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Lesson 2: Create project iterations and work items

In this lesson, you will define the project iterations, and add tasks and other elements to the iterations. The elements that you add will provide a breakdown of project activities. This breakdown of these project activities is the work breakdown structure (WBS).
Use the Overview or the Schedule Gantt viewlet to perform this task. In the navigation bar, click Work, and click the Overview or the Schedule tab.
In Lesson 1, you created an empty project. Now, you will create a project WBS by defining specific activities that must be performed during your project.

A basic project activity is a task that has specific start and finish criteria, and dates or duration (For example, a task for creation of a test plan with a duration of two days). A set of tasks can be grouped under a summary task. An iteration is a time-boxed phase of the project to cover a set of development activities. A project can have several iterations.

For more information about a WBS, see

To create iterations, summary tasks, and tasks:

  1. Begin by adding an iteration to the project. On the WBS tree, click the "Develop MySoftware module" project, click the down arrow, and click Create New > Iteration. Type the iteration name as Iteration 1: Project creation framework. Click Save.
    Note: You must save the new element before you proceed. You cannot add child elements to an unsaved element.
  2. Add tasks to the iteration. On the WBS tree, click the iteration, click the down arrow, and select Create New > Task.
  3. On the new task row, click the down arrow, click Rename, and type the task name as Develop project creation framework.
  4. Add another task for the iteration. On the WBS tree, click the iteration, click the down arrow, and select Create New > Task. Rename the task to Run unit tests.
  5. In the WBS Overview viewlet, click Save.
  6. Add a new iteration to the project. On the WBS tree, select the "Develop Work Management module" project, click the Create Program down arrow, and click Iteration.
  7. On the new iteration row, click the down arrow, click Rename, and type the iteration name as Iteration 2: Project scheduling service. Click Save.
  8. Now add a summary task to the iteration, by using the Create option on the Create Program button. In the WBS tree, click the Iteration 2: Project scheduling service row to highlight it. On the Create Program button, click the down arrow, and click Create New > Summary Task. Rename the summary task to Develop scheduling algorithm. Click Save.
    Note: In this step, you used the Create button to create an element. The Create button offers an additional method to create elements in the WBS tree.
  9. Add tasks to the summary task. On the summary task row, click the down arrow, and click Create New > Task. Rename the task to Write Scheduling rules. Add another task to the summary task and rename it to Develop Scheduling algorithm.
  10. Follow the previous steps to create additional tasks for the iteration and the project. Refer to Table 1 for a description of the tasks. You should have a WBS as shown in the following table.
    Table 1. Develop MySoftware module WBS
    Elements and descriptions
    • Iteration element icon Iteration 1: Project creation framework
      • Task element icon Develop project creation framework
      • Task element icon Run unit tests
      • Task element icon Deliver Iteration 1 build
    • Iteration element icon Iteration 2: Project scheduling service
      • Summary task element icon Develop scheduling algorithm
        • Task element icon Write scheduling rules
        • Task element icon Develop scheduling algorithm
        • Task element icon Run unit tests
      • Summary task element icon Integrate creation and scheduling
        • Task element icon Write integration code
        • Task element icon Run unit tests
    • Task element icon Run system tests
    • Task element icon Deliver final build
You now have a defined list of activities required to complete the project. In the next lessons, you will learn how to schedule these activities by defining dates, duration, and dependencies.

Lesson checkpoint

In this lesson, you learned about the following concepts:
  • The definition of iterations, summary tasks, and tasks
  • How to add iterations, summary tasks, and tasks to a project
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