Bulk edit work items in TFS

Past days several times I got the question from customers how to update multiple work items at once. In Visual Studio this is not possible, but you can do it within Excel, MS Project  and Team System Web Access.

Excel and MS Project

In Excel or MS Project you can get the work items from a work item query. You can now use the copy/paste commands to change the values for multiple work items at once. When you are ready with editing the work items, simply press “Publish” on the Team toolbar / Ribbon tab to send the changes back to the TFS server.

Team System Web Access

In TSWA you can open a work item query, and select the work items you want to change. Then click the bulk edit button. This will open a new dialog that gives you the ability to change some of the fields of the selected work items. When you accept your values, TSWA will update all the work items selected with the new values.