Stakeholder access quick reference

TFS 2017 | TFS 2015 | TFS 2013

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, Azure Pipelines, 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've been assigned Stakeholder access and want to start using Azure Boards to track work, see Get started as a Stakeholder. If you've been 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 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 users tasked with managing project resources.
• Add to the Project Collection Administrators security group users tasked with managing organization or collection resources.

Work tracking

The following table summarizes the features Stakeholder access users have access to from Azure Boards. Stakeholders access users 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. To learn more, see Set permissions and access for work tracking.

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

Page

Features can use

Features can't use

Work Items

• View, add, and edit work items
• Assign existing tags to work items
• 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

• Add work items to a board
• Update status through drag-and-drop
• 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 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 (Extension)

• None

• 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.

Test

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

Notes:

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