Work Items

Work items are the core objects in Windshift. They represent the things your team needs to understand, prioritise, and complete.

Work item detail view

Item types

Every work item has a type. Types are configurable per workspace and each one has its own icon, colour, fields, and workflow. Common types include:

  • Task
  • Bug
  • Story
  • Feature
  • Epic
  • Customer request
  • Technical debt
  • Research spike

You can also create types specific to your process (for example "Incident" or "Change request") without writing any code.

What belongs in a work item

A useful work item usually has:

  • A clear, action-oriented title
  • A description with enough detail to act on
  • An assignee
  • A status
  • A priority or ordering position
  • Custom fields that match your process (estimates, dates, components, etc.)
  • Links, comments, or attachments when relevant

Windshift supports over 50 custom field types, including text, numbers, dates, dropdowns, multi-select, user references, and rich text.

Work item detail view

Open a work item when you need more than the summary shown in a board or list. From the detail view you can:

  • Edit the title and rich-text description
  • Change status, priority, assignee, labels, iteration, and milestone
  • Add comments with @mentions
  • Attach files
  • Log time, or start the built-in timer
  • Link related items (blocks, is blocked by, duplicates, relates to)
  • Link to pull requests, branches, or commits in GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, or Bitbucket
  • Review the full activity and audit history
  • Create child items when the work needs to be broken down

Keep titles action-oriented

Good titles make boards and lists easier to scan.

Instead of:

  • Login issue
  • API
  • Customer portal

Use:

  • Fix expired-session redirect on login
  • Add pagination to the projects API
  • Let customers reopen portal requests

Break down large work

If a work item has many separate decisions, risks, or owners, split it into smaller pieces. Smaller items are easier to estimate, review, and finish.

Windshift supports parent-child hierarchies (for example Epic, Feature, Story, Task, Subtask) so a single deliverable can be tracked end-to-end while individual contributors work on the leaves.

Use links when one item depends on, blocks, duplicates, or relates to another. Link types are configurable. Good linking helps the team understand why work is waiting and what else might be affected by a change.