Plan and track work in Azure Boards

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019

In this article, learn how to use Azure Boards to plan and track your work using an Agile, Basic, Scrum, or Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) process. For more information, see About processes and process templates.

Agile process

The Agile process uses various work item types such as user stories, tasks, bugs, features, and epics to plan and track work. Begin by adding user stories and grouping them into features if needed. You can add tasks to a user story to track more details.

Work item types	Backlog hierarchy

In each work item form, you can describe the work to be done, assign work to project contributors, track status, and collaborate with others through the Discussion section. This article describes how to add user stories and child tasks from the web portal and add details to those work items.

Basic process

The Basic process offers three work item types for planning and tracking work: epics, issues, and tasks. To begin, add issues to track user stories, bugs, or feature items. For grouping, define epics. To track more details, add tasks to an issue.

Work item types	Backlog hierarchy

In each work item form, describe work, assign contributors, track status, and collaborate in the Discussion section. This article describes how to add issues, child tasks, and work item details on the web portal.

Scrum process

The Scrum process uses various work item types to plan and track work. Item types include product backlog items, tasks, bugs, features, and epics. Add product backlog items and group them into features if needed. Add child tasks to track more work details.

Work item types	Backlog hierarchy

In each work item form, describe work, assign contributors, track status, and collaborate in the Discussion section. This article describes how to add product backlog items, child tasks, and work item details on the web portal.

CMMI process

The CMMI process uses work item types such as requirements, tasks, bugs, features, and epics to plan and track work. Start by adding requirements and group them into features or epics if needed. Add child tasks to track more work details.

Work item types	Backlog hierarchy

In each work item form, describe work, assign contributors, track status, and collaborate in the Discussion section. This article describes how to add user stories, child tasks, and work item details on the web portal.

Prerequisites

• Access levels:
  • To add work items to a board and use all other board features, have at least Basic access.
  • Private project: To view boards, open and modify work items, and add child tasks to a checklist, have at least Stakeholder access. You can't reorder or reparent a backlog item using drag-and-drop. You can't update a field on a card.
  • Public project: For full access to all Boards features, have at least Stakeholder access.
• Permissions: Be a member of the Contributors or Project Administrators group.

For more information, see Default permissions and access for Azure Boards.

Open your board

A board is provisioned with the addition of each project and each team. You can only create or add boards to a project by adding another team. For more information, see About teams and Agile tools.

1. Sign in to your organization (https://dev.azure.com/{Your_Organization}) and go to your project.

2. Select Boards > Boards.

   

3. Select a board from the All Team Boards dropdown menu.

   

Add work items to your board

Work items on your board are automatically assigned the default Area Path and Iteration Path assigned to the team. For more information, see Manage and configure team tools.

Agile process

1. From the Stories board, choose New item and the stories you want to track.

   

2. Select Enter. The system assigns a work item ID to the user story.

   

3. Add as many user stories as you need.

Tip

To quickly add features and child user stories, choose Features from the board selector.

Basic process

1. From the Issues board, choose New item and add the issues you want to track.

   

2. Enter return and the system assigns a work item ID to the issue.

   

3. Add as many issues as you need.

Tip

The Epics board is the best tool for quickly adding epics and issues that are children of those epics. To open the Epics board from the Issues board, choose Epics from the board selector.

Scrum process

1. From the Backlog items board, choose New item and add the stories you want to track.

   

2. Enter return and the system assigns a work item ID to the user story.

   

3. Add as many backlog items as you need.

Tip

The Features board is the best tool for quickly adding features and product backlog items that are children of those features. To open the Features board from the Backlog items board, choose Features from the board selector.

The default Scrum process configuration doesn't enable the Epic backlog level for a team. To enable it, see Select backlog navigation levels for your team.

CMMI process

1. From the Requirements board, choose New item and add the stories you want to track.

   

2. Enter return and the system assigns a work item ID to the user story.

   

3. Add as many requirements as you need.

Tip

The Features board is the best tool for quickly adding features and requirements that are children of those features. To open the Features board from the Requirements board, choose Features from the board selector.

