View and add work items using the Work Items page

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019

Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022

View work items that you created or are assigned to you. The Work Items page provides several personalized pivots, as shown in the following image, and interactive filter functions to streamline listing work items. Use this page to quickly find work items defined across teams within a project.

Screenshot of Boards, Work Items page, Work Item Menu, cloud version.

Screenshot of Boards, Work Items page, Work Item Menu, on-premises version.

Note

The Work Items page is available from Azure DevOps Services, Azure DevOps Server 2019 and later versions, and Visual Studio 2019 RC1.

Prerequisites

  • You must be added to a project.
  • To view or modify work items, you must have your View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. For more information, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.
  • To add new tags to add to work items, you must have Basic access or higher and have the project-level Create new tag definition permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. Even if the permission is explicitly set for a Stakeholder, they don't have permission to add new tags, as they're prohibited through their access level. For more information, see Stakeholder access quick reference.
  • All project members, even members in the Readers group, can send emails containing work items.
  • You must be added to a project.
  • To view or modify work items, you must have your View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. For more information, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.
  • To add new tags to add to work items, you must have Basic access or higher and have the project-level Create new tag definition permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. Even if the permission is explicitly set for a Stakeholder, they don't have permission to add new tags, as they're prohibited through their access level. For more information, see Stakeholder access quick reference.
  • All project members, even members in the Readers group, can send emails containing work items.

Open Work Items

You can start viewing and adding work items once you connect to a project.

(1) Check that you've selected the right project, then (2) choose Boards>Work Items.

Screenshot of web portal, Open Boards, Work Items hub.

Note

Depending on the process chosen when the project was created—Agile, Basic, Scrum, or CMMI—the types of work items you can create differ. For example, backlog items may be called user stories (Agile), issues (Basic), product backlog items (Scrum), or requirements (CMMI). All three are similar: they describe the customer value to deliver and the work to be performed.

For more information, see About processes and process templates.

View work items

Using the drop-down menu, you can focus on relevant items inside a project using one of seven pivots. Additionally, you can filter and sort each pivot view. You can also use an Azure DevOps CLI command to view details about a work item.

Screenshot of web portal, Boards, Work Items, Menu options.

Screenshot of web portal, Boards, Work Items, Menu options, Azure DevOps Server 2019 version.

  • Assigned to me: lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. Doesn't include items moved to the Removed category state. To open or update a work item, simply click its title.
  • Following: lists work items that you're following.
  • Mentioned: lists work items in which you've been mentioned in the last 30 days.
  • My activity: lists work items that you've recently viewed or updated.
  • My team(s): lists work items that your team members have recently viewed or updated.
  • Assigned to me: lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. To open or update a work item, simply click its title.
  • Following: lists work items that you're following.
  • Mentioned: lists work items in which you've been mentioned in the last 30 days.
  • My activity: lists work items that you've recently viewed or updated.
  • My team(s): lists work items that your team members have recently viewed or updated.
  • Assigned to me: lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. To open or update a work item, simply click its title.
  • Following: lists work items that you're following.
  • Mentioned: lists work items in which you've been mentioned in the last 30 days.
  • My activity: lists work items that you've recently viewed or updated.

  • Recently updated: lists work items recently updated in the project.
  • Recently completed: lists work items completed or closed in the project.
  • Recently created: lists work items created within the last 30 days in the project.

Add a work item

Adding a work item is just one click away. Choose the work item type from the New Work Item drop down menu. You can also use an Azure DevOps CLI command to add a new work item.

Note

New work items are assigned the last Area Path and Iteration Path selected by the user.

For example, here we choose User Story.

Screenshot of web portal, Work Items page, New Work Item.

Tip

Work items you add are automatically scoped to the currently selected team's area and iteration paths. To change the team context, see Switch project or team focus.

Enter a title and then save the work item. Before you can change the State from its initial default, you must save it.

Screenshot of Agile process, User story work item form.

