Automatic calculation field

Question

Automatic calculation field

SB 440

Hi Team,

I want to add two custom fields and one automated calculation field on Feature work item. Is it possible to add below drop down values in the custom field and also have automatic calculated field based on the first two fields?

Field 1 - Business Value (manual selection)

Drop down values: High - Compliance requirement, Medium - Significant for business but not critical, Medium - Valuable improvement that can be scheduled based on capacity, Low - Nice to have enhancement

Field 2 - Urgency (manual selection)

Drop down values: End of month 1, end of month 2, end of month 3

Field 3 - Priority (automatic calculation)

Based on Field 1 and Field 2 I would like priority field to be automatically calculated. I can give the logic to calculate this.

Please let me know if this is possible. Thank you.

Mohammad Altaf 360 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-21T15:13:06.6433333+00:00

Hello @SB ,

Just following up to see if your issue has been resolved or if you had a chance to review my earlier comment?

Answer accepted by question author

Mohammad Altaf 360 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @SB

Thank you for your question.

Yes, you can create the two custom fields with predefined dropdown values:

Business Value – Configure this as a picklist (dropdown) with your required values.

Urgency – Configure this as a picklist (dropdown) with the required options (End of Month 1, End of Month 2, End of Month 3).

However, an automatically calculated custom field based on the values of two other custom fields is not supported out of the box in Azure DevOps process customization. Custom fields cannot perform formula-based calculations or dynamically update based on other field values.

If you need the Priority field to be calculated automatically, you have a few alternatives:

Power Automate – Create a flow that triggers when a work item is created or updated, evaluates the values of Business Value and Urgency, and updates the Priority field according to your business logic.

Azure DevOps REST API or custom automation – Use a service, script, or Azure Function to calculate and update the field.

Marketplace extensions – Some Azure DevOps extensions provide additional workflow automation capabilities that may support this requirement.

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Mohammad Altaf 360 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-22T14:00:23.8833333+00:00

Hi @SB

Thanks for your positive response, If the assistance was helpful, kindly take a moment to click on Accept Answer and click on Yes. It will be helpful for other community members.

1 additional answer

Your answer

Mohammad Altaf 360 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-21T15:13:06.6433333+00:00

Hello @SB ,

Just following up to see if your issue has been resolved or if you had a chance to review my earlier comment?
Mohammad Altaf 360 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-22T14:00:23.8833333+00:00

Hi @SB

Thanks for your positive response, If the assistance was helpful, kindly take a moment to click on Accept Answer and click on Yes. It will be helpful for other community members.

Answer 1

Yes for the two manual fields; not supported by the provided Azure DevOps context for an automatically calculated field based on other custom fields.

What is supported:

Add custom fields to the Feature work item type from Process for the inherited process.
Create each field with a supported data type.
For dropdown-style fields, the context explicitly supports Picklist fields.
A field can be marked required and given a default value.
After creation, the field name and data type can’t be changed.

For the two manual fields in the scenario:

Open Process and select the inherited process.
Select the Feature work item type.
Choose New field.
Create Business Value as a Picklist field and add the dropdown options.
Create Urgency as a Picklist field and add the dropdown options.
Optionally set either field as required or assign a default value on the Options tab.
On the Layout tab, place the fields where they should appear on the form.
Choose Add field.

For Priority as an automatic calculation:

The provided Azure DevOps documentation supports adding custom fields, including picklists, but it does not describe creating a calculated work item field whose value is automatically derived from two other fields.
The closest supported pattern in the provided context is to add a separate custom field, but no calculation capability for Azure DevOps work item fields is documented here.

A related pattern shown in similar guidance is to add a custom field such as an origin/requesting field for reporting and filtering. That supports manual capture, not automatic calculation.