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Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019
The On-premises XML process model provides support for customizing work tracking objects and Agile tools for a project. With this model, you can update the XML definition of work item types, the process configuration, categories, and more. You can also update the attributes of fields.
You customize your work tracking experience to support your business and reporting needs. The most common customizations include adding a custom field, modifying a work item form, or adding a custom work item type.
Note
For more information, see the following articles:
For Azure DevOps Server 2019 and later versions, you have a choice of process models. When you create a project collection, you'll need to choose between On-premises XML process model and Inheritance process model. For more information, see Customize work tracking, Choose the process model for your project collection.
Important
Migration of projects or collections from Hosted XML to the inherited model is not support for Azure DevOps Server. It is only available on the Azure DevOps Services.
To customize an Azure DevOps Services project, see About process customization and inherited processes. This article applies to on-premises deployments only.
You can perform the following tasks when you work with the On-premises XML process model.
Area
Customization support
Fields
Pick lists
Work item types
Backlogs and process configuration
Process template
Link types
When you manage an on-premises deployment, you perform most customizations using the following sequence. This sequence supports updating the XML definition for WIT, global lists, process configuration, and categories. This sequence supports individual updates through the import of their respective modified XML definition files. We recommend that you maintain your XML definition files in a repository for version control.
In addition, you can use the witadmin tool to list objects, rename WITs, permanently remove WITs, and more.
Tip
With witadmin, you can import and export definition files. Other tools you can use include the Process Editor (requires that you have installed a version of Visual Studio). Install the Process Template editor from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
Before you customize, you should understand how your customizations may impact your project when you upgrade your application-tier server.
Upgrades to an on-premises deployment can introduce new features that require updates to the objects used to track work. These objects include work item types, categories, and process configuration. Minimizing changes to the workflow for a WIT or the process configuration can help minimize the work you must do when you upgrade your deployment.
To minimize the amount of manual work you'll need to do after an upgrade, understand which customizations support an easy update path and which do not.
With the following customizations, you can use the Configure Features Wizard to automatically apply any changes to your project required for new features.
To learn more about the Configure Features Wizard, see Configure features after an upgrade.
The Configure Features Wizard requires that specific work item types, workflow states, and fields exist in the project. When you make the following customizations, you might need to modify your custom process for the wizard to run, or you might have to update your project manually.
TypeField
in the process configuration.In addition, changes you make to WITs or the workflow could require updates to other artifacts provided with your process, such as Excel or SQL Server Reporting Services reports.
You should avoid making the following customizations because they can result in schema conflicts in the data warehouse or cause problems when updating projects after a TFS upgrade.
To learn more about reporting attributes, see Add or modify work item fields to support reporting.
The default configuration for projects associates each team with an area path. If your organization has several teams that work from a common backlog and across many product areas, this configuration might not fit how you want to organize your work. By adding a custom field to represent teams in your organization, you can reconfigure the agile planning tools and pages to support your teams and decouple assignment to teams and area paths.
Use team fields instead of area paths to support teams describes how to change the default configuration.
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17 Mar, 23 - 21 Mar, 23
Join the meetup series to build scalable AI solutions based on real-world use cases with fellow developers and experts.
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Use advance techniques in canvas apps to perform custom updates and optimization
Certification
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Documentation
witAdmin Customize and manage objects for tracking work - Azure DevOps
Tracks your team's progress by creating and customizing objects that track work items.
Add or modify a work item type - Azure DevOps Server
Modify or add a work item type to support queries, reports, and workflow for On-premises XML process model for Azure DevOps
Add or modify a work tracking field - Azure DevOps
Modify or add a work item field to support queries, reports, and workflow in Azure DevOps