Add details to a board item

To open an issue or user story, select its title. Change one or more field values, add a description, or make a note in the Discussion section. You can also choose the Attachments tab and drag-and-drop a file to share the file with others.

Agile process

For example, assign the story to Raisa Pokrovskaya and add a discussion note, at-mentioning Raisa.

When you're done, select Save & Close.

Basic process

For example, assign the issue to Raisa Pokrovskaya and add a discussion note, at-mentioning Raisa.

When you're done, select Save & Close.

Scrum process

For example, assign the product backlog item to Christie Church and set an Effort level of 8.

When you're done, select Save & Close.

CMMI process

For example, assign the requirement to Jamal Hartnett and set Size to 8.

When you're done, select Save & Close.

CMMI-specific field descriptions

---

Field

Definition

---

Impact Assessment

The effect on the customer of not implementing this requirement. You might include details from the Kano model about whether this requirement is in the surprise, required, or obvious categories. You capture this information in the rich-text HTML field that corresponds to Impact Assessment.

---

Requirement Type (Required)

The kind of requirement to implement. You can specify one of the following values:

• Business Objective
• Feature
• Functional
• Interface
• Operational
• Quality of Service
• Safety
• Scenario
• Security

---

Start Date/Finish Date

The target dates for when the work is expected to start or finish. These fields are filled in by Microsoft Project when you use it for scheduling.
You can specify work in hours or in days. No inherent time units are associated with this field.

---

Triage (Required)

Indicates the type of triage decision that's pending for the work item. Use this field when the work item is in the Proposed state and specify one of the following values: Pending (default), More Info, Info Received, or Triaged.

---

Blocked

Indicates whether a team member is prevented from making progress toward implementing a requirement or task or resolving a bug, change request, or risk. If an issue was opened to track a blocking problem, you can create a link to the issue. You can specify Yes or No (default).

---

Committed (Required)

Indicates whether the requirement is committed in the project or not. You can specify Yes or No (default).

---

Integrated In

Product build number that incorporates the requirement or change request, or fixes a bug.

---

User Acceptance Test (Required)

The status of the user acceptance test for a requirement. You can specify one of the following values:

• Pass
• Fail
• Not Ready
• Ready
• Skipped
• Info Received

Specify Not Ready when the requirement is in the Active state. Specify Ready when the requirement is in the Resolved state.

---

Subject Matter Experts

The names of team members who are familiar with the customer area that this requirement represents.

---

Field descriptions

---

Field

Usage

---

Title

Enter a description of 255 characters or less. You can always modify the title later.

---

Assigned To

Assign the work item to the team member responsible for performing the work. Depending on the context you're working in, the drop-down menu lists only team members or contributors to the project.

Note

You can only assign work to a single user. If you need to assign work to more than one user, add a work item for each user and distinguish the work to be done by title and description. The Assigned To field only accepts user accounts that have been added to a project or team.

---

State

When the work item is created, the State defaults to the first state in the workflow. As work progresses, update it to reflect the current status.

---

Reason

Use the default first. Update it when you change state as need. Each State is associated with a default reason.

---

Area (Path)

Choose the area path associated with the product or team, or leave blank until assigned during a planning meeting. To change the dropdown list of areas, see Define area paths and assign to a team.

---

Iteration (Path)

Choose the sprint or iteration in which the work is to be completed, or leave it blank and assign it later during a planning meeting. To change the drop-down list of iterations, see Define iteration paths and configure team iterations.

---

Description

Provide enough detail to create shared understanding of scope and support estimation efforts. Focus on the user, what they want to accomplish, and why. Don't describe how to develop the product. Do provide sufficient details so that your team can write tasks and test cases to implement the item.

---

Acceptance Criteria

Provide the criteria to be met before the work item can be closed. Define what "Done" means by describing the criteria for the team to use to verify whether the backlog item or bug fix is fully implemented. Before work begins, describe the criteria for customer acceptance as clearly as possible. Have conversations between the team and customers to determine the acceptance criteria. These criteria help ensure a common understanding within the team to meet customers' expectations. Also, this information provides the basis for acceptance testing.

