VSTS item's 'Completed Time' gets overwritten instead of incremented with current Time Record's 'Duration'

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    7pace tech support

    Hi Gregg,

    this is behavior of Timetracker: Completed Work / Remaining fields are filled and overridden by Timetracker with sum of time related to that item. 

    We mention it here in documentation as well: 

    https://support.7pace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000851383--Work-Item-Automation-

    The field remains fully writable by users, so it can be manually edited at any time. However, if a team member tracks 2 hours of time for a work item, the "Complete Work" field is automatically updated to the time that the developer tracked for it.

    You can make it readonly for users in work item form using template editor though.

     

    The idea behind is:

    If we keep the logic that this field can be adjusted manually and Timetracker will only add time to that existing time: it can lead to non-consistent data, e.g. you see 10 hours related to that item in Timetracker but have 20 hours in VSTS. It will raise questions, why data in VSTS differs from Timetracker data.

     

    Maxim Lutsan

     

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    André Fernandes

    Good afternoon.

     

    Is there anyway at all we can enable the field to be updated rather than replaced? Alternatively, can we enable/disable the plugin per team, rather than project? 

    Our problem is that we have several teams within the same project, and their sprints are not synchronized (some teams are starting their new sprint today - these teams are starting 7pace today, others are still finishing the previous one, others are halfway through the current sprint). If I enable the completed work update automation for the teams testing 7pace, it will have high impact on other teams with sprints still running. 

    Unless, this could be mitigated. Question: if I enable Completed work automation, will it clear all completed work fields of all existing tasks to 0? Or will it only update the field on a specific task if someone tracks time on that task?

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    7pace tech support

    Hi André!

    >Is there anyway at all we can enable the field to be updated rather than replaced?

    Completed work field is calculated based on sum tracked on item - so it will be replaced. Remaining work field is added/substracted from current Remaining work field value and new track - so it is updated

    >can we enable/disable the plugin per team, rather than project? 

    Unfortunately this setting only per project

    >if I enable Completed work automation, will it clear all completed work fields of all existing tasks to 0? Or will it only update the field on a specific task if someone tracks time on that task?

    Fields update request is only triggered on the exact touched item. So if 1 of your team will not touch (track time on) items of the second team - values of the second team items will remain the same.

    Regards,

    Andarth

     

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    André Fernandes

    Thanks Andarth.

    So to be perfectly clear. let's put out this example:

    - Team #1 started sprint today, they already have filled up Tasks #100 and #101 with Completed work = 16 hours (scrum cerimonies always take 16 hours per sprint and are registered at the start), these tasks will not be tracked anymore. They will start testing 7Pace today. On today's sprint planning they planned Tasks #102 and #103 which will be tracked with 7pace, at the moment they have completed work = 1.

    - Team #2 is halfway through their current sprint, and will not be using 7Pace yet. They have Tasks #200, #201 and #202 with completed work = 60 hours each from their hard work developing during the current sprint.

     

    If I enable the completed work automation right now, Team #2 will not lose any completed work time of their tasks (since the team is not tracking)? And Team #2 will not lose completed work on tasks 100 and 101 (since they are closed and not tracked)? Only tasks 102 and 103 which are active and tracked with 7pace are going to have the completed work overridden?

     

    Thank you.

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    7pace tech support

    Hi Andre,

    As I understand your concern is that team are not in sync with iterations timeframe and enabling settings project-wide will help one team and completed work for another team.

    Maybe following workaround will help you? You can create rules that make fields readonly when some conditions are met. I just configured a rule that makes Completed Work readonly when state is Done:

    Here is documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/settings/work/custom-rules?view=azure-devops

     

    It worked for me! Maybe you can customize conditions that you narrow readonly state down to teams that should not be affected by Work Item Automation?

     

    Maxim Lutsan

     

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    André Fernandes

    I will have a look at that, looks useful.

     

    But my question is actually much simpler: a task will only have its completed work value overridden if I track time in that task? If I do not track time in that task, the completed work value will not be overridden?

     

    Thanks.

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    7pace tech support

    Completed Work will be overridden only when someone adds time directly to that task, either by tracking or manually. So if you do not track on that items: Timetracker will NOT perform actions on them, that is right.

    Edit: typo fix

    Maxim Lutsan

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    André Fernandes

    Thanks Maxim that is very helpful. I suppose that solves my problem.

     

     

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