Update 2 on the horrid "There may be problems with the work item type definition" error

Well I'm back from an extended vacation / company holiday. Before I left a week or so ago, I was working with a member of the TFS development team on what I have been referring to as the horrid "There may be problems with the work item type definition" error. Search this blog for "horrid" and you'll find a number of posts.

First of all, I'd like to thank the TFS development team for reaching out to us on this error. It's very random and I can't reproduce the error on demand, so I was ambivalent about submitting it through connect. The TFS development team however, reached out and asked if they could help. As it turns out, they could.

What we're finding is the error seems to be related to a user's SQL View being out of sync with the tables, after a work item template change. Example changes we're making are adding/removing states and then adding/removing rules (e.g. REQUIRED) around those states. We've come to this conclusion, as first it only happens to certain users (on a variety of different machines). And second, the most common fix is to remove/add the user. From what development tells me, this act will force a refresh of the user's View.

Anyway, we're not out of the woods yet on this. But I'm really happy with the support MS has been offering us with TFS. Compared with my frustrating customer support experiences with ClearCase, TFS (and Teamprise) support is swimmingly.