Linking Work Items (GovDev)

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.

NoteNote

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

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

  • Allows only Child link to Use Case work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Requirement

Change Requests

  • Allows only Affected By link to Change Request work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Use Case

Requirement

  • Allows only Parent link to Requirement work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Use Case

Tasks

  • Allows only Child link to Task work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Use Case

Test Cases

  • Allows only Tested By link to Test Case work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Use Case

Bugs

  • AAllows only Child link to Bug work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Task

Use Case

  • Allows only Parent link to Use Case work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Task

Implementation

  • Allows only Parent and Child links to other Task work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Test case

Tested Use Cases

  • Allows only Tests link to Use Case work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Test case

Bugs Found

  • Allows only Tests link to Bug work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Bug

Test Cases

  • Allows only Tested By and Changeset links.

  • Allows links only to test case work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Bug

Use Case

  • Allows only Parent link to Use Case work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Change Request

Requirements

  • Allows only Affects link to Requirement work item type.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Change Request

External Links

  • Allows only Link To operations via HyperLinks link.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Support Ticket

Links

  • Allows only Related and HyperLinks links.

  • Allows only Related links to Change Request and Bug work item types.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

Issue

All Links

  • Allows only Affects and HyperLinks links.

  • Allows Affects link to Bug, Requirement, Task, Test Case, Use Case work item types.

  • Excludes links to work items in other team projects.

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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

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Additional Fields and Support Query and Reporting

See Also