Prioritization sidebar

This panel can be used to assign a Priority field value to multiple selected Work Items in the Table or Tree views of the Work Items topic (NavigationWork Items). For conceptual and procedural information, see Prioritize Work Items. This topic provides information about the components of the panel. Please refer to the following figure:

Prioritization sidebar

Reposition items

Reposition buttons

These buttons move a selected Work Item or a selected group of Work Items upward or downward in the table. On move, selected items are rescaled according to the new position in the table. The buttons, left to right:

  • Move selected item(s) to the top of the table.

  • Move selected item(s) up one row in the table.

  • Move selected item(s) down one row in the table.

  • Move selected item(s) to the bottom of the table.

Rank selector

Displays a drop-down menu showing the priority ranks currently configured for the project. The priority rank of all selected Work Items is set to the selected rank on save.

Priority field

Accepts a float value. The numeric priority value of all selected Work Items is set to the specified value on save, overriding any value previously set in the Rank selector.

Change prioritization field

Enables you to prioritize the items in the table on a custom field rather than the standard Priority field. The pick list displays all fields that are valid to use for prioritization in the current context. For more information, see Prioritize on a Custom Field.

Dialog box: Rescale selected

Rescales the numeric priority value of all Work Items currently selected in the table, limiting the maximum value to that specified in the Top field, and/or the minimum value to that specified in the Bottom field (if that field is present in the dialog box — it is only present when relevant).

If Keep Rank is selected, none of the selected items will have their value set above the maximum value for their current rank. For example, if a selected item currently has rank Medium, and rescaling would set the value higher than the maximum for that rank, thereby giving it a rank of High, that item will not be rescaled to any value not occurring within the Medium range.

Dialog box: Rescale all

Rescales the numeric priority value of all Work Items in the prioritization table. Items will be rescaled within the range specified in the Top and Bottom fields.

Keep Rank functions in the same way as in Rescale Selected, except that it operates on all items in the prioritization table.

Tip:

If you are prioritizing a set of Work Items that all have the same priority, as is usually the case when the items were created by import from a Microsoft Office document, it is advisable to run Rescale All before beginning to manually prioritize the items.