Assignments, Workflow, and Planning (CMMI)

You track the assignment, progress, and priority of all types of work items by using the fields that are grouped under Status on the work item form.

Most work items move from the Proposed state to Active, Resolved, and then Closed. Test Cases move from the Design state to Closed. 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.

You use planning, ranking, and priority fields to specify which work the team should complete first. If you rank Requirements, Tasks, Bugs, and Issues, all team members gain an understanding of the relative importance of the work that they must accomplish. You can use ranking and priority fields to build several reports.

You rank and prioritize work items when you review the backlog for a product or an iteration. For more information, see Workbooks (CMMI).

In this topic

• Tracking Fields that Appear on Work Item Forms

• Additional Fields that Support Query and Reporting

Tracking Fields that Appear on Work Item Forms

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 CMMI Process Improvement v5.0. The Reason field is tracked for all types of work items except for test cases and shared steps.

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	Specifies the name of the team member who currently owns the work item.	System.AssignedTo	String	Dimension	True
Blocked	Indicates whether a team member is prevented from making progress toward implementing a requirement or task or resolving a bug, change request, or risk. If an issue has been opened to track a blocking problem, a link should be made to the issue. You can specify Yes or No.	Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.Blocked	String	Dimension	False
Committed	Indicates whether the requirement is committed in the project or not. You can specify Yes or No. Note You can specify this field only for requirements.	Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.Committed	String	None	False
Escalate	Indicates whether the issue is affecting the critical path of the project plan. You can specify Yes or No. Note You can specify this field only for issues.	Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.Escalate	String	None	False
Priority	Specifies a subjective rating of the work item as it relates to the business. You can specify one of the following values: 1:  Product cannot ship without the successful resolution of the work item, and it should be addressed as soon as possible. 2:  Product cannot ship without the successful resolution of the work item, but it does not need to be addressed immediately. 3:  Resolution of the work item is optional based on resources, time, and risk.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Priority	Integer	Dimension	False
Probability	Specifies the probability that the risk will occur, as a number between 1 and 99. A higher number indicates a higher probability that the risk will occur. Note You can specify this field only for risks.	Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.Probability	Integer	None	False
Reason	Identifies why the work item is in the current state. The valid values for this field are specific to both the state and the type of work item. This field is not tracked for test cases or shared steps.	System.Reason	String	Dimension	True
Resolved Reason	Records why the work item was resolved. For example, the bug was closed because it was fixed. This field is read-only. It is tracked for all types of work items but appears only on the form for bugs.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ResolvedReason	String	Dimension	False
Severity	Specifies a subjective rating of the customer impact of a bug, issue, or risk. You can specify one of the following values: 1 - Critical 2 - High 3 - Medium 4 - Low Note You can specify this field only for bugs, issues, and risks.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Severity	String	Dimension	False
State	Tracks the current state of the work item. The valid values for this field 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 (CMMI) Change Request (CMMI) Issue (CMMI) Requirement (CMMI) Review (CMMI) Risk (CMMI) Task (CMMI) Shared Steps (CMMI) Test Case (CMMI)	System.State	String	Dimension	True
Triage	Indicates the type of triage decision that is pending for the work item. You use this field when the work item is in the Proposed state. You can specify one of the following values: Pending (default) More Info Info Received Triaged Note You can specify this field only for requirements, tasks, change requests, bugs, and issues.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Triage	String	Dimension	False

The following table indicates which data fields you can specify for each type of work item that is provided with the process template for Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0.

Field Name	Requirement	Task	Bug	Change Request	Issue	Risk
Assigned To
Blocked
Committed
Escalate
Priority
Probability
Stack Rank
Reason
Resolved Reason
Severity
State
Triage

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.

The following table describes the fields that track information about the most recent time when a team member changed the state of a work item.

Field name	Description	Reference name	Data type	Default value of the reportable type attribute	Default value of the index attribute
Activated By	Specifies the name of the team member who activated or reactivated the work item.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ActivatedBy	String	Dimension	False
Activated Date	Specifies the date and time when the work item was activated or reactivated.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ActivatedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Closed By	Specifies the name of the team member who closed the work item.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedBy	String	Dimension	False
Closed Date	Specifies the date and time when a work item was closed.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ClosedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Created By	Specifies the name of the team member who created the work item.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.CreatedBy	String	Dimension	False
Created Date	Specifies the date and time when a work item was created.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.CreatedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Resolved By	Specifies the name of the team member who resolved the work item.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ResolvedBy	String	Dimension	False
Resolved Date	Specifies the date and time when the work item was resolved.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.ResolvedDate	DateTime	Dimension	False
Stack Rank	A subjective rating of the bug, risk, requirement, or task compared to other work items of the same type. An item that is assigned a lower number should be addressed before an item that is assigned a higher number.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.StackRank	Double	Dimension	False
State Change Date	Specifies the date and time when the value of the State field changed.	Microsoft.VSTS.Common.StateChangeDate	DateTime	None	False

See Also

Concepts

MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0

Using System Fields and Fields Defined by the MSF Process Templates

Other Resources

Work Items and Workflow (CMMI)

Work Item Fields (CMMI)

Change History

Date	History	Reason
December 2010	Corrected links to two topics under the State field.	Customer feedback.
October 2010	Corrected the description and reference name for the Stack Rank field, and added the Assigned To and Resolved Reason fields to the table that summarizes which fields you can assign based on type of work item.	Customer feedback.