Can I create a hierarchical requirements document using a TFS request or a TFS report

Question

I am exploring the possibility of using TFS for the software process in our next project. One need is to be able to create a requirements document from individual related requirements in TFS. I currently have project layouts in Agile and CMMI with a set of requirements related to parent relationships with children. I can request these requirements in both Agile and CMMI, but the result does not show the hierarchy. With CMMI, I can run the “Project Management :: Requirements Progress” report, which shows the requirements headers with indentation based on the hierarchy. However, it does not show detailed descriptions.

I would like to automatically generate a Word document with hierarchical headers based on the work items of the TFS requirements and their relationship between parents and children.

Also for generating rich text and drawings from the TFS Work Item Description. Therefore, the secondary question is how to change the description field in the requirements work item to support rich text so that reports can use it. If I try to edit the "Task Work Item Description" field, it warns me that continuing to save can make the file inactive.

Answer 1

To support RichText in your work items, you need to edit the work position definition with the work item editor. wihch can be found in the Power Tools utility. You must add a new custom text field and use this field for your descriptions. (The disadvantage is that the Excel plug-in does not support editing richtext fields. They are read-only in Excel)

In order to print work items, I had to improvise the solution and worked very well for me. I used the MS Word Merge feature and designed a Word document. After that, I prepared an SQL query that takes the required field values ​​from the TFS Warehouse. Rest is done using MS Word. Mail Merge prepares one document for each work item record. These are separate documents, but this is a trick, I suppose.

To create a hierarchy, I think you need to go a little deeper. Since TFS maintains a parent / child relationship, but does not follow any specific sort order, I believe another custom field is required. You can use this field to assign hierarchy markers manually (1.1, 1.2, etc.), or you can develop a small custom command line utility to move the tree of work items and auto-matching values ​​for the specified custom field.