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Work Item

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In short: Work Items in Timebook are essential for organizing and tracking your Team’s tasks, from small issues to large epics. It covers how to create, manage, and customize Work Items, set dependencies, and use Work Item cards effectively. The article also explains the concept and the dedicated [Work Items] module.

What are Work Items?

In Timebook, Work Items are the backbone of your team’s work, capturing everything from the smallest tasks to the biggest epics. Whether you’re tracking bugs, tackling new features, or writing up user stories, all Work Items serve one purpose—getting things done.

Work Items can vary greatly in scope. A simple task might take just a few hours, while an epic can span weeks or even months. But no matter the size, Timebook has you covered. Every Work Item plays a role in the delivery stage of your product development, helping you break down work into actionable steps, track progress, and keep your team on course.

This is what a Work Item card looks like in the expanded view.

You can personalize certain aspects of your Work Items and how they behave in Timebook. For more information, see Work Item preferences

Work Items for discovery and delivery

Timebook offers different types of Work Items to help teams manage both the discovery and delivery stages of product development. Making the most of these phases is crucial for building successful products:

  • Discovery focuses on identifying Opportunities, exploring Solutions, and defining what to build.

  • Delivery is about implementing those solutions through development, testing, and delivery.

Each Timebook Work Item type serves a unique purpose. Here’s an overview of how they might fit into your workflow:

Work Item type
How to use it

Assumption

Use this to document hypotheses or beliefs about your product or users that need validation during the discovery phase. In Timebook, Assumptions are the most obvious choice for adding Work Items to Solutions. This helps connect the discovery and delivery stages.

Task

Use this to represent specific, actionable units of work that contribute directly to the delivery of a project.

Bug

Track and resolve defects or issues identified in your product during the delivery stage.

Story

Define specific, user-focused requirements that the team will implement during the delivery stage.

Feature

Group related Stories to deliver a cohesive piece of functionality within the delivery stage.

Epic

Organize multiple Features or large initiatives into a high-level plan for long-term delivery.

By selecting the appropriate Work Item type, you can categorize items into discovery and delivery stages and effectively track the transition from problem identification to solution delivery.

Managing Work Items in a dedicated module

Timebook has a dedicated module for managing Work Items, offering multiple perspectives through different data layouts. The [Work Items] module is designed to focus on the delivery stage of product development, making it ideal for analyzing and tracking all the work.

You can access Work Items in the following ways:

  • From the Delivery section: Open the [Work Items] module in the [Delivery] section of the Navigator to view all Work Items across your entire Timebook Workplace.

  • From a specific Team: Open the [Work Items] module within a Team to see only the Work Items assigned to that Team, offering a more focused view.

  • From My Work: Open the My Work module from the Navigator to view your Work Items—those you’ve created, those assigned to you, and those you’re watching. Each type is organized into its own dedicated tab.

Different Work Item modules focusing on the Workplace, Team, and personal data.

As a Team Owner or Admin, you can customize the [Work Items] module in Team settings. You can create custom statuses, enable Sprints, or increase automatization by integrating with Git.

For more information, see Work settings

Work Items module
How to use it

Workplace level

There is a dedicated module in the Navigator that shows all Work Items from your entire organization. This module is best used for high-level work management, as it allows you to apply filters and grouping options to organize, analyze, and oversee your company’s work more effectively.

Team level

Each Timebook Team has a dedicated module for managing Work Items, allowing team members to view and organize tasks through various data layouts.

The Team-level Work Items module is designed to help track, assign, and coordinate tasks within the team. By default, each Work Item created in this module is assigned to the Team, but this can be adjusted as needed.

My Work

In [My Work], you only see the Work Items that are relevant to you.

This module has dedicated sections that automatically display Work Items you’ve created, assigned to others, or marked as watched.

Work Items you create, are assigned to, or watch appear in the My Work module, where you can view and manage all items relevant to you.

As a Team Leader, you can use the [Work Items] module to organize and prioritize tasks for others, reassign work, or link Work Items to Goals at the Team or Workplace level.

As a Team Member, you can use the [Work Items] module to stay focused on your individual tasks, provide updates on collaborative work, and mark the progress of your assignments.

The [Work Items] module holds all the work-related data, which you can customize using various layouts, filters, and grouping options. Additionally, you can save these customized views as public for all members to access or keep them private for your personal use.

We have dedicated articles that explain how to manage data views and layouts in several Timebook modules, including this one.

For more information, see Layouts & views

In the [Work Items] module, you can efficiently manage many items at once using the [Edit multiple items] button. After clicking it, an overlay will appear, allowing you to select multiple or all items and apply specific actions to them. This feature lets you quickly move items in bulk to a different Sprint or Project, assign them to others, or delete them permanently.

This is how you can manage multiple Work Items at the same time.

Creating a Work Item

You can create Work Items in the [Work Items] module in any Team. You can also create them contextually in other places in Timebook, like within a Project, and the process is nearly identical to the one explained below.

You can create new Work Items directly in Timebook, but if you already have data in a .csv file, you can import it instead. During the import process, you can map columns from your file to Timebook properties to ensure your data is structured correctly.

For more information, see Importing data into Timebook

To create a Work Item:

This is how you create a Work Item.

  1. Click the [+] button at the top of the list of Work Items. The button placement may vary depending on your chosen data layout.

  2. Give your new Work Item a meaningful name. At this stage, you can also:

    • Change the type of this Work Item (to Task or Bug, for instance).

    • Add a short description.

    • Define basic properties, such as Assignee, Priority, or Project.

