Not all work items are created equally

re: Not all work items are created equally

Steve — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 06:33:00 GMT

This is basically what we have done at work for the last ... maybe 4 years.

The only thing to be careful of is whether the reclassification of a work item would offend the originator of it. I don't know if your system notifies the creator when such things happen, but I sometimes would prefer to just change the type without any emails going out.

This isn't really an issue for internal people, unless they're very political or take things personally ... but it is an issue when the originator is external, like a client or customer.

re: Not all work items are created equally

Mickey Gousset — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 00:23:00 GMT

I love how this sounds. I hope it is easy to implement and train people how to use.

re: Not all work items are created equally

Alex — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 05:39:00 GMT

I have been on the receiving end of this problem. We used an issue tracking database (MS Raid) on a large project where MS Consulting were doing some of the program management. We had to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to re-educate the users not to think of everything in Raid as a bug, more an issue that is being tracked.

Whilst it is a great thing to be able to record all that information, it is also a great tool for the client to bash you over the head with, 'The quality of this software is rubbish, 1200 bugs in Raid, so we won't be making the milestone payment'. It is very important to educate the client from day one that it is a database of work items, not bugs.

Bravo MS on calling it a work item!!

re: Not all work items are created equally

Chris — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:33:00 GMT

You know I like work item types, Kevin :)

I just hope you guys figured out a ... relatively painless way to change types, considering field X may be required in type A and not even valid for type B (or vice versa).

The reverse one is actually more interesting - what does the user do if he wants to make this issue into a defect, but doesn't know what value for a required field is appropriate?

Of course, there's a school of thought that says NO fields should be truly required; hopefully the set of required fields is truly as small as possible, such that any user of that work item type knows how to treat all of the required fields.

re: Not all work items are created equally

Kevin Kelly (Ireland) — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 13:11:00 GMT

Sorry, I'm not really technically-minded enough to comment on your post. But I just wanted to say hi from a fellow Kevin Kelly and weblogger, based in Ireland.

re: Not all work items are created equally

Kevin Kelly (Ireland) — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 13:12:00 GMT

Oops, got my domain wrong in the previous comment. Drop by and leave me a message!

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