Creating a Product Backlog Plan for new timeline

Question 1: At any given time, a team area is associated with exactly
one timeline (open the team area editor, and the timeline appears in the
upper right hand corner). The plan for a given team area is limited to
iterations in the timeline of that team area. You can associate a plan
with the project area itself, in which case you can associate that plan
with any iteration in any timeline in that project area.

Question 2: Changing the project timeline has no effect on the current
plans that you have already created under the old project timeline.

Cheers,
Geoff



arnovick wrote:

Hello
I am trying to create a Product Backlog for a new timeline that was
created. Once I saved the Product Backlog it did not show me any
work items associated with it. I then opened the configure plan for
the new Product Backlog to see if I had configured it correctly. The
new timeline I had configured it for was not listed, but the main
development timeline (marked as the Project Timeline) was. Along with
this was an error indicating that the Iteration I had chosen was not
part of the Project Timeline. If I change the new timeline the
project timeline the plan saves correctly and I can now see all work
items.

1)Why can I not create a new plan and associate it with a timeline
that is not the project timeline?
2) How does changing the Project Timeline to a new timeline effect the
current plans I have already created under the old project timeline?

thank you for your time!

Hello
If I create a new timeline, do I always have to create new team areas to associate existing work item categories with? It does not look like you can associate a team area with more then one timeline. Why is this?

Thanks for your time once again!
Sue

There is a work item requesting that you be able to associate a team
area with more than one timeline: work item 99436.
It is not currently in plan.
Please feel free to indicate your interest by adding a comment to that
work item.

The main objection is that the timeline of a process helps select what
process is to be applied to a work item, so the process would be
ambiguous if a team area could be associated with multiple timelines.
The counter to that objection is that one could select a "process
timeline" which determines the timeline process, and then an arbitrary
number of additional "plan timelines", which allows work items for
multiple timelines to be included in that plan.

Cheers,
Geoff

arnovick wrote:

Hello
If I create a new timeline, do I always have to create new team areas
to associate existing work item categories with? It does not look
like you can associate a team area with more then one timeline. Why
is this?

Thanks for your time once again!
Sue

Question 1: At any given time, a team area is associated with exactly
one timeline (open the team area editor, and the timeline appears in the
upper right hand corner). The plan for a given team area is limited to
iterations in the timeline of that team area. You can associate a plan
with the project area itself, in which case you can associate that plan
with any iteration in any timeline in that project area.

Question 2: Changing the project timeline has no effect on the current
plans that you have already created under the old project timeline.

Cheers,
Geoff

Thanks very much Geoff for your reply. Any idea why then I an not able to associate my new plan to a timeline that is not the Project Timeline without getting that error? Why would it not keep the value for the timeline that I imputed?



arnovick wrote:

Hello
I am trying to create a Product Backlog for a new timeline that was
created. Once I saved the Product Backlog it did not show me any
work items associated with it. I then opened the configure plan for
the new Product Backlog to see if I had configured it correctly. The
new timeline I had configured it for was not listed, but the main
development timeline (marked as the Project Timeline) was. Along with
this was an error indicating that the Iteration I had chosen was not
part of the Project Timeline. If I change the new timeline the
project timeline the plan saves correctly and I can now see all work
items.

1)Why can I not create a new plan and associate it with a timeline
that is not the project timeline?
2) How does changing the Project Timeline to a new timeline effect the
current plans I have already created under the old project timeline?

thank you for your time!

You should be able to set the timeline of a team area in a given project
area with any timeline in that project area.
You should then be able to associate a plan for that team area with any
iteration in the timeline of that team area.

If that is not the case, it would probably be best to submit a work item
so support can work with you to figure out what is going on.

Cheers,
Geoff

arnovick wrote:

Thanks very much Geoff for your reply. Any idea why then I an not
able to associate my new plan to a timeline that is not the Project
Timeline without getting that error? Why would it not keep the value
for the timeline that I imputed?


gmclemmwrote:
Question 1: At any given time, a team area is associated with exactly

one timeline (open the team area editor, and the timeline appears in
the
upper right hand corner). The plan for a given team area is limited
to
iterations in the timeline of that team area. You can associate a
plan
with the project area itself, in which case you can associate that
plan
with any iteration in any timeline in that project area.

Question 2: Changing the project timeline has no effect on the
current
plans that you have already created under the old project timeline.

Cheers,
Geoff

arnovick wrote:
Hello
I am trying to create a Product Backlog for a new timeline that was
created. Once I saved the Product Backlog it did not show me any
work items associated with it. I then opened the configure plan
for
the new Product Backlog to see if I had configured it correctly.
The
new timeline I had configured it for was not listed, but the main
development timeline (marked as the Project Timeline) was. Along
with
this was an error indicating that the Iteration I had chosen was
not
part of the Project Timeline. If I change the new timeline the
project timeline the plan saves correctly and I can now see all
work
items.

1)Why can I not create a new plan and associate it with a timeline
that is not the project timeline?
2) How does changing the Project Timeline to a new timeline effect
the
current plans I have already created under the old project
timeline?
thank you for your time!

