Stakeholder access quick reference

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

Stakeholder access is available to support free access to a limited set of features by an unlimited set of stakeholders. In general, Stakeholder access users gain limited access to Azure Boards and collaboration tools. They have no access to code repositories.

Stakeholder access users can create and modify work items and create and save queries. They can also view and approve release pipelines and perform administrative tasks when granted administrative permissions or added to an administrative group. If they need to contribute to the code base, then you must assign them Basic or higher-level access.

If you're assigned Stakeholder access and want to start using Azure Boards to track work, see Get started as a Stakeholder. If you're tasked to support administrative tasks, see Manage your project.

Assign Stakeholder access users to a security group

In general, use the following guidance when assigning Stakeholder access users to a security group:

• Add to the Contributors security group for managers or users who don't actively contribute to the code base but want to check project status and provide direction, feedback, feature ideas, and business alignment to a team.
• Add to the Project Administrators security group for users tasked with managing project resources.
• Add to the Project Collection Administrators security group for users tasked with managing organization or collection resources.

Public versus private feature access

Users with Stakeholder access privileges can access features based on whether the project is private or public. For private projects, Stakeholders have limited access to specific work tracking functions, whereas for public projects, Stakeholders enjoy full access to work tracking features. To learn more about public projects, see What is a public project?.

Service, application, or setting	Private project	Public project
Azure Boards	Partial access	Full access
Azure Repos	No access	Full access
Azure Pipelines	Full access	Full access
Azure Test Plans	No access	No access
Azure Artifacts	Full access	Full access
Notifications	Full access	Full access
Semantic search	Full access	Full access
Project settings	Partial access	Partial access
Organization settings	Partial access	Partial access
Dashboards	Partial access	Full access
Wiki (Project wiki)	Partial access	Full access
Wiki (Code wiki)	No access	Full access

Azure Boards

The following table summarizes the features Stakeholders have access to from Azure Boards. Stakeholders can view and edit all work items for which they have Area Path permissions, which by default is set to Allow for all user security groups. For more information, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.

For an overview of work tracking features, see What is Azure Boards?

Note

Public project Stakeholder access users have full access to all features.

Page

Features can use

Features can't use

Work Items

• View, add, and edit work items
• Assign existing tags to work items
• Use the Work Items hub
• Change work item type¹
• Email work items
• Apply a work item template

• Add new work item tags
• Delete work items
• Move work items to another project

Boards

• View boards, open and edit work items
• Add work items to a board
• Update status through drag-and-drop
• Add child items to a checklist
• Assign to a sprint (from card field)
• Configure team boards²

• Change the priority of an item within a board
• Change fields on cards on a board, except for State field

Backlogs

• View backlogs and open work items
• Add work items (to the bottom of a backlog)
• Use bulk edit features

• Change the priority of an item within a backlog
• Drag-and-drop work items to the Mapping pane (parent a work item)
• Drag-and-drop work items to the Planning pane (assign to a sprint)

Sprints

• View sprint backlogs, taskboards, and open work items
• View work details
• Add work items to the bottom of a sprint backlog
• Use bulk edit features
• Configure team sprint taskboards²

• Change the priority of an item within a backlog
• Change fields on cards on a Taskboard, except for State field
• View or set team capacity
• Add tasks to a sprint backlog

Queries

• View and run My queries or Shared queries
• Create and save My queries

• Create or edit shared queries
• View query charts
• Create query charts

Delivery Plans

• View delivery plans

• Add or edit a delivery plan

Notes:

1. Controllable through project-level permission.
2. Requires assignment as a team administrator or member of the Project Administrators Group.

Azure Test Plans

Users granted Stakeholder access can perform the following tasks related to testing. For an overview of manual test features and functions, see Testing overview.

• Provide feedback using the Test & Feedback extension
• Apply a work item template to a test case

Dashboards, notifications, READMEs, and wikis

The following table summarizes the features Stakeholder access users have to these areas: Dashboards, Notifications, Project pages, READMEs, and Wikis.

Note

Public project Stakeholder access users have full access to all dashboard and Wiki features.

Feature area

Features can use

Features can't use

Dashboards

• View dashboards

• Add and configure team dashboards
• Add and configure project dashboards

Notifications

• Set personal notifications or alerts
• Set team notifications or alerts¹
• Set project-level notifications or alerts¹

Project pages

• View the project page
• Navigate using the Project pages
• Set personal favorites

• View repository READMEs

Search

• Perform work tracking and project wiki search

• Perform code search
• Perform code wiki search

READMEs

• Can view project README

• View repository READMEs

Wikis

• View project wikis

• View code wikis
• Edit project or code wikis

Notes:

1. Requires team administrator role or addition to Project Administrators group.