TFS provides with several command line utilities which deals with Work Item Types. These tools are used to make changes to existing Work Item Types. Two of the most important tools are witexport and witimport tools.

witexport – exports Work Item Type into XML file for editing. We can work with it as with any XML File making changes and saving those changes to the file. In order to open this tool we need to type into VS 2005 Command Prompt following command line code
witexport /f " File Path " /t " Team Foundation Server name " /p " Team Project name " /n " Work Item Type name "

If export was a success, you will see “Work item type export complete”

witimport – helps us to import XML file that defines Work Item Type back into TFS. In order to do that we need to open VS 2005 Command Prompt window and type following command line code
witimport /f " File Path " /t " Team Foundation Server name " /p " Team Project name "

If Work Item Type was uploaded successfully, you will see the following message “Work item type import complete.”

In order to reflect our recent update to Work Item Type, we need to refresh Team Explorer and initiate creation of the new Work Item from the Team Project. We should see our most recent update to a Work Item Type.