My team is using Microsoft TFS 2012 Team System Web Access with the Scrum 2.2 Process Template as our Scrum management tool. We treat bug work items similar to how we deal with PBI’s, in that we assign tasks to the bug to complete the work. Usually this results in only two tasks: One development task to fix the bug, and one testing task to verify the fix and look for any related regressions around that fix.
When the developer has completed the bug-fix task, they use the task board to move their task from the ‘In Progress’ column, to the ‘Done’ column. But what should happen when the tester determines that the bug isn’t fixed? Well, the tester moves the development task back to the ‘To Do’ column and puts a note in the history field detailing the reason why the task wasn’t done.
The problem we were having is that the developers wanted to know when their bug fixes were not complete. Usually they would find out the next morning during our daily Scrum meeting, but they wanted to know right away. I solved this problem by using the Alerts feature available in TFS 2012.
- From your Team System Web Access site, click the settings button (the gear icon in the top right of the page)
- Select the ‘Alerts’ tab
- In the left navigation, select the ‘Team Alerts’ section
- Select ‘Work Item Alerts’
- In the main body of the page, click on ‘New…’
- In the ‘SELECT NEW ALERT TEMPLATE’ window, select ‘A change is made to a work item that is assigned to me’ and click ‘OK’
- Give the alert a more descriptive name
- Add 3 new clauses: Work Item Type = Task, State Changed From Done, State Changed To To Do
- Click OK
You’re all set. Your developers will start receiving emails when their bug tasks are moved back to the ‘TO DO’ column.
Here’s a quick video that walks you through the above steps:
How to add a bug-fix alert in TFS