Areas and Iterations

You use the area and iteration fields to categorize work into product areas and iteration or sprint cycles. These fields display entries in a hierarchical or tree structure. These structures are useful for assigning work to specific project areas and time durations, as well as filtering project information in charts and reports. For more information and examples of tree structures for areas and iterations, see Create and Modify Areas and Iterations.

You can assign the area and iteration fields to most work items based on a process template for Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). You specify values for the area and iterations fields when you create a work item or during a review of the product or iteration backlog. If you defer a work item to a later time, you should change its iteration accordingly.

In this topic

• Classification Fields that Appear on Work Item Forms

• Additional Fields Tracked for Query and Reporting Purposes

Classification Fields that Appear on Work Item Forms

The following table lists the fields that you can use to categorize work items into areas or iterations. All of these fields appear on the forms for all work item types for MSF for Agile Software Development v5.0. For information about data types and default field attributes, see Working with Work Item Fields.

Importante

If you define a path name that is longer than 256 characters, you will not be able to specify it in Office Project. To avoid this problem, define path names of no more than 10 characters, and do not nest nodes more than 14 levels deep.

Field name	Description	Reference name	Data type	Default value of the reportable type attribute	Default value of the index attribute
Area	Groups work items into product feature or team areas. The area must be a valid node in the project hierarchy.	System.AreaPath	TreePath	Dimension	True
Iteration	Groups work items by named sprints or time periods. The iteration must be a valid node in the project hierarchy.	System.IterationPath	TreePath	Dimension	True

Additional Fields Tracked for Query and Reporting Purposes

The following fields do not appear on work item forms but are tracked for each type of the work items. These fields provide a numeric value for each classification value that is defined for a team project. You can use these fields to filter queries and create reports.

Field name	Description	Reference name	Data type	Default value of the reportable type attribute	Default value of the index attribute
Area ID	The unique ID of the area to which this work item is assigned.	System.AreaId	Integer	None	True
Iteration ID	The unique ID of the iteration to which this work item is assigned.	System.IterationId	Integer	None	True

See Also

Concepts

Using System Fields and Fields Defined by the MSF Process Templates

Finding Bugs, Tasks, and Other Work Items

Query Fields, Operators, Values, and Variables

Naming Restrictions in Team Foundation

Other Resources

Work Items and Workflow (Agile)

Work Item Fields (Agile)

Change History

Date	History	Reason
July 2010	Added note that users can find examples of tree structures for areas and iterations in Create and Modify Areas and Iterations.	Customer feedback.