Configure Work Item-Based Reviews - Nextedy Documentation

Prerequisites

Risksheet installed and configured in your Siemens Polarion ALM project
Access to the sheet configuration file (risksheet.json) — see Find Configuration Files
A Polarion work item type defined for review records (e.g., reviewItem)
A link role configured in Polarion for review relationships (e.g., reviews)

How Work Item-Based Reviews Work

When you select the work item-based review strategy, each review creates a new Polarion work item of the configured type. The review work item is linked to the reviewed risk item via a configurable link role. Links preserve the revision of the reviewed item for auditability.

Review Strategy Context

Risksheet supports three review strategies, selectable via the reviewManager property in the sheet configuration:

Comment-based — lightweight reviews stored as Polarion work item comments
Work item-based — full traceability with separate Polarion work items (this guide)
Approval review — approval-tagged comments

Risksheet approval review creates approval-tagged comments but does not trigger Polarion’s formal approval workflow (draft → reviewed → approved). For traceable, queryable review records with audit trails, use the work item-based strategy described on this page.

Configure the Review Manager

Add the reviews section to your sheet configuration with the required properties. The configuration editor supports YAML editing for the sheet configuration (v25.5.0+):

reviews:
  reviewManager: WorkItemBased
  typeProperties:
    itemTypes: reviewItem
    linkRole: reviews

Required Properties

Property	Description
`reviewManager`	Must be `WorkItemBased`
`typeProperties.itemTypes`	The Polarion work item type ID for review work items
`typeProperties.linkRole`	The link role name connecting reviews to reviewed items

Missing typeProperties, itemTypes, or linkRole results in a runtime error when creating reviews. The error messages are: “TypeProperties for WorkItemBased reviews not set”, “LinkTypes for WorkItemBased reviews not set”, or “linkRole for WorkItemBased reviews not set”.

Optional Properties

Property	Description	Default
`typeProperties.query`	Custom query expression to filter retrieved reviews	None (show all)
`typeProperties.document`	Target document path for storing review work items	Same document
`typeProperties.project`	Target project ID for storing review work items	Same project
`typeProperties.itemTemplate`	Custom HTML template for review display	Default format

Configure Cross-Project Storage (Optional)

To store reviews in a dedicated document or different project, add the optional properties:

reviews:
  reviewManager: WorkItemBased
  typeProperties:
    itemTypes: reviewItem
    linkRole: reviews
    project: QualityReviews
    document: Reviews/RiskReviewLog
    query: "NOT status:closed"

When a target document is specified, new review work items are automatically positioned after the last existing review item of the same type in that document, maintaining chronological ordering.All review work items are stored as standard Polarion work items, subject to Polarion authorization and fully traceable via Polarion’s audit infrastructure. Risksheet does not maintain a separate data store for reviews.

The project and document properties support dynamic expression evaluation. This allows you to resolve target locations based on the context of the reviewed item.

Customize Review Display (Optional)

By default, each review in the Reviews column shows:

Work item ID as a clickable hyperlink to the review work item
Author name (bold)
Creation date in yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm format
Title (if different from description)
Description rendered as HTML

You can override this format using the itemTemplate property:

reviews:
  reviewManager: WorkItemBased
  typeProperties:
    itemTypes: reviewItem
    linkRole: reviews
    itemTemplate: "<div class='custom-review'>...</div>"

Test custom item templates in a development environment before deploying. The template supports HTML with dynamic placeholders resolved at render time.

Reviews are wrapped with the risk_reviews CSS class, enabling additional styling through cell styles.

Toggle Review Columns and Create Reviews

Open the risksheet in your Polarion LiveDoc
Toggle review columns visible using the toolbar
Locate the risk item you want to review
Enter a review title and text in the Add Review column
The system creates a new work item of the configured type, links it to the risk item, and displays it in the Reviews column

Each review work item is linked with a bidirectional relationship that preserves the revision of the reviewed item.

When to Use Work Item-Based Reviews

Advantage	Limitation
Full traceability via Polarion work items	Requires additional work item type and link role setup
Reviews queryable and reportable independently	More complex sheet configuration than comment-based
Supports cross-project review storage	Each review creates a work item (volume consideration)
Custom display templates available	Requires Polarion admin to configure types and roles
Bidirectional links with revision tracking

Work item-based reviews are ideal for regulated environments where compliance standards require traceable, independently queryable review records — for example, ISO 26262, ISO 14971, or IEC 61508 projects where review evidence must be auditable. Unlike approval review (which does not drive Polarion’s formal approval state machine), work item-based reviews produce first-class Polarion artifacts that can participate in workflows, queries, and reports.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Error Message	Solution
Missing type properties	”TypeProperties for WorkItemBased reviews not set”	Add `typeProperties` section with `itemTypes` and `linkRole`
Missing link types	”LinkTypes for WorkItemBased reviews not set”	Set `typeProperties.itemTypes` to a valid work item type ID
Missing link role	”linkRole for WorkItemBased reviews not set”	Set `typeProperties.linkRole` to a valid link role name
Reviews not appearing	N/A	Check the `query` filter or verify `document`/`project` scope matches the review location

Verification

After completing configuration, you should now see:

Review toggle available in the Risksheet toolbar
New reviews create separate work items in Polarion of the configured type
Bidirectional links between reviewed risk items and review work items
Review work items visible both in the Risksheet Reviews column and in Polarion’s work item views
If cross-project storage is configured, review work items appear in the target project/document

​Prerequisites

​How Work Item-Based Reviews Work

​Review Strategy Context

​Required Properties

​Optional Properties

​When to Use Work Item-Based Reviews

​Troubleshooting

​Verification

​See Also

Prerequisites

How Work Item-Based Reviews Work

Review Strategy Context

Required Properties

Optional Properties

When to Use Work Item-Based Reviews

Troubleshooting

Verification

See Also