View and add work items using the Work Items page
Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019
Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2022
View work items that you created or are assigned to you. The Work Items page provides several personalized pivots, as shown in the following image, and interactive filter functions to streamline listing work items. Use this page to quickly find work items defined across teams within a project.
Note
The Work Items page is available from Azure DevOps Services, Azure DevOps Server 2019 and later versions, and Visual Studio 2019 RC1.
Prerequisites
- You must connect to a project. If you don't have a project yet, create one.
- You must be added to a project. To get added, Add users to a project or team.
- To view or modify work items, you must have your View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. To learn more, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.
- To add new tags to add to work items, you must have Basic access or higher and have the project-level Create new tag definition permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. Even if the permission is explicitly set for a Stakeholder, they won't have permission to add new tags, as they are prohibited through their access level. To learn more, see Stakeholder access quick reference.
- All project members, even those who belong to the Readers group, can email work items.
- You must connect to a project. If you don't have a project yet, create one.
- You must be added to a project. To get added, Add users to a project or team.
- To view or modify work items, you must have your View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. To learn more, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.
- To add new tags to add to work items, you must have Basic access or higher and have the project-level Create new tag definition permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission set. Even if the permission is explicitly set for a Stakeholder, they won't have permission to add new tags, as they are prohibited through their access level. To learn more, see Stakeholder access quick reference.
- All project members, even those who belong to the Readers group, can email work items.
Open Work Items
You can start viewing and adding work items once you connect to a project.
(1) Check that you've selected the right project, then (2) choose Boards>Work Items.
Note
Depending on the process chosen when the project was created—Agile, Basic, Scrum, or CMMI—the types of work items you can create differ. For example, backlog items may be called user stories (Agile), issues (Basic), product backlog items (Scrum), or requirements (CMMI). All three are similar: they describe the customer value to deliver and the work to be performed.
For more information, see About processes and process templates.
View work items
Using the drop-down menu, you can focus on relevant items inside a project using one of seven pivots. Additionally, you can filter and sort each pivot view. You can also use an Azure DevOps CLI command to view details about a work item.
- Assigned to me: lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. Doesn't include items moved to the Removed category state. To open or update a work item, simply click its title.
- Following: lists work items that you're following.
- Mentioned: lists work items in which you've been mentioned in the last 30 days.
- My activity: lists work items that you've recently viewed or updated.
- My team(s): lists work items that your team members have recently viewed or updated.
- Assigned to me: lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. To open or update a work item, simply click its title.
- Following: lists work items that you're following.
- Mentioned: lists work items in which you've been mentioned in the last 30 days.
- My activity: lists work items that you've recently viewed or updated.
- My team(s): lists work items that your team members have recently viewed or updated.
- Assigned to me: lists all work items assigned to you in the project in the order they were last updated. To open or update a work item, simply click its title.
- Following: lists work items that you're following.
- Mentioned: lists work items in which you've been mentioned in the last 30 days.
- My activity: lists work items that you've recently viewed or updated.
- Recently updated: lists work items recently updated in the project.
- Recently completed: lists work items completed or closed in the project.
- Recently created: lists work items created within the last 30 days in the project.
Add a work item
Adding a work item is just one click away. Choose the work item type from the New Work Item drop down menu. You can also use an Azure DevOps CLI command to add a new work item.
Note
New work items are assigned the last Area Path and Iteration Path selected by the user.
For example, here we choose User Story.
Tip
Work items you add are automatically scoped to the currently selected team's area and iteration paths. To change the team context, see Switch project or team focus.
Enter a title and then save the work item. Before you can change the State from its initial default, you must save it.
You can add tags to any work item to filter backlogs, queries, and work item lists. Users with Basic access can create new tags by default, users with Stakeholder access can only add existing tags.
Filter to create personal views
You can filter each work item pivot view by typing a keyword or using one or more of the fields provided, such as work item type (Types), State, Area Path, and Tags. The page remembers the filters you set for each pivot, supporting personalized views across all pivots. To learn more about filtering, see Filter backlogs, boards, queries, and plans.
Add columns and sort by a column
From the web portal, you can sort your view by one of the column fields that you select from the Column Options dialog. For details, see Change column options.
Capture comments in the Discussion section
Use the Discussion section to add and review comments made about the work being performed.
The rich text editor tool bar displays below the text entry area. It appears when you click your cursor within each text box that supports text formatting.
Note
There is no Discussion work item field. To query work items with comments entered in the Discussion area, you filter on the History field. The full content of the text entered into the Discussion text box is added to the History field.
Mention someone, a group, work item, or pull request
Choose one of these icons--
, 
, or 
--to open a menu of recent entries you've made to mention someone, link to a work item, or link to a pull request. Or to open the same menu, you can type @, #, or !.
Type a name, or enter a number and the menu list will filter to match your entry. Choose the entry you want to add. You can bring a group into the discussion by typing @ and the group name, such as a team or security group.
Edit or delete a comment
If you need to edit or delete any of your discussion comments, choose 
Edit or choose the 
actions icon and then choose Delete.
Note
Editing and deleting comments requires Azure DevOps Server 2019 Update 1 or later version.
After updating the comment, choose Update. To delete the comment, you'll need to confirm that you want to delete it. A full audit trail of all edited and deleted comments is maintained in the History tab on the work item form.
Add a reaction to a comment
Add one or more reactions to a comment by choosing a smiley icon at the upper-right corner of any comment. Or, choose from the icons at the bottom of a comment next to any existing reactions. To remove your reaction, choose the reaction on the bottom of your comment. The following image shows an example of the experience of adding a reaction, as well as the display of reactions on a comment.
Save a comment without saving the work item
If you only have permissions to add to the Discussion of a work item, then you can do so by saving comments. This permission is controlled by Area Path nodes and the Edit work item comments in this node permission. To learn more, see Set work tracking permissions, Create child nodes, modify work items under an area or iteration path.
Once you save the comments, you don't need to save the work item.
Note
When you save changes made to the Discussion control, only the comment is saved. No work item rules defined for the work item type execute.
Copy selected items to the clipboard or email them
To select several items in a sequence, hold down the shift key from a web portal page. To select several non-sequential items, use the Ctrl key. Then, you can use Ctrl+c to copy the selected items to a clipboard. Or, you can open the context menu for the selected work items, click ( 
actions icon), and then select an option from the menu.
Open a view as a query
From the web portal, you can open any view, filtered view, or selected set of work items as a query. Choose Open in Queries or the Open selected items in Queries option from the context menu.
Queries provide other features that you can use, including:
- Edit one or more fields of several work items
- Add or remove tags from several work items
- Change the work item type
- Delete work items
- Apply work item templates
- And more
For details, see Bulk modify work items. To learn more about queries, see Use the query editor to list and manage queries and Query fields, operators, and macros.
Work Items page controls
Use the following three controls to manage your views in the web portal.
| Control | Function |
|---|---|
 |
View/hide completed items |
 |
Turn filtering On/Off |
 /  |
Enter or exit full screen mode |
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