Assignments and Workflow (Agile)

You use status and assignment fields to track the progress of user stories, tasks, bugs, and other types of work items. Most work items move from the active state to the closed state, and test cases move from the design state to the closed state. As each work item moves from one state to another, the item might also be reassigned to various members of the team. For example, a tester might create a bug that is assigned to another team member during triage. When the other team member resolves the bug, it is reassigned to the tester who created it.

Status and assignment fields support many team queries and reports.

In this topic

• Tracking Fields that Appear on Work Item Forms

• Additional Fields that Support Query and Reporting

The Assigned To and State fields are tracked for each type of work item that is provided with the process template for Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software Development - v5.0. The Reason field is tracked for all types of work items except for test cases and shared steps.

Tracking Fields that Appear on Work Item Forms

The following table describes the fields that track assignments and workflow progress. For information about data types and default field attributes, see Working with Work Item Fields.

Field name	Description	Reference name	Data type	Default value of the reportable type attribute	Default value of the index attribute
Assigned To	The name of the team member who currently owns the work item.	System.AssignedTo	String	Dimension	True
Reason	The reason why the work item is in the current state. Values are specific to both the state and the type of work item. The field is not tracked for Test Cases or Shared Steps.	System.Reason	String	Dimension	True
Resolved Reason	The reason why the user story or bug was resolved. For example, the user story is code complete or the bug is fixed. This field is read-only.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ResolvedReason	String	Dimension	False
State	The current state of the work item. The valid values for state are specific to each type of work item. For more information about workflow transitions for each type of work item, see one of the following topics: Bug (Agile). Issue (Agile) Task (Agile) User Story (Agile) Shared Steps (Agile) Test Case (Agile)	System.State	String	Dimension	True

Additional Fields that Support Query and Reporting

Additional fields are populated with information as a work item progresses from one state to another. These fields do not appear on the work item form, but they are tracked for each type of work item as the following table indicates. You can use these fields to filter queries and create reports.

Field Name	User Story	Task	Issue	Test Case	Shared Step	Bug
Activated By
Activated Date
Closed By
Closed Date
Created By
Created Date
Resolved By
Resolved Date
Resolved Reason
State Change Date

The fields that track information for each workflow state record the most recent time when a work item made the transition to an active, resolved, closed, or other state. The following table describes each of these fields.

Field name	Description	Reference name	Data type	Default value of the reportable type attribute	Default value of the index attribute
Activated By	Name of the team member who activated or reactivated the work item.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ActivatedBy	String	Dimension	False
Activated Date	Date and time when the work item was activated or reactivated.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ActivatedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Closed By	Name of the team member who closed the work item.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedBy	String	Dimension	False
Closed Date	Date and time when a work item was closed.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Created By	Name of the team member who created the work item.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.CreatedBy	String	Dimension	False
Created Date	Date and time when a work item was created.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.CreatedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Resolved By	Name of the team member who resolved the bug or user story.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ResolvedBy	String	Dimension	False
Resolved Date	Date and time when the bug or user story was resolved.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ResolvedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
State Change Date	Date and time when the value of the State field changed.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.StateChangeDate	DateTime	None	False

See Also

Concepts

Planning, Ranking, and Priorities

Using System Fields and Fields Defined by the MSF Process Templates

Finding Bugs, Tasks, and Other Work Items

Other Resources

Work Items and Workflow (Agile)

Defining and Customizing Work Item Workflow

Work Item Fields (Agile)