Azure Boards FAQs

As a member of an Azure Boards project, you can use most features to track work. Limitations to select features are based on the access level and security group to which a user is assigned. Other limitations can be imposed based on work tracking permissions or custom rules. For more information, see Default permissions and access for Azure Boards.

You can grant access to an unlimited number of users by assigning them Stakeholder access. To learn more about the features they can access, see Stakeholder access quick reference.

You can restrict access by setting permissions for an area path. For more information, see the following articles:

• Set work tracking and plan permissions
• Grant or restrict permissions to select tasks

Yes. Conditional rules based on user or group membership get cached for your web browser. If you find yourself restricted to update a work item, you probably encountered one of these rules. For more information about conditional rules, see Rules and rule evaluation. If your cache stores outdated rules, you can wait for the client cache to expire within three days, or you can clear the cache.
To clear the cache, run the following command in the browser command window and then refresh the browser: window.indexedDB.deleteDatabase("wit")

See Tools and clients that connect to Azure DevOps.

For an introduction to work items, see About work items.

To view all work items defined in a project, open a query and add two clauses:

• Work Item Type = [Any]
• State = [Any]

From there, you can add filters to refine the query. For more information, see Create and save managed queries with the query editor.

No. Work items can only be assigned to a single user. Also, you can only add a user that is available from the people picker.

The main method to group work is to assign it to the same area path. Area paths are used to group work items by product, feature, or business areas and to support teams responsible for work assigned to those areas. In addition, you can group work under a parent work item using parent-child links, referred to as a hierarchical grouping.

For a discussion of these two usages and the tools they support, see Configuration and customization of Azure Boards, Area paths, product teams, and portfolio management.

Milestone markers aren't used in Azure Boards work tracking, except for Delivery Plans. Delivery Plans provide a calendar view and allow you to define a milestone marker. For more information, see Review team Delivery Plans.

However, you can use one or more of the following options to mark a work item as a milestone:

• Prepend or append the word Milestone in the title of your work item
• Add a work item tag labeled Milestone
• Add a custom field labeled Milestone and populate it with a pick list of milestones
• Link work items using the Predecessor/Successor or Related link type to a milestone work item
• Assign the milestone work item to the sprint in which it's targeted for completion.

You can track dependencies between work items by linking them using a related or other link type. See Link work items to other objects.

If you're tracking dependencies across one or more organizations, you might want to use the Dependency Tracker.

Each process defines four default backlog levels: the iteration backlog, requirement backlog, feature and epic portfolio backlogs. The work item types added to each backlog level are the natural work item types to form parent-child relationship and group work items into a hierarchy. For more information, see Organize your backlog, map child work items to parents. To customize the process, see Customize your backlogs or boards, Edit or rename the requirement backlog.

This feature isn't supported at this time for Azure DevOps 2019 and earlier versions. Copying a work item doesn't copy any parent-child linked work items. However, is available for Azure DevOps Server 2020.1 update and Azure Boards (cloud service).

The easiest way to accomplish the task of copying many work items with child items is to create parent-child links to new work items using Excel. To learn how, see Bulk add or modify work items with Excel, Add a hierarchy of linked work items.

Other solutions include employing one of the following Marketplace extensions:

• Work item form one-click actions
• 1-Click Child-Links
• 1-Click Tasks

See Bulk modify work items, Bulk modify rich-text fields.

Yes, you can set your backlog level to include two different rules. The first rule it to set the parent as active when any of its children are set to active. The second rule is to set parent to resolved or closed when all the children are closed. These rules can be configured for backlog level. For more information, see Automate work item state transitions

Work items automatically change state after your team administrator set up automation rules on the backlog. Create rules to automatically set the state to active or closed depending on the state change of its children. For more information, see Automate work item state transitions.

Rules only trigger when the state of the child item moves from New to Active or into Closed. Rules don't trigger when the state of the child item moves from Closed back to Active. This is currently by design.

No, the rules are applied to all work item types in that backlog level. We use state categories instead of states because state categories are consistent across all work item types.

Yes, rules are configured per backlog level. Automation rules on the user stories backlog don't affect features or epics. But, you can also set up rules separately for features and epics. For more information, see Automate work item state transitions.

Rules only trigger if both the parent and children belong to the same team. We don’t want rules automatically triggered for items that belong to other teams. For more information, see Automate work item state transitions.

