Custom Field Reports - Export custom field visibility settings

Products

• Rally SaaS

Issue/Introduction

We have a portfolio item custom field which we recreated and closed the old one. We manually bulk updated the old values to new ones. In API data extract, one of the old values is still showing up but Rally does not show any work item with the old value. How do we clean up or how do we find out what is associated with the old value? 

Resolution

This post is for users with subscription or workspace level administration permissions.

Have you ever wondered in which projects your custom fields are visible or where they are hidden?
We just released 2 new custom field report options, which can be accessed in Rally's administrative area: Workspaces & Projects.

Export custom field usage for workspace

This report can be generated for a specific custom field and work item type across the workspace.
You can access this report from the project level field editor here:

Here is a snippet of an example report:

Report Information

• • Project ID
  • Project Name
  • Level
    • workspace level setting (workspace level settings displayed in top row)
    • project level setting (report lists only projects with visibility settings that differ from the workspace setting)
  • State
    • Open or Closed (please note that the current visibility count displayed in the app is for open projects only)
  • Work Item Type
    • work item type for which custom field report was generated
  • Custom Field Name
  • Visibility
    • visible or hidden

 

In addition you can also generate a similar report that will export all customs fields across all work item types for the entire workspace.

Export Workspace Custom Fields (All Types)

 

You can find this report in the following places:

• Workspace --> fields
• Project --> fields

Here is a snippet of an example report:

Report Information

• • Project ID
  • Project Name
  • Level
    • workspace level setting (workspace level settings displayed in top row)
    • project level setting (report lists only projects with visibility settings that differ from the workspace setting)
  • State
    • Open or Closed (please note that the current visibility count displayed in the app is for open projects only)
  • Work Item Type
    • work item type for which custom field report was generated
    • for this report you will see entries for all work item types, not just a specific one
  • Custom Field Name
    • for this report you will see entries for all custom field, not just a specific one
  • Visibility
    • visible or hidden

Generating the workspace level report for all custom fields across all work item types might take a little. You can continue to work in Rally while you wait for the CSV file to load. Navigating away from. this screen will not stop the report generation.

Please note that the number of rows in the report will not match the number currently listed in the app for project level visible/hidden setting.

• the report contains closed projects while the displayed count in the app is based on open projects only
  • wording for the in-app display will get updated
• the report show a workspace level setting that accounts for all projects that match the visibility settings of the workspace
  • only projects with a setting that differs from the workspace level setting will show as a unique row in the report

The 2 new reports do not address the following use cases that you listed:

• who created a custom field and when
• ​which custom fields are used regularly and which ones have been "abandoned"

This will be a separate body of work that has not yet been prioritized.

These 2 reports should help you with the other use case you listed:

• custom field that should apply to a set of projects only is made visible for the entire workspace

If you know the custom field you'd like to audit, you can generate the report for the specific custom field and work item type.
This report will show you the visibility setting for the workspace, plus the settings for all projects that differ from the workspace setting. The report can help you identify if the field in question needs to have its visibility settings updated.

The workspace level report gives you the same data, but for all custom fields and all work items types in the workspace.
If you have pretty strict rules around field exposure, it would help you identify custom fields that are exposed for all or for many projects within your workspace.