    • Link the Work Item to one of existing Solutions to connect discovery and exectution stages.

  3. Click [Create...] to save your changes. The new Work Item is added to the list.

  4. Open the Work Item to edit its details and access all the available options and properties.

When editing a Work Item, explore sections and tabs on its card to easily access all management options. See below for more information.

Work Item cards

In Timebook, each Work Item has its own card that displays all the options and properties you can use to manage it. In different layouts, you can also use cards to move your Work Items around. For instance, you can drag and drop a Work Item card to:

  • Mark the status and progress of the Work Item in the Board layout.

  • Change the Work Item’s position in the List layout.

After you open a Work Item card, you can manage and navigate using the options in the top bar.

The top bar of a Work Item card gives you plenty of additional options.
Options available in the top bar

  1. [Navigation arrows] These arrows help you navigate between recently opened objects. Use the arrows to quickly return to the previous object and then move back to the original one. This is especially useful when navigating between linked objects or parent and sub-objects.

  2. [Parent object indicator] If your Work Item has a defined parent object, we will show the parent’s type and name here. You can click the indicator to open the parent object’s card.

  3. [Item ID] This field shows the unique number of your Work Item in Timebook. Click the ID field to copy it for future reference.

  4. The following options are available in the top-right corner of the card:

    • [Collapse/Expand] This button lets you show or hide the right-side drawer. The drawer contains all the properties of your Work Item, such as Assignee, Status, Priority, and more. Expand the drawer to modify properties or collapse it to focus on the description or attachments.

    • [Copy link] Use this button to copy a link to your Work Item for quick sharing with others.

    • [Watch] If you’re not the creator or assignee but still want to stay informed, you can watch an object to track changes. You can also assign others as watchers. Once you start watching, you’ll receive notifications about all important updates. All your watched objects are easily accessible in the [Watched] tab of My Work.

    • [...] Use this additional menu for more options. You can [Duplicate] your Work Item to create an identical copy in the same location, [Link parent] to select a parent object for your Work Item, or [Delete] it if it’s no longer needed.

You can safely close a Work Item card by clicking out of it. We will save all the changes you made to the Work Item.

Work Item card: Sections

When you look at the left side of a Work Item card, you’ll notice several sections. Each section has a specific purpose: to help you describe your work, categorize it, or add supporting resources.

You can collapse or expand Work Item card sections to focus on what’s relevant.

Here’s an overview of the sections of a Work Item card and their purpose:

Name

You can edit this field at any time to rename your Work Item. Next to this field is a switch that lets you change the type of your Work Item. Click the icon next to the name to select a different type.

Tags

This section allows you to categorize your Work Item using tags. Tags help you find and identify objects in Timebook, as you can filter or group content by tags in various modules.

You can [Add tags] using the dedicated button or remove them by hovering over a tag and clicking [X]. For more information, see Tags

Description

This is where you provide more details about your Work Item. Enter text here, or press “/” to access advanced options. Use them to format your description, link other Timebook elements, or insert embedded content from external sources.

These text-formatting options are similar to those available in Timebook Documents. For more information, see Blocks

Links & attachments

This section is where you can support a Work Item with links to external resources or attachments, such as files or Timebook Documents. Click the [+] button and choose the type of resource you want to add. Next, provide the link and a brief description.

Each linked resource type is marked with a dedicated icon, so you can quickly distinguish Figma links from Loom links, for example.

Sub-items

In Timebook, you can create a hierarchy of Work Items by adding sub-items. They represent work that must be completed before the parent Work Item is marked as done. Click the [+] button in this section to create sub-items, or use the [Link] button to browse and select existing objects to turn them into sub-items.

All sub-items are displayed in this section and grouped by the Teams they belong to. You can unlink these sub-items from the main Work Item by clicking the [...] icon and selecting [Unlink].

Related

While [Sub-items] show the parent-child relationship, the [Related] section focuses on dependencies between your Work Item and other Timebook objects. Click the [+] button in this section and use the dropdown menu to select the type of dependency, such as “Is blocked by,” “Supports,” or “Generated from.” Next, use the search bar to find and link an existing Timebook object.

Here, you can link your Work Item to other object types; for example, you can create a link between a Work Item and a Goal.

The sections presented above are not exclusive to Work Item cards.

Cards of other object types in Timebook, such as Goals or Tickets, have nearly identical designs.

Work Item card: Tabs

When you look at the right side of a Work Item card, you’ll notice several tabs. They allow you to further define your Work Item, provide an update, and track changes over time.

Use the tabs on the right to make the most of the Work Item card.

Here’s an overview of the Work Item card tabs and their purpose:

Tab name
How to use it

Properties

You can use multiple fields in this tab to fine-tune, categorize, or track your Work Item. You can start by changing Priority or Status, but the flexibility of our properties can handle even the most complex cases.

For more information, see our separate article dedicated to Properties

Comments

This tab allows Workplace members to communicate, share updates, and collaborate directly within the Work Item. They can ask questions, provide updates, or offer feedback, making it a central hub for work-related communication. You can mention others using the @ symbol and notify specific people directly.

For more information, see Comments

Activity

This tab tracks all actions and changes made to a Work Item, providing a detailed history of events. It displays them in chronological order, showing when changes were made and by whom. The information in this tab is generated automatically, usually including status updates, priority changes, reassignments, and comments.

We put all the tabs in a drawer, so you can hide them by clicking the [Collapse/Expand] button at the top of your Work Item card.

Related articles

Work Item preferences

Work settings

My Work

Project

Sprint

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