Requests Disappear After Story Generation
Who Needs to Know This
Product Owners generate stories from requests and need to understand why approved requests disappear from the default view after conversion to work items.
Team Members create work items from requests and may be confused when those requests no longer appear in the grid after generation.
Scrum Masters help teams manage the request workflow and need to explain the relationship between requests and closed status to avoid confusion during backlog refinement.
Permission Requirement
To view closed requests: Members need Read access to the project and must apply the Show Closed Requests filter to see requests that have been closed after generating work items.
Question
Requests disappear from the Request list after they are used to generate a story or backlog item. Where do they go?
Answer
When a Request is used to generate a story, one of the options when saving the backlog item is OK & Close Request. The Requests you want to see are most likely closed. Closed items are filtered out by default.
Understanding Closed Requests
When you generate a work item from a request and select Save & Close Request, the system marks the request as closed but retains it in the database. Closed requests maintain all their relationships to generated work items, allowing you to track implementation progress even after the request is closed.
The default Requests grid filters out closed requests to keep your active list focused on new ideas that haven't been converted to work items yet. This behavior helps teams distinguish between pending requests awaiting evaluation and completed requests that have already been implemented as stories, defects, or portfolio items.
Viewing Closed Requests
To view closed requests:
- Click the hamburger menu
> Product > Requests. - In the filter drop-down menu, select Show Closed Requests.
Closed requests appear in the grid with a strikethrough through the title.
Troubleshooting
Can I reopen a closed request?
Closed requests cannot be reopened through the UI. If you need to track additional work related to a closed request, generate another work item from the existing closed request, which maintains the relationship link. Alternatively, contact your administrator about database options for reopening requests.
Why would I want to view closed requests?
Viewing closed requests helps you track which feature ideas have been implemented, review the history of generated work items, and maintain traceability between original requests and delivered features for reporting and audit purposes.
Can I filter to show both open and closed requests?
Yes. Use the filter options to display both open and closed requests in the same grid view. This allows you to see your complete request history while maintaining visibility of active requests.