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Areas and iterations field reference

Area and iteration fields support categorizing work into product areas and iteration or sprint cycles. These fields display entries in a hierarchical or tree structure. These structures are useful for assigning work to specific project areas and time durations, as well as filtering project information in charts and reports.

You can assign the area and iteration fields to most work item types (WITs) that are provided with the default process templates for Team Foundation Server. You specify values for the area and iteration fields when you create a work item or during a review of the product or iteration backlog. If you defer a work item to a later time, you should change its iteration accordingly.

Classification fields that appear on work item forms

These fields appear on the forms for all WITs that TFS process templates provide. For information about data types and default field attributes, see Define and modify work item fields.

You can restrict who can modify work items under an area path. To define area and iteration paths or set permissions, see Add and modify area and iteration paths.

Field name

Description

Reference name

Data type

Default value of the reportable type attribute

Default value of the index attribute

Area Path

Groups work items into product feature or team areas. The area must be a valid node in the project hierarchy.

System.AreaPath

TreePath

Dimension

True

Iteration Path

Groups work items by named sprints or time periods. The iteration must be a valid node in the project hierarchy.

System.IterationPath

TreePath

Dimension

True

If you define a path name that is longer than 256 characters, you will not be able to specify it in Microsoft Project. To avoid this problem, define path names of no more than 10 characters, and do not nest nodes more than 14 levels deep.

You can’t apply most field rules to the System.AreaPath and System.IterationPath fields. To learn more, see Apply a field rule.

For additional restrictions, see restrictions in terms of naming and structuring child nodes.

Additional fields tracked for query and reporting purposes

The following fields do not appear on work item forms but are tracked for each work item type. These fields provide a numeric value for each classification value that is defined for a team project. You can use these fields to filter queries and create reports.

Field name

Description

Reference name

Data type

Default value of the reportable type attribute

Default value of the index attribute

Area ID

The unique ID of the area to which this work item is assigned.

System.AreaId

Integer

None

True

Iteration ID

The unique ID of the iteration to which this work item is assigned.

System.IterationId

Integer

None

True

Node Name

The name of the leaf node of an area path. For example, if the area path is Project\A1\B2\C3, the node name is C3.

System.NodeName

String

None

False

See Also

Concepts

Schedule sprints

Add and modify area and iteration paths

Define the initial areas and iterations in the classification plug-in

Work item field reference for Visual Studio ALM