Shared queries (Agile)
You can use the work item queries that are provided with MSF for Agile Software Development to find the bugs, tasks, and other work items for which you must take action. Each query is designed to find only those work items that are defined for the team project from which they are accessed.
You can open these queries from the Work/Queries page in Team Web Access (TWA). From Team Explorer, go to the Work Items page.
Agile shared queries
.png "Agile work item queries")
Quick tips
If you are new to Team Foundation and shared queries, review these tips to learn how you can manage work more effectively:
To access work item queries, you must have the appropriate permissions.
You can find work items that are assigned to you by opening one of the "My" shared queries. To open a query, select it and choose Enter.
You can find work items that are neither resolved nor closed for the current iteration by using any of the Active or Open shared queries. For example, the Open User Stories query lists all stories that are Active and assigned to Iteration 1. You must update the query to point to the current iteration.
You can modify any query by adding criteria to focus on a product area, an iteration, or another field that is defined for the types of work items that you want to find. To modify a query, open the query editor. For more information, see Query for work items.
You can open any query in Excel or Project, where you can modify the query and publish your changes to the database for tracking work items.
You can visualize progress by creating a pie-chart, column chart, or other chart for flat-list queries.
Product backlog and feedback queries
Product owners can use the shared queries that are defined in the following table to plan and track user stories that compose the product backlog.
Shared query |
Description |
|---|---|
Product Backlog |
Provides a tree list of all user stories that are in a New, Active or Resolved state and sorts them by rank. |
Product Planning |
Provides a flat list of all user stories that are not in a Removed state, and have not been closed in the last 90 days. |
Feedback |
Lists all feedback responses that are in an Active state. |
Iteration planning queries
The following table describes the shared queries that are listed under the Current Iteration folder. These queries find work items that are assigned to a specified iteration. As you plan additional iterations, you can modify these queries to specify a different iteration and then save them to additional folders that you create, such as Iteration 2 or Iteration 3.
The project administrator for each team project defines area and iteration paths for that project so that the team can track progress by those designations.
Shared query |
Description |
|---|---|
Active Bugs |
Lists all active bugs and sorts them by rank, priority, and severity. |
Active Tasks |
Lists all active tasks and sorts them by rank, priority, and severity. |
Bug Triage |
Lists all active bugs that are not assigned to a team member. The Triage Workbook references this query. For more information, see Triage workbook. |
Completed Tasks |
Lists all tasks that have been closed and sorts them by rank, priority, and severity. |
Iteration Backlog |
Lists all user stories and their linked tasks and sorts the stories by rank and priority. |
Open Issues |
Lists all issues under the specified iteration path that are not closed and any tasks that are linked to the issues and then sorts the issues by rank and priority. The Issues Workbook references this query. For more information, see Issues workbook. |
Open Test Cases |
Lists all test cases that are not closed and sorts them by priority. |
Open User Stories |
Lists all active user stories and sorts them by their stack rank. |
Resolved Bugs |
Lists all resolved bugs and sorts them by rank, priority, and severity. |
User Stories |
Lists all user stories that are not closed and sorts them by priority and then ID, |
User Stories without Test Cases |
Lists all user stories that do not have a link to a test case. Stories are sorted by ID. |
Find tasks with summary values
The Work Items With Summary Values shared query, which is located in the Troubleshooting folder, lists all tasks that have child tasks and that contain non-zero values in the Remaining Work or Completed Work fields. This query is designed to find tasks that report work effort that is already accounted for in their child tasks. For the hours to be counted only once, summary tasks should not be assigned any hours. For more information, see Address inaccuracies published for summary values.
Workbook queries
You can use the following Excel workbooks to review open issues and to rank and assign untriaged work items. Each workbook references a shared query.
The Issues workbook uses the Open Issues shared query.
The Triage workbook uses the Bug Triage shared query.
Because these queries support workbooks, if you change these queries, it will affect those workbooks that use them.