Creating iteration plans

You can create different types of plans for a project, depending on the template your project uses. For the Formal Project Management process, you can choose from the release plan and phase plan. For the Scrum process, you can choose from product backlog, release backlog, and sprint backlog. Both templates support creating a cross-project plan.

1. From the menu, click Plans, and select a plan type to create.
   Note: If the Active Project Areas page is open from creating a project, click Explore Project to open the Change and Configuration Management page.
2. Type a plan name.
3. Specify the owner by clicking Browse and selecting the project area or team area as the owner of the plan.
4. Specify the iteration by clicking Browse and selecting the iteration.
   Tip: Select Exclude iterations not scheduled for a release to hide the iterations that are not planned for a release.

   More about plan iteration drop-down options:

   Following logic governs which plan iterations are displayed:

   • The drop-down shows all the root level iterations.
   • The drop-down shows the current iterations and three future iterations, if available.
   • The drop-down shows the first sibling of all root iterations.
   • The drop-down shows the backlog iteration.

   An iteration is displayed in the drop-down under the following conditions:

   • When the iteration does not have a start and end date set.
   • When the start and end dates of the iteration include the current date, with a max limit of 5.
   • Recently used iterations.
   • The iteration is current or in the backlog.
   • The next two iterations after the current iteration or backlog are restricted to siblings of the iteration.
   • No iterations are shown if they don't have a release that is scheduled. In case, they have a descendant that has a release that is scheduled, the iteration itself appears disabled, and only the descendant is selectable.
5. Optional: Change the plan type, if needed.
6. Optional: Select Fetch Children On Demand to load child plan items only when their parents are expanded.
7. Optional: Select Include All Items to also display all items (both plan items and execution items) from child team areas and completed iterations. If this option is not selected, only the plan items from current and future iterations in the project or team area are displayed.
   Important: If you mark an iteration as complete, all the previous iterations are marked as complete also. The query does not check the actual dates of individual work items to determine whether they extend past the date of the end of the iteration. Therefore, when you open a previous iteration, no work items appear. To view all work items, click Always load all execution items in the plan page, and all the work items for that iteration appear. If this option is not selected, only the plan items from current and future iterations in the project or team area are displayed.

   Tip: Planning categorizes work item types as plan items and execution items. Plan items are high-level tasks, such as stories and epics. Execution items include specific work, such as tasks and defects. For more information, see Setting work item types as plan items.
8. Click Save.
9. You can limit the number of work items that display in a plan by using attribute values in expressions:
   1. In the Plan Scope field, choose an expression with type, state, or filedAgainst and use the syntax, attribute:value (for example, type:defect).
      Tip: The Plan Scope field has auto-complete capabilities, which ensure that typed expressions are correct and shows the scope of possible options.

      Important: The operators for the Plan Scope field are not the same as query-expression syntax. The only valid operators for the Plan Scope field are:

      • :
      • !
   2. To make a match exclusive, add an exclamation point (!) to the beginning of the expression (for example, !type:defect).
   3. Click Save.
   Note: By default, the Plan Scope feature is enabled. To disable it, set Enable Plan Scope Configuration to false on the Advanced Properties page.
10. You can archive plans. Select your iteration plan, and select Edit > Archive.
    More about archived plans:

    • With Fetch Children on Demand enabled: (In the advanced properties, Fetch Outplaced Children On Demand and Fetch Plan Item Children On Demand are set to enabled state, as these affect delayed, out placed, and planned child items globally on the server.)
      • Non-archived iterations are always shown.
      • Archived iterations are shown if an item is planned in that iteration and one of the following conditions is true:
        • The parent item is in a closed state.
        • Both parent and child items are open.
        • The parent item is expanded.
      • Archived iterations are not shown if the item is not a child of another item in an unarchived iteration.
    • With Fetch Children on Demand disabled:
      • Non-archived iterations are always shown.
      • Archived iterations are shown if an item is planned in that iteration.
      • Archived iterations are not shown if no item is planned in that iteration.

    Example:

    • Iteration structure
      • Project Area Timeline

        + Master Release [2018 - 2020]

        + Year_1 [2018/01 - 2018/12]

        + Year_2 [2019/01 - 2019/12]

        + Year_3 [2020/01 - 2020/12]

    • Scenario 1
      • Epic_X planned for Year_3, open state.
      • Story X_1 planned for Year_1, closed state, might have children stories and tasks. It is a child of Epic_X.
      • Year_1 iteration is archived at the beginning of Year_2.
      • In this scenario, Story X_1 can still get loaded by the 'Master Release' plan because parent Year_3 is still an active iteration, and Epic_X loads as a root node in the plan. If the parent item Epic_X is expanded, the archived iteration Year_1 is shown in the plan.
      • After Year_3, Epic_X gets closed and Year_3 gets archived. Therefore, any archived items that were parented by Epic_X, no longer load into Master Release plan. Year_1 no longer appears even after an Expand All is performed because none of the items planned for archived iteration Year_1 are linked to loaded plan items.
    • Scenario 2
      • Epic_X planned for Year_3, closed state.
      • Story X_1 planned for Year_1, open state, might have child stories and tasks. It is a child of Epic_X.
      • Year_1 iteration is archived at the beginning of Year_2.
      • Iteration Year_1 and item Story X_1 are loaded, since Story X_1 is open but its Planned For iteration is archived and the parent item is closed, otherwise item is lost until a query is made to look for an open item in archived iterations.
      • Epic_X is always loaded into the release plan, but it is not visible by default because it is closed and the plan Exclude filter hides Resolved items.
11. Once you create the plan, you can edit the taskboard plan view:
    1. In the View As field, select Taskboard. Click and select Edit Taskboard View. In the Column Display tab, you can edit the name of the first column. The default value is Plan Items:
       
12. In the plan view, you can update the values of custom iteration attributes. In the View As field, select Roadmap. Click and select Edit Roadmap View. You can edit individual fields. Click the drop-down beside the field that you want to edit, and you can select the value that you want to display.
    

    You can also browse for more options when you update the Planned For column in the plan view:

    

What to do next

Tip: You can delete plans by clicking Plans > All Plans. Then, click the Delete icon in the Actions column of the plan. To find a plan, type the plan name into the search field.