This article apply to Urban Turtle between 4.7 and 4.21

Starting with Urban Turtle 4.7, a new add-on allows user to define features in their project. Features are a way for product owners to describe a requirement or a need for the project at higher level than a user story. Features allow members of an Agile team to better understand what has to be built and separate the general goals that the project needs to reach from the specific stories that have to be implemented to reach that goal.

Creating the Feature work item type

The feature work item type does not exist in the Scrum or Agile template and as such, must be created. When the Product Management add-on will be accessed for the first time, the user will be given the choice to either create a new work item type or select an already existing work item type. The available work item type that are going to be listed are all the ones with an effort and a business value field. 

Note: The user that will access Product Management for the first time needs administrator privileges to authorize the creation of the work item type. 

The creation of the work item type has to be done only once for a project. This step does not need to be repeated by each user who access the project.

Creating a Feature

Creating a feature is similar and as simple as adding a work item in the Product Backlog. The title of the feature just needs to be entered in the text box at the top of the page. The menus next to the Add and Add with details can be used to select in which iteration or area the feature belongs to. A blue card representing the newly created feature will appear below the quick add bar.

 Adding child work items to features

Work items that are children to the feature are created in the product management screen by expanding the details of the feature. This is done by clicking on the double chevron on the right side of feature card. 

The software will determine which type of work item can be linked to the feature. The rule is that work item types that have an effort field defined can be linked. In the Scrum working process template, this is the case for the Product Backlog Item and the Bug types. In the MSF Agile, template, only the User Story type has this field defined.

When a work item is created under a feature, it is linked it by a child link type.

Note: from Urban Turtle version  4.7 to 4.16.2 Feature children are created using the Realte to link type.

Following the progress of a feature

The effort value of all the linked work items is summed up to have the total effort required to complete the feature. As linked work items are put in the Done state, their effort value is summed up to compute the number of points completed for the feature. The percentage value of the feature that is completed is displayed numerically on the right side of the card and graphically by a progress bar inside the card.

For example, in the following screen shot, the feature has two stories that totalize 5 points. The 2-points story is done, making the feature completed at 40%