---

Priority

A subjective rating of the issue or task it relates to the business. You can specify the following values:

• 1: Product can't ship without the successful resolution of the work item, and it should be addressed as soon as possible.
• 2: Product can't ship without the successful resolution of the work item, but it doesn't need to be addressed immediately.
• 3: Resolution of the work item is optional, based on resources, time, and risk.
• 4: Resolution of the work item isn't required.

---

Value Area

A subjective rating of the issue or task it relates to the business. You can specify the following values:

• Architectural: Technical services to implement business features that deliver solution.
• Business: Services that fulfill customers or stakeholder needs that directly deliver customer value to support the business (Default).

---

Effort, Story Points, Size

Provide a relative estimate of the amount of work required to complete an issue. Most Agile methods recommend that you set estimates for backlog items based on relative size of work. Such methods include powers of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8) and the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.). Use any numeric unit of measurement your team prefers.
The estimates you set are used to calculate team velocity and forecast sprints.

---

Update work status

The State field tracks the status of a work item. With the board, you can quickly update the status of backlog items by dragging and dropping them to a different column.

Agile process

As work begins, drag the user story card from the Backlog column to the Active column. When work is ready for review, move it to the Resolved column. After a team member reviews and accepts it, move it to the Closed column.

Basic process

As work begins, drag the issue from the To Do column to the Doing column. When a team member completes it, move it to the Done column.

Scrum process

After a backlog item is approved to start work, drag the backlog item card from the New column to the Approved column. When work begins, drag the card to the Committed column. After work completes, move it to the Done column.

CMMI process

As work begins, drag the requirement card from the Backlog column to the Active column. When work is ready for review, move it to the Resolved column. After a team member reviews and accepts it, move it to the Closed column.

Tip

To add or rename columns as needed, see About configuring and customizing Azure Boards.

Add tasks

Task checklists provide a quick and easy way to track elements of work that are important to complete a backlog item. Also, you can assign individual tasks to different team members.

Tip

Tasks that you create from the board are automatically assigned the Area Path and Iteration Path of their parent work item and show up on your sprint taskboard.

Tasks that you create from the sprint backlog or taskboard show up in tasks checklists on the board.

Agile process

1. Select the actions icon for the story and select Add Task.

   

2. Enter a title for the task and select Enter.

   

3. If you have many tasks to add, keep entering your task titles and select Enter.

   

4. You can mark a task as done, expand or collapse the task checklist, reorder, and reparent tasks.

   Mark a task as done	Reorder and reparent tasks	Expand or collapse the checklist
   To mark a task as complete, select the task checkbox. The task State changes to Done.	To reorder a task, drag it in the checklist. To reparent a the task, drag it to another issue on the board.	To expand or collapse a task checklist, choose the task annotation.

Basic process

1. Select the actions icon for the issue and select Add Task.

   

2. Enter a title for the task and select Enter.

   

3. If you have various tasks to add, keep entering your task titles and type Enter.

   

4. You can mark a task as done, expand or collapse the task checklist, reorder, and reparent tasks.

   Mark a task as done	Reorder and reparent tasks	Expand or collapse the checklist
   To mark a task as complete, select the task checkbox. The task State changes to Done.	To reorder a task, drag it in the checklist. To reparent a the task, drag it to another issue on the board.	To expand or collapse a task checklist, choose the task annotation.

Scrum process

1. To start adding tasks, select the actions icon for the story and select the Add Task option.

   

2. Enter a title for the task and type Enter when you're done.

   

3. If you have many tasks to add, just keep entering your task titles and type Enter.

   

4. You can mark a task as done, expand or collapse the task checklist, or reorder and reparent tasks.

   Mark a task as done	Reorder and reparent tasks	Expand or collapse the checklist
   To mark a task as complete, select the task checkbox. The task State changes to Done.	To reorder a task, drag it in the checklist. To reparent a the task, drag it to another issue on the board.	To expand or collapse a task checklist, choose the task annotation.

