You create relationships between requirements, use cases, tasks, test cases, and other work items through the tabs on the forms for those work items. This topic describes the controls and data fields that are associated with creating links and hyperlinks.
For more information about how to use links, see Choosing Link Types to Effectively Track Your Project. For more information about how to create links, see Creating Relationships Between Work Items and Other Resources.
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A few reports provided in the process template for GovDev for TFS 2010 require that you create links between specific work items. Specifically, the Requirements Traceability Report and Use Case Progress Report require that you create links between requirements and use cases, use cases and tasks and between use cases and test cases. For more information, see Requirements Traceability Report (GovDev) and Requirements Progress Report (GovDev). |
In this topic
Link
Toolbar Buttons
Each tab provides a toolbar, which contains the buttons that the following illustration summarizes:

The following buttons become available only after you perform a specific action:
-
The button to create a work item that is linked to the open work item (
) becomes available only after you
save the open work item. -
The buttons to open the list of work items in a query (
) and in a Microsoft Office client (
) become available only when at least
one work item is listed in the links control tab. -
The buttons to open a work item (
),
edit a link (
), and delete
a link (
) become available
only after you click one or more work items listed in the links control tab.
Link
Controls and Restrictions
Much of the traceability inherent in the GovDev for TFS 2010 process template is due to the link control and restrictions listed below. All tabs that support creating links between work items are implemented by using the LinksControl element on the work item form. This element controls filtering and restricting the types of work items to which you can link, the types of links that you can create, and whether you can link to work items in another team project. For more information about how to restrict links, see LinksControlOptions Elements.
The following table summarizes the restrictions for all types of work items.
|
Work item type |
Tab name |
Link restrictions |
|---|---|---|
|
Requirement |
Use Cases |
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|
Requirement |
Change Requests |
|
|
Use Case |
Requirement |
|
|
Use Case |
Tasks |
|
|
Use Case |
Test Cases |
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|
Use Case |
Bugs |
|
|
Task |
Use Case |
|
|
Task |
Implementation |
|
|
Test case |
Tested Use Cases |
|
|
Test case |
Bugs Found |
|
|
Bug |
Test Cases |
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|
Bug |
Use Case |
|
|
Change Request |
Requirements |
|
|
Change Request |
External Links |
|
|
Support Ticket |
Links |
|
|
Issue |
All Links |
|
Default
Data Fields in Lists of Links
All lists of links display the following data fields:
-
Work item ID
-
Work Item Type
-
Title
-
Assigned to
-
State
-
[Link Comment]
You can add or remove columns from the list of links, and you can customize the default columns and the column order. For more information, see LinksControlOptions Elements.
For more information about these fields, see Titles, IDs, Descriptions, and History (GovDev) and Assignments and Workflow (GovDev) .
The following table describes the [Link Comment] data field. For information about data types and default field values, see Working with Work Item Fields.
|
Field Name |
Description |
Reference Name |
Data Type |
Default Value for the Reportable Type Attribute |
Default Value for the Index Attribute |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Link Comment |
Contains comments from the team member who created the link. You can configure this attribute field to appear as a column in a list of links on a work item form. |
System.Links.Comment |
PlainText |
None |
False |
Additional
Fields and Support Query and Reporting
The following table lists fields that do not appear on the work item forms but that are tracked for each type of work item when you link them. You can use these fields to filter queries and create reports.
|
Field Name |
Description |
Reference Name |
Data Type |
Default Value for the Reportable Type Attribute |
Default Value for the Index Attribute |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
External Link Count |
The number of links from the work item to artifacts that are not work items and that are registered through the Team Foundation Linking Service. For more information, see this topic on the Microsoft Web site: Linking Service. |
System.ExternalLinkCount |
Integer |
None |
False |
|
Hyper Link Count |
The number of hyperlinks that are defined for the work item. |
System.HyperLinkCount |
Integer |
None |
False |
|
Related Link Count |
The number of links from the work item to other work items. |
System.RelatedLinkCount |
Integer |
None |
False |
|
Link Description |
Contains the work item type, ID, and title of the work item that is the target of the link. You can configure this link attribute field to appear as a column in a list of links on a work item form. |
System.Links.Description |
PlainText |
None |
False |