{"id":44898,"date":"2015-07-27T21:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T21:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/visualstudioalm\/2015\/07\/27\/visual-studio-online-process-customization-update\/"},"modified":"2022-08-03T00:28:13","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T08:28:13","slug":"visual-studio-online-process-customization-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/visual-studio-online-process-customization-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual Studio Online Process Customization – Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in May<\/a>, we began explaining our roadmap for process customization on Visual Studio Online (VSO).\u00a0 In this post, I want to share the progress we\u2019ve made and give an update on our overall plans.<\/p>\n

Customization rollout plan<\/strong>
\nProcess customization features will be delivered on the same cadence as the rest of the service, with new functionality lighting up every 2-3 sprints.\u00a0 Our plan is to deliver customization as simple scenarios that offer end-to-end experiences for managing customizations.\u00a0 To make this a bit more concrete, here is our prioritized list of scenarios we plan on delivering:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Add custom fields & modify layout for existing work item types<\/li>\n
  2. Add picklist and identity fields to existing work item types<\/li>\n
  3. Modify the state workflow on existing work item types<\/li>\n
  4. Creation of custom work item types<\/li>\n
  5. Define business logic and rules for custom fields<\/li>\n
  6. Import\/Export of custom processes<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As Aaron mentioned in May, each of these scenarios will be enabled through simple UI built into the web product so you won\u2019t need to manually make changes to XML or work with clunky tools.\u00a0 Couple with the UI will be public REST APIs so can hook customization into your own extensions of VSO and automated processes.<\/p>\n

    Add a field<\/a><\/strong>
    \nWhen we talk to customers about process customization, the most common ask we hear is something like this, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I add a \u2018Due date\u2019 field to the agile bug?\u201d\u00a0 At their core, work items are essentially a property bag of name\/value pairs so letting users extend this with custom name\/value pairs is essential.<\/p>\n

    The first scenario we\u2019ll deliver is the ability to extend an existing work item in any of our \u201cout of the box\u201d processes (Agile, Scrum, CMMI) and add your own custom fields to them.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have an \u201cAdd a field\u201d experience right from the work item as well as an admin grid view of all the fields defined in a process and referenced on each work item type.<\/p>\n

    In addition to defining the field itself, the experience will allow you to provide the most common metadata about the field:<\/p>\n