Overview |  | Roles |  | Work Items |  | Views |  | Index |  | Glossary |

Project Portal
| Task
### Work Item Database
Overview |
States and Transitions |
Fields |
### Process Guidance |
Activities |
Work Streams |
Task Fields A task work item communicates the need to do some work. Each role has its own requirements for a task. For example, a developer uses development tasks to assign work derived from scenarios or quality of service requirements to component owners. The tester uses test tasks to assign the job of writing and running test cases. A task can also be used to signal regressions or to suggest that exploratory testing be performed. Finally, a task can be used generically to assign work within the project. On the work item form, certain fields are used only in cases when a task relates to a particular role.
Field | Description
--- | ---
Title | Required. The title provides a concise overview of the task to be completed. The title should be descriptive enough to allow the team to understand what area of the product is affected and how it is affected.
Detailed Description and History | Details and history of the work item.
File Attachments | Links to files or other work items. In the case of a development or test task, the supporting scenario or quality of service requirement should be attached. It also contains any attachments such as notes on the task.
Issue | Issue is a Yes or No value indicating if the task is blocked in some manner. If this field is set to Yes, the task displays on the project manager’s issue report.
Exit Criteria | The exit criteria field indicates if the task is critical to starting or finishing an iteration. This field should be used responsibly as iterations exit due to the passage of time. However, certain tasks, especially at the beginning of the project, are marked as exit criteria to indicate that they must be completed before the project starts. If the exit criteria field is set to Yes, the task displays in the project manager’s project checklist.
Integration Build | The changes for a development task appear in the build number displayed.
Remaining Work (hours) | The amount of work that remains to finish the task. This field is synchronized with Microsoft Project and can be used when the Microsoft Project version of the iteration plan is chosen.
Completed Work (hours) | The amount of work completed on a task. This field is synchronized with Microsoft Project and can be used when the Microsoft Project version of the iteration plan is chosen.
Discipline | Indicates whether the task is a development task, test task, or just an ordinary task. Setting the Discipline field to development or test carries a distinct meaning about the state of the work when the task is closed.
Area | Used to group the task into an appropriate feature or team area. The area must be a valid node in the project hierarchy.
Iteration | The scheduled iteration is the iteration in which the bug report is fixed.
Assigned To | The current person that the task is assigned to.
State | Required. A task can be in the Active or Closed states.
Reason | Required. The reason a task is in the current state. For example, a task may be Closed because it is Completed, Deferred, Cut, Deferred, or Obsolete.
Rank | Required. The rank field is a subjective importance rating. If the rank field is set to 1, the task is a must have task and should be completed as soon as possible. If the rank is set to 2, the task is a should have, to be completed following all tasks ranked 1. If the rank is set to 3, the task is a could have, to be completed after tasks ranked 1 and 2.
Summary | A short summary of the task.
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