Each backlog and board represents a filtered set of work items based on team area path and iteration path assignments. Backlogs list work items, boards display work items as cards. To understand how the filtering is applied, see About teams and Agile tools, Team defaults referenced by backlogs and boards.

To add a backlog or board, you add a team. Each team is configured with its own set of backlogs and boards as described in About teams and Agile tools. Each team can customize these Agile tools.

Azure DevOps imposes limits such as the number of work items that display on a backlog or board, numbers of teams you can define, and more. For a full list, see Work tracking, process, and project limits.

See Azure Boards migration and integration.

Each backlog lists a filtered set of work items based on the team's selected area path, iteration paths, and work item types.

• Product backlog: By default lists User Stories (Agile), Issues (Basic), Product Backlog Items and Bugs (Scrum), or Requirements (CMMI). Provides options to show Parents, Forecast, and In Progress or Completed child items.
• Portfolio backlog: By default lists Features (all process models) for the Features backlog, and Epics (Agile, Scrum, and CMMI) for the Epic backlog. Provides options to show Parents and In Progress or Completed child items.
• Sprint backlog: By default lists all product backlog items assigned to the selected iteration, regardless of status. Provides options to show Work details.

Yes. You can assign sprints to work items and filter your Kanban board based on the iteration path. For more information, see Filter your Kanban board.

No. Task checklists only support the task work item type.

Azure DevOps doesn't provide a native view of the critical path. In part, as Agile methodologies favor a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) over Critical Path Management (CPM). By using MVP, you identify the shortest path and dependencies by prioritizing epics, features, stories and tasks.

That said, we recommend that you use Delivery Plans to view dependencies and a calendar view of work.

If your organization supports connection to Microsoft Project, you might find more Marketplace extensions that support connection of Azure DevOps to Microsoft Project.

For more context, see The Critical Path on Agile Projects and Running a lean startup on Azure DevOps.

Rollup provides summed values of select fields for all child work items of a parent. For more information, see Rollup of work and other fields.

No. The data entered for team capacity isn't stored in the regular data stores.

No. This feature isn't supported. It's a suggested feature, which you can upvote by going to our Developer Community page.

Yes, see Query by assignment or workflow changes, Kanban board change queries.

Yes, by adding the Query Based Boards Marketplace extension.

Yes, by adding the Azure Boards Kanban Tools Marketplace extension.

Yes, you can track column moves on a Kanban board by using the Board Column and Board Column Done fields.

If you get the following error when you open your Kanban board, you need to correct the configuration. The main reason for this error is that the workflow states of work item types added to the Requirement category aren't mapped to the column.

Select Correct this now to open the Settings dialog. In the following example, two new states are added: Triaged for bug, and Investigate for user story. Each state is then mapped to an existing or new column. After each state is mapped to a column, the Kanban board displays the work items assigned to these states.

Yes, you can add or remove swimlanes on your Kanban board. You can also set up swimlane rules, where when certain conditions are met, Azure Boards automatically moves work items into specific lanes.

You can define work item templates for teams you belong to. To define work item templates to specify defaults for select fields, see Use templates to add and update work items.

The feature to set a default template for a team isn't a supported feature at this time.

No. This feature isn't supported at this time.

Example request: When creating a template, I would like the Parent User Story to be defaulted. There isn't a predetermined field in the template. Would/could this function be under a user-defined selection?

No, there's no native support for creating hierarchy templates. In particular, you can't specify a default parent work item. You can, however, quickly copy tasks, bugs, and other items using Excel to apply parent-child links in a tree list. Or, you can use a Kanban board to add child tasks, backlog items, or features. For more information, see:

• Add task checklists
• Add, run, and update inline tests
• Add features and epics

From the work item type page, choose the actions icon for an existing template and select the Delete option.

Azure Boards integrates with GitHub for Azure DevOps Server 2019 and later versions. For more information, see Azure Boards & GitHub.

No. This feature isn't supported at this time.

Configuration and customization of Azure Boards occurs at the project and team level. For an overview of what you can configure and customize to support your business needs, see Configuration and customization of Azure Boards.

For FAQs on configuration and customization, see Azure Boards Configuration and Customization FAQs.

Related articles

• Query FAQs
• Work tracking, process, and project limits
• Azure Boards Configuration and Customization FAQs
• FAQs: Work in Excel connected to Azure Boards
• Work across projects FAQs
• Azure Boards extensions
• About teams and Agile tools