You should be able to set the timeline of a team area in a given project
area with any timeline in that project area.
You should then be able to associate a plan for that team area with any
iteration in the timeline of that team area.

Hi Geoff!

As you write, it is possible to associate a plan to an iteration. I think it would be useful to associate a plan to a timeline.

Consider this: To create a top level Product Backlog, I would like to include all work items in any way related to a timeline. To accomplish this, I have to create a top level iteration (similar to the default "All Work"), and associate the plan to that iteration. This iteration will extend forever in time, and gives no extra value to me; it is a dummy just to get the plan.

Any reasons it is not possible to associate a plan to a timeline directly?
Or is there another way to do what I want without introducing a dummy "forever"-iteration?

BR,
Per Flodin

Per,

this is "somewhat" possible in RTC 2.0.0.2. Create an iteration with a release planned for in the timeline e.g. call it backlog. This can be used as hook for a plan e.g. the product backlog in SCRUM. There is no need to set dates for that iteration.

See RTC 2.0.0.2 New and Noteworthy.

Ralph

You should be able to set the timeline of a team area in a given project
area with any timeline in that project area.
You should then be able to associate a plan for that team area with any
iteration in the timeline of that team area.

Hi Geoff!

As you write, it is possible to associate a plan to an iteration. I think it would be useful to associate a plan to a timeline.

Consider this: To create a top level Product Backlog, I would like to include all work items in any way related to a timeline. To accomplish this, I have to create a top level iteration (similar to the default "All Work"), and associate the plan to that iteration. This iteration will extend forever in time, and gives no extra value to me; it is a dummy just to get the plan.

Any reasons it is not possible to associate a plan to a timeline directly?
Or is there another way to do what I want without introducing a dummy "forever"-iteration?

BR,
Per Flodin

I actually did submit a work item a while back requesting that one be
able to associate a team with a timeline. The team responded with the
concern that performance of the planning queries will suffer as ever
more work items are associated with that timeline over time.

So instead, they would like you to create a "backlog" iteration, and
assign all the not yet scheduled work items to that. Then you would
"move" a work item from that backlog iteration to some scheduled
iteration, which avoids the performance problem.

Cheers,
Geoff

PerFlodin wrote:

gmclemmwrote:
You should be able to set the timeline of a team area in a given
project
area with any timeline in that project area.
You should then be able to associate a plan for that team area with
any
iteration in the timeline of that team area.


Hi Geoff!

As you write, it is possible to associate a plan to an iteration. I
think it would be useful to associate a plan to a timeline.

Consider this: To create a top level Product Backlog, I would like to
include all work items in any way related to a timeline. To
accomplish this, I have to create a top level iteration (similar to
the default "All Work"), and associate the plan to that
iteration. This iteration will extend forever in time, and gives no
extra value to me; it is a dummy just to get the plan.

Any reasons it is not possible to associate a plan to a timeline
directly?
Or is there another way to do what I want without introducing a dummy
"forever"-iteration?

BR,
Per Flodin

Hi again!

I actually did submit a work item a while back requesting that one be able to associate a team with a timeline. The team responded with the concern that performance of the planning queries will suffer as ever more work items are associated with that timeline over time.

With my workaround (a top level iteration that lives forever) I think I would get about the same performance problem, right? I mean, this iteration would also get more and more items associated to it.

So instead, they would like you to create a "backlog" iteration, and assign all the not yet scheduled work items to that. Then you would "move" a work item from that backlog iteration to some scheduled iteration, which avoids the performance problem.

Do you mean I should have this "backlog" iteration not as a parent, but as a sibling to my scheduled iteration(s)?

That is possible, but then I guess I can't see the content of the "backlog" iteration and the "scheduled" iterations in the same plan, can I? I thus lose some of the nice planning overview in RTC. Or?

BR,
Per

PerFlodin wrote:

Hi again!
gmclemmwrote:
I actually did submit a work item a while back requesting that one be
able to associate a plan with a timeline. The team responded with the
concern that performance of the planning queries will suffer as ever
more work items are associated with that timeline over time.

With my workaround (a top level iteration that lives forever) I think
I would get about the same performance problem, right? I mean, this
iteration would also get more and more items associated to it.

That is correct.

gmclemmwrote:
So instead, they would like you to create a "backlog"
iteration, and assign all the not yet scheduled work items to that.
Then you would "move" a work item from that backlog
iteration to some scheduled iteration, which avoids the performance
problem.

Do you mean I should have this "backlog" iteration not as a
parent, but as a sibling to my scheduled iteration(s)?

Correct.

That is possible, but then I guess I can't see the content of the
"backlog" iteration and the "scheduled"
iterations in the same plan, can I? I thus lose some of the nice
planning overview in RTC. Or?

In a "team" and "product" plan, you will see the content of both the
iteration selected by the plan, as well as the iterations that follow
that selected iteration, so in a team/product plan, you would see the
backlog information in the plan.

Cheers,
Geoff