Triage work items with a work item query in Azure Boards and Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2020 | Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018 - TFS 2013

Visual Studio 2019 | Visual Studio 2015 | Visual Studio 2013

Using a work item query you can quickly review and update work items. Teams often use the triage mode for a query to complete the following tasks:

• Set the priority of a bug or work item
• Assign a work item to a sprint or team member
• Add details to the description, acceptance criteria, or repo steps
• Link-related work items
• Update the status of work items

In this article you'll learn how to:

• Use triage query mode to update a list of work items
• Bulk save work items that you've updated

Prerequisites

• By default, all project members and users with Stakeholder access can view and run all shared queries. You can change the permissions set for a shared query folder or shared query. For details, see Set query permissions.
• To add and save a query under Shared queries, you must be granted Basic access or higher. Also, you must have your Contribute permission set to Allow for the folder you want to add the query to. By default, the Contributors group doesn't have this permission.

Open Queries

Browser

From your web browser, open Boards>Queries.

Visual Studio

Note

To open, view, and run queries in Visual Studio 2019, you need to Set the Work Items experience to the legacy option.

1. From the Team Explorer home page, choose Work Items.

   

2. To open a query, open the context menu for the query (right-click with your mouse), and choose View Results. Or, double-click the query to open it.

   

Or, select one of the following options:

• Edit Query: Opens the Query Editor for the selected query.
• New Query: Opens the Query Editor with the default new query options.
• Open in Microsoft Excel (Flat): Opens the query in Microsoft Excel.
• Send to Microsoft Outlook: Open
• Cut: Cuts the query. You can then paste the query under a different folder.
• Copy: Copies the query. You can then paste the query under the same folder or a different folder.
• Delete: Deletes the query.
• Rename: Enables you to rename the query.
• Add to My Favorites: Adds the query to the My Favorites section.
• Add to Team Favorites: Adds the query to the Team Favorites section.
• Security: Opens the Permissions dialog for the query.

Use triage buttons and save work items

Browser

The buttons to move up or down within the query results list are inside the work item form. Choose Bottom to cycle through the choices for where the work item form appears: Bottom, Right, or Off.

You can save each work item as you change it. Or, you can update multiple work items and save them all at once with Save Items.

Visual Studio

Note

Triage mode isn't available from Visual Studio 2017.

When you choose View Results for a query, it opens in triage mode displaying the first item in the list. You can switch from vertical and horizontal views or expand or collapse the triage window using the Vertical Split, Horizontal Split, Collapse Bottom Panel, or Collapse Top Panel icons.

Choose Previous or Next to move up or down within the query results list.

After making several changes to work items, choose Save Results to save all changes.

Bulk update and save changes to work items

From the web portal, you can update several work items through the triage process, and then do a bulk save when you're finished.

Multi-select the work items you want to update, choose the context icon, and then select the option you want from the menu of options.

Work items shown in bold text indicate that local changes haven't yet been saved to the data store.

Choose the double-save icon to save all work items you've modified.

Related articles

• Best tool to add, update, and link work items
• Manage bugs
• Create a query