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Tracking Work Across Environments with Work Items

A work item is one unit of work — a feature, a fix, a change request — tracked across the environments it has to pass through. The board answers one question per item: which environment has it actually reached?

Work Items sits in the left navigation, next to Dashboard.

The board​

Columns are the environments of a project, in chain order. Pick the project at the top of the page; the board remembers the last one you had open.

A card sits in the furthest environment it has reached. "Reached" means a deployment linked to this item ran successfully into that environment's org. Validation-only runs and rolled-back runs do not count. Skipped environments are allowed: if DEV and PROD are green and UAT never ran, the card sits on PROD, and the detail drawer shows the gap.

Each card carries:

  • N of M delivered — how many of the deployments aimed at the reached environment actually landed there.
  • The state of the next hop — running, failed, or draft (a deployment is aimed at the next environment but has never run).
  • Validated — a deployment into that environment passed validation and has not been deployed.
  • Done — the last environment in the chain is green.

Creating a work item​

New work item asks for a caption, an optional description, and the project it belongs to. The project is set once: moving an item between projects would move its board, its history and every deployment hanging off it, so the edit form shows the project and does not offer to change it.

Tick Create a deployment for this item to go straight to New Deployment with the item already attached — you pick the components there.

On a personal workspace the dialog does not ask: the item goes to the project selected on the board.

Linking deployments​

An item tracks nothing until a deployment is attached to it. Three ways:

  • Create the deployment from the item — the checkbox above, or Create deployment in the drawer.
  • Attach deployment in the item's drawer — picks an existing deployment of the team.
  • From the deployment itself: the work item field in the deploy wizard.

The Deploys list shows a badge for every deployment that belongs to a work item.

Promoting to the next environment​

Press Promote → on the card, or Promote to ‹next environment› in the item's drawer. mtdt.io takes the deployments that delivered the item there, folds them into one, and aims the result at the next environment in the chain. The first time, the dialog offers Create promotion draft.

When a draft or an earlier promotion is already aimed at the next environment, the dialog offers:

  • Send everything — a new deployment with everything the item has in the current environment.
  • Send only what is missing — a new deployment with only the part that is not in the next environment or the existing draft yet. Offered when something new has appeared in the item since.
  • Open the existing draft — continue with the draft that is already aimed at the next environment instead of opening a second one.

The result is an ordinary deployment: you review it, validate it, and run it like any other.

Promotion refuses in plain language when it cannot produce a sane deployment: Finish this environment first (something is still on its way in), This has already moved on, Nothing here can be promoted (nothing was delivered there, or none of those deployments can be replayed), This is the end of the chain, No environment chain (the item has no project). Each names the state the item is in and what has to happen first.

Grouping work items​

When several items have to go to the next environment together, group them and promote them as one deployment.

Drag one card onto another in the same column. The card you drop onto becomes the master of a Work item group; drop more cards onto the group to add them. Both items must have reached the same environment, and archived items cannot be grouped. Detach takes an item back out of the group.

Promote → on a group opens Combine work items and promote. mtdt.io assembles everything the members delivered into one deployment linked to the master. The button is Combine and create deployment. Groups always get a full promotion: Send only what is missing and reusing an earlier draft are not offered.

Once that deployment exists, the group's membership is locked. To change the group before it runs, use Unlink deployment on the group — the group unlocks and the deployment is no longer tied to it. After the deployment is delivered, the group becomes one work item: the master carries on, and the other items are listed on its card.

Archiving​

Archived items are closed and do not move forward. Their history and linked deployments stay. Reopen an item to promote what it delivered.

Who can do what​

  • Everyone on the team sees the board and the items.
  • Creating, editing and promoting need the edit permission on Metadata Deploys — see Team Access and Roles.
  • In a team workspace, projects and their environment chains are edited by team admins in Team Settings → Projects. In a personal workspace, use Manage projects on the Work Items page.