Each work item in TFS contains an All Links Tab where you can see all the links to this work item grouped by relationship type.
There are other tabs that just show specific links like Implementation, Change Requests, Test Cases. These tabs are filtered to only show certain types of relationships and the work items that can have this relationship.
It’s very easy to create your own Tab that shows specific links and the work item types that you want the user to include.
As an example lets create a Review Tab on the Requirement work item in the CMMI Process Template so we can see the Design Reviews associated to this requirement.
Open up the CMMI process template using the Process Template editor that comes with the TFS Powertools.
Lets create a custom link type to be used for Reviews. From the Process Editor select Methodology | Work Item Tracking | Link Types and click the new Button. Fill in the New Link type to represent a Reviewed By/Reviews relationship.
Save the Link Type and open the Requirement Work Item type editor.
In the Layout tab right click on the TabGroup node and select New Tab Page from the context Menu. You can right click on that new tab page and select Move Up or Move Down to change it’s order in the Tab control.
Change the Label on the New Tab Page to Reviewed By.
Right click on the Tab Page – Reviewed By and select New Control. Fill in the Control property grid with label, name and type information.
Now select the Control Settings field and click on the button in that field with the ellipses.
From here you can control the links that can be added and viewed with this control.
There are three filters that can be applied.
Work Item Type Filters: Allows you to select the type of work items the can be selected. You can choose to Include All work item types or Include/Exclude a subset of them. For our example we will select Include and check the Review Work item Type.
Work Item Link Filters: Allow you to force a specific work item link type. You can include/exclude all or include/exclude a subset. For our example we’ll Include the new Reviewed By link type we created.
External Link Filters: These are for the non work item links. You can include or Exclude the following external link types.
Fixed in Changeset
Result Attachment
Source Code File
Test Result
Workitem Hyperlink
See my blog entry on Requirements in TFS for an example on using the External Links.
For our example we will set this to Exclude All this way none of the external links will be allowed.
You can also select what columns you would like to show in the list of related work items. I’ll add Called By and Called Date to the selected Columns.
Now with a project created from this process template the Requirement will have a Reviewed By tab that allows users to add Reviews with the link type Reviewed By.