.

Build reports

• Build Quality Indicators

• Build Success Over Time

• Build Summary

Project management reports

• Burndown and Burn Rate

• Remaining Work

• Status of All Iterations (similar to Velocity)

• Stories Overview

• Stories Progress

• Unplanned Work

Test and bug reports

• Bug Status

• Bug Trends

• Reactivations

• Test Case Readiness

• Test Plan Progress

To access these reports, your team project collection must be configured with SQL Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services.

View progress using dashboards

Dashboards display project data, support investigation tasks, and help teams to perform common tasks quickly. The following dashboards support the display of Team Web Access parts for listing work items and reports that were built in the Analysis Services cube.

• My Dashboard (Agile)

• Project dashboard (Agile)

• My Dashboard (Agile)

• Progress dashboard (Agile)

• Quality dashboard (Agile)

• Test dashboard (Agile)

To use Dashboards your team project must have a project portal configured and the project portal must point to a SharePoint site.