As you work to address the issues raised in a work item,
periodically update the work item to describe your work and the current
state of the item.
About this task
To update work items:
- To work on a work item, first run a query that retrieves
work items that have been assigned to you. In the Work
Items view, double-click an entry in the results grid
to open it. Alternatively, you can indicate that you are
starting work on the item without opening it by right-clicking it
and selecting Start Working.
Rather than
running a query to find new work items, you might want to start from
the My Work view, which organizes your work
items into three sections: Newly Assigned Work; Current Work; and
Future Work.
- Read the description, comments, and any attachments.
- Select Start Working from the State property
drop-down list. If you have a question or comment, you can click the Add
Comment link in the Discussion section
and enter your text. All subscribers of the work item receive notification
of your comment when you save the work item. When you add a comment,
you are added as a subscriber. Alternatively, you can right-click
the submitter's name in the Created By property
and select Chat to start a chat session or Send
Mail to send an E-mail message.
Another
way to collaborate with team members is to enter the @ sign followed
by a team member's user ID in a comment or the description, which
causes an alert to appear in that user's client and an event
to appear in their Event Log in the Team Central view. You can use
Content assist to find a user's ID by entering Ctrl/Space and
the user's first or last name. The alert is of the form, "User-name mentioned
you in work-item-summary (work item number)."
For example, "Bob mentioned you in Update header file (251)." The
event contains the comment or part of the description that you enter
following @user-ID. For example, "On Feb 10, 2009,
6:45:43 PM Bob Smith mentioned you in comment 2: @bert: Should we
fix this in 2.0M1?".
To add subscribers, click Add in
the Subscribers section on the Links tab.
However, be conservative when adding subscribers because they receive
E-mail notifications whenever the work item is changed.
Optionally,
change the owner to a different user, and add a comment that explains
why you reassigned the work item.
Click Save to
save your changes.
- To resolve a work item, open the work item and select Resolve from
the State property drop-down list. In the adjacent Resolution property
drop-down list, select an entry, such as Fixed, Works
For Me, or Duplicate that describes
how you resolved the work item. Enter a comment in the Discussion section
that further explains your actions. If you resolve a work item as
a duplicate, you also need to specify the other work item in the Links section
on the Links tab. Click Save to
save your changes.