CMMI process

1. To start adding tasks, select the actions icon for the story and select the Add Task option.

   

2. Enter a title for the task and type Enter when you're done.

   

3. If you have various tasks to add, just keep entering your task titles and type Enter.

   

4. You can mark a task as done, expand or collapse the task checklist, reorder, and reparent tasks.

   Mark a task as done	Reorder and reparent tasks	Expand or collapse the checklist
   To mark a task as complete, select the task checkbox. The task State changes to Done.	To reorder a task, drag it in the checklist. To reparent a the task, drag it to another issue on the board.	To expand or collapse a task checklist, choose the task annotation.

Add details to a task

If you have details you want to add about a task, select the title to open it. Change one or more field values, add a description, or make a note in the Discussion section. Choose Save & Close.

Agile process

This example assigns the task to Christie Church.

Basic process

This example assigns the task to Jamal.

Scrum process

This example assigns the task to Jamal.

CMMI process

This example assigns the task to Jamal.

Field descriptions

You can assign these fields for a backlog item: user story, issue, product backlog item, and requirement. You can specify the following fields for a task to support capacity and time tracking.

Note

There are no inherent time units associated with this field even though the taskboard always shows "h" for hours in relationship to Remaining Work. You can specify work in any unit of measurement your team chooses.

Field

Usage

---

Activity

The type of activity that's required to do a task. For more information, see Determine and set sprint capacity. Allowed values are:

• Deployment
• Design
• Development
• Documentation
• Requirements
• Testing

Discipline (CMMI process)

The type of activity that's required to do a task. For more information, see Determine and set sprint capacity. Allowed values are:

• Analysis
• Development
• Test
• User Education
• User Experience

Original Estimate

The amount of estimated work required to complete a task. Typically, this field doesn't change after you assign the task.

Remaining Work

The amount of work that remains to finish a task. You can specify work in hours or in days. As work progresses, update this field. It's used to calculate capacity charts and the sprint burndown chart. If you divide a task into subtasks, specify Remaining Work for the subtasks only.

Completed Work

The amount of work spent implementing a task. Enter a value for this field when you complete the task.

Task Type (CMMI only)

Select the kind of task to implement from the allowed values:

• Corrective Action
• Mitigation Action
• Planned

Capture comments in the Discussion section

Use the Discussion section to add and review comments made about the work being performed.

The rich text editor toolbar appears under the text entry area when you place your cursor in any text box that supports text formatting.

Note

A Discussion work item field doesn't exist. To query work items with comments from the Discussion area, filter on the History field. The full content of the text entered in the Discussion text box is added to the History field.

Mention someone, a group, work item, or pull request

Select one of the following icons to open a menu of recent entries where you mentioned someone, linked to a work item, or linked to a pull request. Alternatively, you can open the same menu by entering @, #, or !.

• 
• 
• 

Enter a name or number to filter the menu list to match your entry. Select the entry you want to add. To bring a group into the discussion, enter @ followed by the group name, such as a team or security group.

Edit or delete a comment

To edit or delete any of your discussion comments, choose Edit or choose the actions icon and then choose Delete.

After you update the comment, select Update. To delete the comment, confirm that you want to delete it. The History tab on the work item form maintains a full audit trail of all edited and deleted comments.

Add a reaction to a comment

Add one or more reactions to a comment by choosing a smiley icon at the upper-right corner of any comment. Choose from the icons at the bottom of a comment next to any existing reactions. To remove your reaction, choose the reaction on the bottom of your comment. The following image shows an example of the experience of adding a reaction, and the display of reactions on a comment.

Save a comment without saving the work item

Note

This feature is available starting in Azure DevOps Server 2022.1.

If you only have permissions to add to the Discussion of a work item, then you can do so by saving comments. This permission is controlled by Area Path nodes and the Edit work item comments in this node permission. For more information, see Set work tracking permissions, Create child nodes, modify work items under an area or iteration path.

When you save the comments, you don't need to save the work item.

Note

When you save changes made to the Discussion control, only the comment gets saved. No work item rules defined for the work item type are executed.

Related articles

Customize your board

• Review Azure Boards FAQs
• Add tags to issues or tasks