Home / Announcements / Forums / TFS Work Item Manager and Project Dashboard: TFS Work Item Manager > Some questions from a new user

• Nicklas Kittelmann

  Posted on Nov 27, 2009 (permalink)

  I'm project manager/scrum master for a project that stores its source code in TFS. We're about to start using TFS for work items as well, but so far I've been using Excel for it. I recently stumbled across WIM, and it seems nice.
  
  On the TFS we have one gigantic TFS project that stores source code for about 20 projects. The reason they configured it like that is apparently that it would be easier to exchange code (which a few of the projects do, but not my project).
  
  However, when I use WIM, I get some problems.
  
  1) The Project Dashboard seems to be unable to show data from an area or from an iteration. As it is now, the data I see there is 95% from other projects.
  
  2) We use sprints instead of iterations in TFS. Would it be possible to have WIM have an option to use sprints and not iterations?
  
  3) The area/iteration filter. Is it possible to make a selection both based on area and iteration (and preferably sprint). As it is now, it seems to forget the area when I switch to iteration, and vice versa. And would it be possible to set a baseline in the area-tree, so that nothing outside that base line is ever displayed?
  
  4) For the Taskboard, would it be possible to use a query from "My queries", and not only team queries?
  
  Hoping for some enlightening answer! :-)
  

  Reply

• Joel Joel

  Posted on Dec 1, 2009 (permalink)

  Hello Nicklas,
  
  I have answered your questions in order below.  If you have another other questions, please let us know.
  
  1) If your iterations are not shared between projects, it should be possible to use the iteration scheduler in WIM to configure the dates for your project only.  The dashboard will use this schedule to show only the data pertaining to the "current" iteration.
  
  2) It is not currently possible to get WIM to use sprints, however, every sprint you create has an associated iteration which is what WIM uses (I'm assuming you're using Cochango's Scrum template, correct?).  You can use the iteration scheduler to set dates on iterations instead and everything should work fine in WIM. 
  
  3) The way it works right now you cannot use the Area/Iteration filter pane to filter by both Area and Iteration at the same time.  But if Area or Iteration was a column in your grid, then you could use the column filter to achieve the same result.
  
  4) No you cannot use a query from the "My Queries" section in the Task Board.  The reason for this is that the query used for the Task Board is ideally meant to be shared across a team so that everybody is looking at the same data.
  
  Regards,
  Joel
  

  Reply


• Nicklas Kittelmann

  Posted on Dec 4, 2009 (permalink)

  Thanks for your answers!
  
  I'm now using WIM on a much smaller project and everything seems to work really well.
  
  However, after using WIM for a few hours I have some new questions! :-)
  
  1) In TFS I have created a Work Item Template, which makes it a lot easier to create multiple items with the same properties (like 100 sprint items for the same sprint). Is it possible to use Work Item Templates in WIM, or do you have any similar feature (apart from copying items)?
  
  2) On the Task board, would it be possible to have other options for the colors? Like have colors based on which user the items are assigned to.
  
  3) On the Task Board, would it be possible to make it possible to resize the columns. I have lots of items in "Not done" and in "Done", and only a few in "In progress" at the same time. Either make it resize automatically, or enable manual resizing.
  
  Regards,
  Nicklas

  Reply

• Ryan Ryan

  Posted on Dec 4, 2009 (permalink)

  Hello Nicklas Kittelmann,
  
  

  Thanks for the feedback, I have provided answers to your questions below:

  
  

  1) Unfortunately, WIM does not have any support for Work Item Templates, we have an item in our backlog to add this functionality. Hopefully it will be included in future versions. For WIM we really wanted to target the everyday usage scenarios, so something like Work Item Templates quickly slid down our priority list. Your best bet is to keep doing these tasks in TFS.

  
  

  2) Right now the colors on the Task Board on static. We have had a number of requests to allow for customization of this. Again, you may see this in future versions.

  
  

  3) Being able to resize these columns would be great, I agree. I will add this to our backlog.

  
  

  If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

  Ryan

  Reply

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