Tracking Stories Added After a Sprint Starts in TFS

Question

I'm using TFS 2012 and the Scrum process template.

I would like a way to see stories that were added to sprint after a certain point in the timeline of that sprint.

We typically have a mid-sprint "mini" planning session. This allows us to re-balance existing workload across the team, but it also allows us to add additional PBIs/User Stories to the sprint if we see we have finished more work than expected.

I can't see a way to query to see when a story's iteration path was changed. Is this possible?

Answer 1

I found it necessary to create a custom application using the TFS APIs to accomplish this.

First, you need to obtain the relevant work item list:

    var tfs = TfsTeamProjectCollectionFactory.GetTeamProjectCollection(new Uri(options.TfsUri));

    var workItemStore = tfs.GetService<WorkItemStore>();
    var project = workItemStore.Projects[options.ProjectName]; 
    var projectIterationPath = string.Format("{0}\\{1}", project.Name, options.IterationPath);

    var items = project.Store.Query(
            "SELECT [System.Id] FROM WorkItems WHERE [System.WorkItemType] IN ('User Story', 'Product Backlog Item', 'Bug') AND [System.IterationPath] = '" +
            projectIterationPath + "'");

Then you must sum up various point totals (total work vs completed work):

    var pointTotal = workItems
        .Where(
            i =>
                i.Fields[effortField].Value != null &&
                decimal.TryParse(i.Fields[effortField].Value.ToString(), out temp))
        .Sum(i => decimal.Parse(i[effortField].ToString()));

    var pointsCompleted = workItems
         .Where(
             i =>
                 (string.Compare(i.State, "done", true) == 0 || string.Compare(i.State, "closed", true) == 0) &&
                 i.Fields[effortField].Value != null &&
                 decimal.TryParse(i.Fields[effortField].Value.ToString(), out temp))
         .Sum(i => decimal.Parse(i[effortField].ToString()));

Then you need to obtain information about the start and end iteration dates:

    var iterationSchedule = GetIterationSchedule(tfs, project.Uri.ToString(), 

    private static ScheduleInfo GetIterationSchedule(TfsTeamProjectCollection tfs, string projectUri, string iterationPath)
    {
        var css = tfs.GetService<ICommonStructureService4>();
        var structures = css.ListStructures(projectUri);
        var iterations = structures.FirstOrDefault(s => s.StructureType.Equals("ProjectLifecycle"));

        if (iterations != null)
        {
            string projectName = css.GetProject(projectUri).Name;

            XmlElement iterationsTree = css.GetNodesXml(new[] {iterations.Uri}, true);
            return GetIterationDates(iterationsTree.ChildNodes[0], projectName, iterationPath);
        }

        return null;
    }

    private static ScheduleInfo GetIterationDates(XmlNode node, string projectName, string iterationPath)
    {
        var targetIterationPath = string.Format("\\{0}\\Iteration\\{1}", projectName, iterationPath);
        XElement targetIteration = null;

        if (node != null)
        {
            var iterations = XDocument.Parse(node.InnerXml);

            targetIteration = iterations.Descendants("Node")
                .Where(n => n.Attribute("Path") != null && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(n.Attribute("Path").Value))
                .SingleOrDefault(n => string.Compare(n.Attribute("Path").Value, targetIterationPath, true) == 0);
        }

        if (targetIteration != null)
        {
            // Attempt to read the start and end dates if they exist.
            string strStartDate = (targetIteration.Attribute("StartDate") != null)
                ? targetIteration.Attribute("StartDate").Value
                : null;
            string strEndDate = (targetIteration.Attribute("FinishDate") != null)
                ? targetIteration.Attribute("FinishDate").Value
                : null;

            DateTime? rStateDate = null, rEndDate = null;

            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(strStartDate) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(strEndDate))
            {
                DateTime startDate;
                if (DateTime.TryParse(strStartDate, out startDate))
                    rStateDate = startDate;

                DateTime endDate;
                if (DateTime.TryParse(strEndDate, out endDate))
                    rEndDate = endDate;
            }

            return new ScheduleInfo
            {
                IterationPath = iterationPath,
                StartDate = rStateDate,
                EndDate = rEndDate
            };
        }

        return null;
    }

And finally you piece it all together to generate your summary for a sprint:

        foreach (var item in workItems)
        {
            var postSprintStartRevisions = (from r in item.Revisions.Cast<Revision>()
                where r.Fields.Cast<Field>()
                        .Any(f => f.Name == "Revised Date" && ((DateTime) f.Value) >= postStartDate)
                    && r.Fields.Cast<Field>()
                        .Any(
                            f =>
                                f.Name == "Iteration Path" 
                                && string.Compare(f.OriginalValue.ToString(), projectIterationPath, true) != 0
                                && string.Compare(f.Value.ToString(), projectIterationPath, true) == 0)
                select r).ToArray();

            if (postSprintStartRevisions.Any() && item[effortField] != null)
            {
                pointsPostSprintStart += decimal.Parse(item[effortField].ToString());
            }
        }

The code isn't pretty, but it does give me want I need.

Usage:

Usage: pbitracker -TfsUri [uri] -ProjectName [name] -IterationPath [path] -b 3

  -u, --TfsUri             Required. TFS Project Collection Uri. Ex:
                           http://tfs:8080/tfs/defaultcollection

  -p, --ProjectName        Required. TFS Project Name. Ex: MyProject

  -i, --IterationPath      Required. Iteration Path. Ex: 'GA\Sprint 3'

  -b, --StartDateBuffer    (Default: 3) Number of days after the start date to
                           consider the worked as added post-start

  --help                   Display this help screen.

What I consider "added post-start" is based on an option passed into the app. I default it to 3 days, so if your sprint started on a Monday and you added work on a Thursday, that work is considered points added post-start. I'll try and get this up on GitHub or CodePlex and I'll update the answer.

Example output:

Querying with the following options...
TFS Uri:                http://tfs:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection
Project Name:           MyProject
Iteration Path:         GA\Sprint 16
Please wait...


Iteration Start Date:                   2/24/2014 12:00:00 AM
Iteration End Date:                     3/7/2014 12:00:00 AM
Iteration Point Total:                  168
Iteration Point Total Completed:        168
Iteration Points Starting Points:       162
Iteration Points Added Post-Start:      6

Answer 2

I would think there are many ways to do this. But what I've done is to create a simple query. In the screenshot below, I used the TFS2012 ALM VM and the FabrikamFiber sample. You can see the construction of the query and the results pane.

The last item shows a product backlog item I pulled in to the sprint after the sprint had started, which I think is what you're asking for. You can see this by the 'Changed Date' value being later than the sprint start date.

Hereafter, it's a simple task to add that query to your favourites. Don't forget to change the Iteration Path though!