Custom Item Types in Wrike
The Custom item types feature allows you to create fully customizable task- and project-based item types that can be tailored to the needs of your whole organization or specific departments and teams.
So, instead of operating with generic tasks and projects, your team will have domain-specific custom item types like objectives, key results, user stories, bugs, requests, HR candidate cards, or any other item type you need.
Custom item types help you mirror your business processes in the Wrike workspace using your terminology. Unlike Blueprints, custom item types don't contain any pre-filled content, assignees, or dates. Instead, they act as frameworks for specific work. For each custom item type, you can define which sections to display on the item view and add type-specific custom fields, automation, unique icons, and suggested subitems.
Firstly, you need to identify the scope of your work process. It'll define the exact custom item types you need to create and on what level. There are two levels of custom item types:
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Account-level custom item types: All users in the account, except for external users and collaborators, can create work from these types. The types are stored in a library that account owners and admins can open from the account settings. Create new custom item types on the account level if they are relevant for the whole account and must be accessible to most users.
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Space-level custom item types: If you manage a team or department space, you can create space-level custom item types that fit your team's specific needs. Creating such types automatically makes them available to all space members who have the right to create work in the space.
Note
In public spaces, custom item types are available for all users who access the space, except for external users and collaborators. In private spaces, space-level types are available to space members and users outside the space if you share with them some folder, project, or task in which creation from space-level custom types is allowed.
Additionally, all users, except external users and collaborators, can create items from any space-level custom item types in the account via API.
Next, you create all relevant custom item types. While creating a type, you can define which subitems it's allowed to have. This way, users cannot add irrelevant items to the work created out of the type, disrupting the workflow.
Wrike currently offers three pre-built use-case templates that utilize custom item types. They are:
Service Management focuses on IT and other Service teams (ESM). The template enables you to introduce consolidated request management processes that reduce manual and mundane work via automation, streamlined request, and knowledge base management.
Strategic Planning based on OKR methodology. OKR template allows you to merge top-down and bottom-up goal management and planning by focusing on business results, outcomes, and relevant deliverables rather than just outputs.
Team Agile enables iterative work in Sprints. The template is based on Scrum Framework, and it helps with managing sprints and different types of work such as feature work or bugs via transparent processes and automation. It can be used for the IT or Product Development teams and other lines of business like Creatives.
You can try using one of these templates as-is or modify them to tailor to your needs. Stay tuned! There are more templates to come in the future.
Then, you can additionally manage which custom item types will be suggested to users by default when they create work.
After everything is set up, it's time to use your custom item types. Users in your account can now create real work out of the custom types. You can also set your request forms to create work items from custom item types. So when users submit a request, the resulting work in Wrike is created out of a custom type. And on top of that, work in Wrike can also be created from custom item types via API. Additionally, it's possible to convert your existing tasks and projects into custom items.
Wrike stores information about which custom item type was used to create work. This info is available in filters: you can apply the Custom item type filter to sort your work in the workspace. You can also use this filter in Reports, Table View, Gantt chart, Board view, and Dashboards. This information is available to all users in the account, including collaborators.