Thoughts on work item management in project management

The following are some of my personal thoughts on how to manage a Work Item in project management, from creation to completion, and how to efficiently perform it, I think this is one of the core concerns of all PM/team leaders.

For a task, there are several core nodes: Work Item, Test Suite, Changesets, and Work Log. If a task corresponds to a requirement, a bug, or an improvement requirement, there will be a series of test cases to determine whether the output meets the work item, at the same time, this work item also corresponds to the corresponding code changes (changesets), and the Manual spent on this task. In addition to these core nodes, there are also some other nodes that I use to describe my mental model:

A work item belongs to an iteration plan. After a work item is created, the first step is to assign it to a developer. After receiving the task, the developer first analyzes the work item, the analysis results are divided into two parts: proposed solution and effort estimation. After the proposed solution is approved by review, the developer designs the result and the effort estimation is updated to the work item, this facilitates the scheduling of work plans. After the Design is reviewed, it can enter the implementation phase. The output in this phase will be the corresponding code changes (changesets) in the source control system ), these code changes will be associated with the corresponding work item to facilitate review. After implementation, some test cases based on the work item are created. These test cases may be manual or automatic, like changesets, they are also associated with the corresponding work item, so that a task-based test can be clearly defined and executed. After a task is modified, the scope of regression testing can also be clearly defined. Most importantly, the test cases of these columns define the boundaries of the work item as accurately as possible to provide criteria for the acceptance of the work item. Test suite can be improved and enriched, and can be easily located based on work item or changeset.

In addition, the work records based on the work item can be easily recorded to provide data for the task's effort analysis, it provides feedback basis for improving the efficiency of the work item implementation process.

 

Currently, TFS 2010 is the best way to manage a work item. TFS 2010 provides scm, work item management, and test suite management, you can also associate work items with changesets. It also supports work item-based effort management, but does not seem to support work log records. TFS 2010 provides detailed management based on work items. For example, it provides the following states: Designed, Refactored, Coded, Code reviewed, Design reviewed, Unit tested, Functional tested, user acceptance tested, Integration tested, Regression tested, Performance tested, Security tested. Especially in terms of testing.

In terms of other project management tools, I do not know which tool provides comprehensive management like TFS 2010. Of course, no matter what tools or tools are used, it is quite good to manage a work item according to the process in the figure. At present, I am pursuing such a management process in my project. This is very important for creating an efficient team and finally delivering products on schedule. The implementation details will be summarized later.