Requirements Reuse
- Bruno Marotta
Analytics
Overview
easeRequirements for Azure DevOps supports requirements reuse via the copy and paste operation. Requirements in a project tree, including their folder structure, can be copied to a different folder of that project or to a folder in a different project. (This also works for any kind of work item, not only for requirements.) The following reuse scenarios are supported:
Copy folders only: If you have a good folder structure in one project, or in part of a project, you can copy that structure to a different project or to a different part of the same project.
Import folders and work items as is: If you have some requirements in a folder structure in one project that are valid as is in other projects, you can include them in the other projects by reference. Users then have one copy of a folder or work item, but it is visible in various places, and any changes made in one place are immediately seen in all places.
Copy folders and work items: If you have some requirements or folders in one project that are valid in other projects, or in a different folder of the same project, but may require subsequent changes independently of the original work items, you can copy them to the other projects or within the same project. The new requirements and folders are then distinct from their sources and changes in the original work items are not reflected in the copies.
Copy entire project tree into a new project: If you have a requirements project and want a new project to start from the current state of that project, you can copy its folders and requirements into a new project. For example, you have a template project that you want to use as the starting point for every new project.
Reuse work items dialog
When copied items are pasted, the Reuse work items dialog appears, in which a choice between the different forms of requirements reuse is made and additional options are selected. The following options are available:
Option | Description | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Copy Folders only | Copy only the folders work items only. Useful when reusing the folder structure from another project as a template. | Only available when copying work items. |
Copy attachments | Enable or disable the option to copy attachments. | Only available when copying work items. |
Create links to new work items | Select a link type to create links in the source work items pointing to the copied work items. | Only available when copying work items. |
After setting the options and selecting Paste, the Reuse Status appears. After the operation is finished the results are displayed. Error messages are shown in case of failures resulting from incompatible project configurations (e.g. a field used in the source project doesn’t exist in the target project).
The paste operation for copied work items achieves the following results:
The requirements, as well as any child requirements, and any subfolders and their requirements, as deep as the folder hierarchy extends, are copied as new folders and work items. Note that only work items in the source tree structure are copied. Work items related to them - such as subtasks, work items in epics and linked work items - are not automatically copied. You can get them to be included in the copy by adding them as children of source work items.
All fields included in the source work items are copied to the new work items (if they are modifiable in the target project). An exception are all the system fields that control the work item creation status (Created By, Created Date, Updated Date, etc.).
Use Cases
Purpose | Action |
|---|---|
Copy folders only |
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Import folders and work items as is |
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Copy folders and work items |
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Copy entire project tree into a new project |
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