You can add tags to any work item to filter backlogs, queries, and work item lists. Users with Basic access can create new tags by default, users with Stakeholder access can only add existing tags.

Filter to create personal views

You can filter each work item pivot view by entering a keyword or using one or more of the fields provided, such as work item type (Types), State, Area Path, and Tags. The page remembers the filters you set for each pivot, supporting personalized views across all pivots. To learn more about filtering, see Filter backlogs, boards, queries, and plans.

Screenshot of web portal, Work Items page, Filter options, choose to show Bugs.

Add columns and sort by a column

From the web portal, you can sort your view by one of the column fields that you select from the Column Options dialog. For more information, see Change column options.

Capture comments in the Discussion section

Use the Discussion section to add and review comments made about the work being performed.

Screenshot of Discussion section within a work item form.

The rich text editor tool bar displays below the text entry area. It appears when you select your cursor within each text box that supports text formatting.

Screenshot of Discussion section, New Rich Text Editor toolbar.

Note

There is no Discussion work item field. To query work items with comments entered in the Discussion area, you filter on the History field. The full content of the text entered into the Discussion text box is added to the History field.

Mention someone, a group, work item, or pull request

Choose one of the following icons to open a menu of recent entries you made to mention someone, link to a work item, or link to a pull request. Or, to open the same menu you can enter @, #, or !.

Screenshot of Discussion section, at-mention drop-down menu people-picker.

Enter a name or number and the menu list filters to match your entry. Choose the entry you want to add. You can bring a group into the discussion by entering @ and the group name, such as a team or security group.

Edit or delete a comment

If you need to edit or delete any of your discussion comments, choose Edit or choose the actions icon and then choose Delete.

Screenshot of Discussion section, choose Edit or Delete actions.

Note

Editing and deleting comments requires Azure DevOps Server 2019 Update 1 or later version.

After updating the comment, choose Update. To delete the comment, you need to confirm that you want to delete it. A full audit trail of all edited and deleted comments is maintained in the History tab on the work item form.

Add a reaction to a comment

Add one or more reactions to a comment by choosing a smiley icon at the upper-right corner of any comment. Or, choose from the icons at the bottom of a comment next to any existing reactions. To remove your reaction, choose the reaction on the bottom of your comment. The following image shows an example of the experience of adding a reaction, and the display of reactions on a comment.

Screenshot of Discussion section, add a reaction to a comment.

Save a comment without saving the work item

Note

This feature is available starting in Azure DevOps Server 2022.1.

If you only have permissions to add to the Discussion of a work item, then you can do so by saving comments. This permission is controlled by Area Path nodes and the Edit work item comments in this node permission. For more information, see Set work tracking permissions, Create child nodes, modify work items under an area or iteration path.

Once you save the comments, you don't need to save the work item.

Screenshot of Discussion section, save comment.

Note

When you save changes made to the Discussion control, only the comment is saved. No work item rules defined for the work item type execute.

Copy selected items to the clipboard or email them

To select several items in a sequence, hold down the shift key from a web portal page. To select several non-sequential items, use the Ctrl key. Then, you can use Ctrl+c to copy the selected items to a clipboard. Or, you can open the context menu for the selected work items, click ( actions icon), and then select an option from the menu.

Screenshot of web portal, Work Items page, Following view, Select multiple work items, open context menu.

Open a view as a query

From the web portal, you can open any view, filtered view, or selected set of work items as a query. Choose Open in Queries or the Open selected items in Queries option from the context menu.

Queries provide other features that you can use, including:

  • Edit one or more fields of several work items
  • Add or remove tags from several work items
  • Change the work item type
  • Delete work items
  • Apply work item templates
  • And more

For more information, see Bulk modify work items. To learn more about queries, see Use the query editor to list and manage queries and Query fields, operators, and macros.

Work Items page controls

Use the following three controls to manage your views in the web portal.

Control Function
Image of View options control icon. View/hide completed items
Image of Filter control icon. Turn filtering On/Off
Image of Full screen icon. / Image of Exit full screen icon. Enter or exit full screen mode