Restrict State Transitions in Azure DevOps Work Items

 Azure DevOps work items for example User Story work item can be moved from one state to another in a workflow. As per this question in tech communties a requirement is there to resrict a New state user story from moving to Closed state directly. But if the uer story is in another state such as Active it should be able to moved to Closed state. Let's explore how to implement a solution for this Azure DevOps.

We can use customized templates in Azure DevOps to customize the work items and work flows. To restrict moving a user story from New to Closed state we can implement a rule in user story work item as below.

• Open custom template user story work item.
• Then go to rules tab and add a new rule.
• Provide a rule name. 
• Add condition "Work item state is moved from" and select New as the value.
• Add action "Restrict transition to state" and select Closed as the value.

TFS 2013 - Web Access - MSF Agile - Backlog & Board

Lets have a quick look at few cool stuff that will be available with TFS 2013 in MSF Agile Template. With this release Microsoft added Feature work item representing a Feature that is implemented with many user stories. They have made the Backlog and the Board appearance consistent across Web Access Work tab.

Vertical color bars to denote different types of work items, giving a great look to the Board and the Backlog.

1. Feature Backlog

2. Feature Backlog - with User Stories

 

 3. Feature Backlog - with User Stories & Tasks

4. Ease of Access

5. Feature Board

6. Stories

7. Stories to Features

 

8. Stories to Tasks

9. Stories Board

10. Iteration Backlog

11. Iteration Board - Grouped by Stories

12. Iteration Board - Grouped byPeople

13. Queries

 Cool stuff...greater consistency...and await for more... as I explore in the coming weeks...