Work Item Grid & Rules

Smart editable grids, conditional rules and dependent dropdowns for Azure DevOps work items — configured visually, validated against your real process fields. Works on Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server 2019+.

What you get

Smart Grid (work item form control)

• Column types: text, number, checkbox, date, dropdown, identity (people picker)
• Required, default value, min/max, per-column width
• Dependent dropdowns inside cells (a column's options depend on another column)
• Auto-fill columns: pick one value (e.g. SDLC Activity) and other columns (Phase, Default treatment) fill themselves from a lookup table
• Grouped totals: sum Hours per Treatment (Capitalizable / Expense / Conditional) and write each group to its own work item field; a live breakdown is shown under the grid
• Row formulas such as ROUND([qty] * [price], 2) and footer totals (sum / avg / min / max / count)
• Map totals to work item fields (e.g. Original Estimate)
• Import / export CSV and Excel (.xlsx)
• Create child work items from rows (single or all), with field mapping and parent link
• Sort, filter, reorder, duplicate rows; dark/light theme aware

Calculated columns and derived grids

• Calculated column type: formulas over the row (hours / capacity * 100) and whole column (TOTAL(hours)), with decimals, blank-or-0 for empty inputs and division by zero.
• Derived grids: a second grid built automatically from the first, shown below it – e.g. Resource Capacity: one row per resource and month, hours summed, team carried, Available Capacity entered per row, utilization and over-capacity calculated. Manual entries are remembered by resource and month.

Capacity register (Boards → Capacity)

Resource managers enter available hours once: a default per person and month, plus exceptions for specific months (leave, part time). Import/export CSV or Excel, filter, per-change audit trail. Who may edit is set by Azure DevOps team (Project settings → Grid & Rules → Capacity); everyone else sees it read-only. Every Epic's Resource Capacity grid reads its Available Capacity from here. Each Epic also publishes its per-person, per-month hours when saved, so every Epic can show Hours (other Epics), Total hours and Utilization % across all Epics next to This Epic %, and managers get a Utilization overview (capacity vs. hours of all Epics, over-capacity highlighted). (Access control applies to the extension's pages; it is not an Azure DevOps security boundary.)

Capacity source switch

Capacity can be maintained in either place (Grid & Rules → Capacity): the extension's own register, or Azure DevOps team capacity (Boards → Sprints → Capacity). With team capacity, create one yearly iteration (e.g. “Capacity 2026”), add it to the team, and enter hours per day and days off per person; the extension turns that into available hours per month (working days − holidays − leave).

Status columns and colour coding

A column can fill itself with a status chosen from ranges of a number – e.g. Capacity Status from Utilization %: 0–70 Available (green), above 70–90 Near Capacity (yellow), above 90–100 Fully Allocated (orange), above 100 Overallocated (red). Ranges, labels and colours are editable. Cells can follow a status colour, and a grid can tint each row by its status, so every resource's row shows its load at a glance. Numbers, headings and totals are right-aligned so figures line up.

Read-only calculated fields

The Read-only fields tab lists every field the extension writes (calculation results, grid totals, grouped totals). Lock them with the Read-only Value form control (shows the value with a lock, no input) and/or an Azure DevOps process rule Make read-only (also blocks bulk edit and the API) – the tab has the steps.

Shared mappings (Mappings tab)

Maintain value → category tables once, e.g. Resource type: External ← Vendor, IT Contract · Business ← Business · all other values → Internal. Any grid column can use a mapping, so adding a team is a one-place change. Everything is configurable: categories, their values and the fallback.

Calculations (standalone, in the same hub)

Define a calculation once: named inputs (any work item field, or a figure from a grid with several filter conditions), a formula such as CapexHours / TotalHours * 100, and the field that receives the result. Choose per calculation whether empty inputs give a blank result or count as 0, how division by zero behaves, and whether the result is always recalculated or only filled while empty. Inputs can also be a top group – e.g. the team, period (by month/quarter/year) or SDLC phase with the highest total hours – written to a text field. A Test panel and live validation (unknown variables, wrong field types, circular dependencies, conflicting writers) are built in.

Conditional rules (observer)

When conditions on any fields → then / otherwise: set a field value, require a field, restrict allowed values, or block save with a message. Scope per work item type.

Dependent dropdowns for fields

Parent → child picklist mapping with Area Path hints, validation on save, and the Smart Dropdown control that hides invalid options. Can import the JSON of the "Dependent Lists" extension.

Visual rule builder (Project settings → Grid & Rules)

Form editors first, JSON editor second. Everything is checked live against your organization's real fields and picklist values (unknown fields, values that are not in the picklist, non-numeric total targets, bad formulas, …).

Setup

1. Install the extension. Open Project settings → Grid & Rules and define a grid, rules or dependent dropdowns, then Save.
2. Grid: create a Text (multiple lines) field (e.g. Custom.GridData) and enter it as the grid's Data field in Project settings → Grid & Rules. In the process layout editor add the custom control → Smart Grid on that field and set Grid name; leave the control's own Data field input empty so the grid and its calculations always read the same field.
3. Dependent dropdown: (optional) on the dependent field add the Smart Dropdown control to filter options. Validation works without it.
4. Rules and dependent-value validation run automatically on every form for the configured work item types.

Good to know

• Hiding fields or making them read-only is not possible for extensions; rules can set values, require fields, restrict values and block save.
• Configuration is stored per project in the extension data service. Only project administrators can open the settings hub.
• Rows are stored as JSON in the chosen text field (also readable by the older "Data Table" extension's array format).