Configuration of the start and end date for the roadmap

Note: This configuration was deprecated in version 5.7. Click here for the new configuration. 

To assign start and end dates to your parent level work item type, typically a Feature, and to use the Product Management Roadmap, you need to have a Start Date and End Date field on the work item. Note that in the default Microsoft Scrum and Agile templates there is no defined Start Date field, but there is an End Date field named “Target Date”.

By default, Urban Turtle is expecting a Start date field with RefName = “UrbanTurtle.StartDate” unless you specify another RefName in the Urban Turtle configuration.

The steps to add a start date field are the following:

1. Export the Feature work item type definition to an XML file using the Microsoft witadmin tool.
2. Modify the file to add a field for the start date in the <Fields> section. For example:
   

   <FIELD name="Start Date" refname="UrbanTurtle.StartDate" type="DateTime" reportable="dimension">
       <HELPTEXT>The start date for developing the feature</HELPTEXT>
   </FIELD>

3. Import the modified work item definition file using the Microsoft witadmin tool.

We recommend that you follow Microsoft’s documentation if you need to modify a work item:

• Import, export, and manage work item types [witadmin]

If you already have a custom start date field in your Feature work item definition you can modify the Urban Turtle configuration file associated to your project to specify the existing field in the Project Management configuration section. This will override the default start date configuration pointing to RefName = “UrbanTurtle.StartDate”.

For example, if in your work item definition you have created a field

<FIELD name="My Starting Date" refname="My.StartDate" type="DateTime" …/>

you should configure Urban Turtle StartDate to refer the proper field refname:

<ProductManagement>
    <BaseWorkItemType Name="Feature" />
    <EndDate Field="Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.TargetDate" />
    <StartDate Field="My.StartDate" />
</ProductManagement>

If necessary, you can similarly change the corresponding configuration for the end date.