TFS 2010 - anyway to restrict editing of work items

Question

Just installed TFS 2010 and noticed that the main text in work items can be edited. We'd like to freeze all editing of work items (except for admins), in order to keep a more auditable trail of discussion for each bug and minimize confusion over what the original bug was, etc.

Is there a way to configure TFS 2010 so that the main text previously entered for a work item is not editable by most users?

Answer 1

The entire history of the work item fields is available in the "History" -- it will show you what fields have cahnged and by whom.

What you might want to do is change your template so that both the description and history show on the same tab. Make it a standard of convention that only the history is updated, not the description.

Then, if the description does ever get changed, you can review it in the history window (along with any manually entered notes).

Answer 2

You can edit the process template and make the field only editable by Admins.

If you have not already, you will need to install the power tools and then open the work Item and change:

 <FIELD refname="System.Description" name="Description" type="PlainText" />

To:

<FIELD refname="System.Description" name="Description" type="PlainText">
        <READONLY for="[Global]\Project Collection Valid Users" not="[Global]\Project Collection Build Administrators" />
</FIELD>

You can obviously replace the groups with project specific ones. This makes this field perminantly readonly.