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support-rollup-of-work-and-other-fields.md

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title titleSuffix description ms.service ms.custom ms.assetid ms.author author ms.topic monikerRange ms.date
Support rollup of work and other fields
Azure DevOps & TFS
Provides summed values of select fields for all child work items of a parent.
azure-devops-boards
process, archive-candidate
03d26ae1-cbfa-4156-82e3-1d2fc27f48f3
chcomley
chcomley
conceptual
<= azure-devops
04/04/2022

Rollup of work and other fields

[!INCLUDE version-lt-eq-azure-devops]

Rollup provides summed values of select fields for all child work items of a parent. Because Azure DevOps Services and Team Foundation Server (TFS) support multiple levels of nesting, when you perform rollup, you want to make sure you don't double-count values. Most project managers are interested in getting rollup of estimated or completed work, effort, size, or story points.

Note

The system doesn't support rollup of the Effort, Story Points, or Size fields across product backlogs and portfolio backlogs.

Native support of rollup within the web portal

::: moniker range=">= azure-devops-2020"

Azure Boards supports rollup columns on product and portfolio backlogs, rollup within the sprint Planning pane, as well as rollup on sprint backlogs and taskboards.

Display rollup progress bars, counts, or totals

From any product or portfolio backlog, you can add rollup progress bars, counts of descendant work items within a hierarchy, or sum of select fields, such as Story Points or Remaining Work.

[!INCLUDE temp]

To learn more, see Display rollup progress or totals.

View rollup within sprint Planning pane

As you assign backlog items to a sprint using the Planning pane, the sprint window updates with a running tally of the number of backlog items and tasks, as well as the Planned Effort.

[!div class="mx-imgBorder"] Product backlog page, drag work items to sprint or assign to sprint through the context menu

Planned Effort provides a sum of all Story Points or Effort defined for backlog items assigned to the sprint. To learn more, see Assign backlog items to a sprint.

View rollup of sprint backlogs and taskboards

In addition, you can view rollup of Remaining Work from a sprint backlog or taskboard.

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="< azure-devops-2020"

You can view rollup of Remaining Work from a sprint backlog or task board.

::: moniker-end

From the sprint backlog, the sum of all Remaining Work defined for all tasks is displayed for the parent work item. This value also displays on the parent work item card when you view the task board.

::: moniker range=">= azure-devops-2020"

[!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
Sprint backlog displays rollup of Remaining Work

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="azure-devops-2019"

[!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
Sprint backlog displays rollup of Remaining Work.

::: moniker-end

From a sprint task board, there are three types of rollup:

  • The rollup of Remaining Work displays on the card for the parent work item
  • The sum of all Remaining Work defined for all tasks within a column displays at the top of each column
  • The sum of all Remaining Work defined for all tasks for a backlog item displays within each row, grouped by column.

::: moniker range=">= azure-devops-2020"

[!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
Sprint Taskboard displays rollup of Remaining Work

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="azure-devops-2019"

[!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
Sprint backlog displays rollup of Remaining Work

::: moniker-end

When you update the status of a task as Completed, the system automatically zeros out the Remaining Work for that task. To learn more, see Task board.

Other tools that support rollup

You can obtain rollup of additional data fields in Azure DevOps work tracking data by using one of the following methods:

::: moniker range=">= azure-devops-2019"

Method Azure DevOps Services On-premises Azure DevOps
Work item query charts check mark check mark
Microsoft Excel check mark check mark
Marketplace extensions check mark check mark
Analytics check mark check mark
SQL Server Reporting Services report Not supported check mark

::: moniker-end

Work item query charts and rollup

You can create a flat list query that sums the values of a field you specify. To learn more, see Track progress by creating status and trend query-based charts. Charts support a count of work items or a sum of a field.

For example, here we show a pivot table that sums the story points for user stories by area path and work item state.

Example rollup of story points by area and state

Microsoft Excel and rollup of work tracking data

You can export a query to Excel that contains the work items you want to provide rollup. You can then write an Excel macro to get the sums and publish data back to TFS. To learn more about Excel integration, see Bulk add or modify work items with Excel.

To learn more about Excel macros, see Automate tasks with the Macro Recorder.

Tip

To provide support for opening work items and query results in Excel from the web portal, add the VSTS Open in Excel Marketplace extension to your organization or collection.

Marketplace extensions and custom controls

There are several extensions available from the Marketplace that provide rollup. Here are a few that may support your needs:

Or, you can write an extension using the REST API for work tracking to get rollup. A code sample available on github that can get you started is TFS Aggregator.

::: moniker range=">= azure-devops-2019"

Analytics service

You can use the Analytics Service to answer quantitative questions about your projects. With this service, you can add Analytics widgets to your dashboard. Or, you can create additional reports using Power BI.

::: moniker-end

::: moniker range="< azure-devops"

SQL Server Reporting Services report

Several OOB reports provide rollup. Here's an example of rollup of completed and remaining work that the Stories Overview report provides. This report is part of the default TFS Agile process template.

Stories Overview example report

If you have SQL Server Analysis Services deployed, you can get rollup for backlog items from these reports. The refresh frequency for these reports is 2 hours.

If you need to add reports to your on-premises TFS deployment, see Add reports to a project.

::: moniker-end

Rollup requirements

To support rollup, structure your work items according to the following recommendations:

  • Use parent-child links to link work items that contain values that you want to rollup.

  • Add required fields to the WITs that will capture the rollup values. Default fields used to schedule work are only present on the task work item. These fields are:

    • Original Estimate (Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.OriginalEstimate): The amount of work required to complete a task. (Agile and CMMI)

    • Completed Work (Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.CompletedWork): The amount of work that has been spent implementing a task. (Agile and CMMI)

    • Remaining Work (Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.RemainingWork): This field is used to support burndown charts.

      If your project was created using the Visual Studio Scrum process template, only Remaining Work is defined in the task.

      To learn more about adding fields, see Modify a field or add a custom field.

  • Determine the unit of time used to track work and make sure it is used consistently across your team or organization. For example, you can track tasks using hours or days.

  • Determine if you want to make rollup values read-only on the work item form. By making them read-only you prevent users from entering inaccurate data. You make fields read-only using the Control field Readonly attribute.

Q & A

Q: Can I get rollup of team capacity?

A: No. The data entered for team capacity isn't stored in the regular data stores.