Customize a TFS Work Item to create new Work Item

Prerequisite:

• To export or list work item types, you must be a member of the Project Administrators group or have your View project-level information permission set to Allow.
• To import work item types, you must be a member of the Team Foundation Administrators security group or the Project Administrators security group.

We can customize a Work Item Type to create a new Work Item Type. Many organizations use the term defect in place of Bug and they are comfortable to keep the same term in TFS also. We will use a tool built in TFS 2010; called WitAdmin to create a new work item type Defect from Bug work item type. We will begin with getting the definition of work item of the Bug type and modify it to create a new work item type Defect.

Steps

1. Open the Visual Studio 2010 command prompt and run it as Administrator.

2. We begin with getting the Bug work item type definition in a XML file. Enter the following command:

   Operation complete message will appear.

Now we have the Bug work item type definition in XML file, we will edit it in Notepad. 3. In Window Explorer, find Bug.xml and open it for editing.

4. It will open it in Notepad where we can edit it.

5. Change the name from Bug to Defect and save the file.

6. Enter the command:

  The work item type import has completed message will appear.

7. You may now start Visual Studio 2010, open Team Explorer and browse to the Team Project named EngageTest. Expand to the Work Items node and right click on it. Select the option New Work Item and you will find Defect appear in the list.