Need to record project deadline in Azure DevOps - is there a way of adding a field to the project information? - azure-devops

We have a process with Azure DevOps that automatically creates sprints for projects. The issue with this is that we often end up creating sprints that we don't need, and there are issues around people who are unfamiliar with project management (or useless at it is perhaps more accurate) picking everything up from the previous sprint and dropping it into the next which means some projects are in danger of going on forever more.
What I'd like to do is record the project deadline so it's clear for all. Ideally I see this being a field alongside the project description. Is that possible? I only seem to be able to edit items like user stories and tasks, but I need this to cover project level.
Otherwise is there any other way of recording the project deadline within Azure DevOps??

Otherwise is there any other way of recording the project deadline
within Azure DevOps??
Sorry but for now Azure devops doesn't have such out-of-box Project-level field.
Workaround:
According to your description, you could record the deadline in Project Summary so that members will see the deadline every time they open this project.
The Project Summary supports README file that we maintain in project repository or project Wiki. The README and wiki both support adding images so that we can add Text description or Image description to display the deadline in Project Summary.
(README)
Furthermore we can use WorkItem to track the deadline. Create feature which supports Target Date field=>Create shared query to get the workitem details(Add column options=>Target date)=>Insert query into Wiki page:
(Wiki)

Related

I am looking for a way in Azure DevOps to have a good overview of the status of my A/B tests

Since the process of one A/B test usually takes multiple sprints I would like to add another board in which I can add the A/B tests (as F.E. features). User stories for one sprint can then be added to a specific sprint for my team (which consists of a few specialists and a developer). This way I am able to overview the status (research phase, test , code writing, running, analysis, etc.) of all tests in one overview. I have not been able to find out how this is possiblie within Azure Devops, or if there is a work around. Can anyone help me?
My team also works in projects other than A/B tests, which means we cannot use the boards section.
Unless there is a hidden way to add another board to a team?
You could Copy or clone a work item to add the user stories or tests to a new boards. Open the user story you want to clone, then click Create copy of work item and choose whether to include exist links, attachments and child work items. After creating, change the Area and Iteration to your target boards.
Update
In Azure DevOps you can only create boards by creating a team. The team board is created as a side-effect of creating the team. Please refer to Manage and configure team tools and Configure and customize Azure Boardsfor details.
After creating and configuring a new team, you could see the boards in the dropdown list.

Power Automate - Azure DevOps Integration - Work Item Getting Created In Project Backlog and Area Path Backlog

I am using power automate for Azure DevOps integration. Here is what I want to achieve. I want to create a new work item when an email arrives in a project but in a specific Area Path for the team.
I am providing Area Path and Iteration Path in my flow configuration, but when the flow triggers, it creates work item both in Project Backlog and Area Path backlog, where as I only want it to create the issue in the specific Area Path.
Can someone kindly help? Thanks, Bee
At the moment, here is how I resolved this duplication issue.
Provide all the necessary configuration in your workflow.
Include your area-path in the workflow
Provide a unique parent-id you want to link your work-item. Feature or an EPIC.
Seen the screenshot below.
After I provide a unique parent/child relationship, it stopped creating duplicate backlog items in my Project backlog and area path backlog.
Hope this helps everyone.
Thank you

Change iteration type to Sprints

​If I create a new project and select the Agile process, my user stories will be grouped in iterations Eg "MyProject/Iteration 1".
However, If I create the project using Basic process and after the project has been created, changes the process to Agile I can group my user stories by Sprint Eg "MyProject/Sprint 1".
The latter is what I want, however as the process was set to Agile when the project was created (not by me), I'm trying to figure out how to change it to use Sprints as default?
Side note:
I cannot create a new project as I lack privileges
I cannot create a new process as I lack privileges
I cannot change to another process because I've already created a bunch or user stories
Although I can create sprints manually, I want it to be default.
Thank you!
From this document, we can know that iteration and sprints represent the same concept in the agile process.
Define Iteration Paths (aka sprints) and configure team iterations
So if you want to visually use Spirits as the default, you can add a new iteration named Spirit in team configuration, or change the name of the existing iteration to the Spirit style. Then set it as Default iteration. As shown in the following figure:
Because your current project is already Aglie process, the initial display must be MyProject/Iteration 1. If you want to display like MyProject/Sprint 1, you have to modify it later.
There are two ways to change the display: changing the process or manually modifying it.According to your Side note, obviously neither is feasible.
If you really want Spirits as default in agile progress project without any manual modification,you could submit a feature request in our Develop Community site. Our PM and product team will kindly review your suggestion.
There is no way to do this without changing the Process of your project.

How to give read-only access to members in bluemix track&plan?

Is it possible to add members in bluemix track&plan with read-only access?
I want to limit the number of people who can add/modify work items into my project.
I understand your question that you want a more fine-grained access control for project members.
Can you not allow project members to edit work items? A short answer is no.
Check official website: https://hub.jazz.net/docs/projectadmin/
Project members have the fewest privileges and responsibilities. They can do these tasks:
- Add and edit work items
- Create Git branches for Git projects
- Create tags for Git projects
- Push and pull source code from the repository
- View and edit pipelines
- Add, edit, delete, and run pipeline stages or jobs
I think project members should have the access right to edit work items.
Bluemix track&plan is based on RTC(Rational Team Concert). I've been using RTC for team's project development for several years. It can be disturbing when someone removes a tag used in a query or changes work item to an incorrect status.
But the essence of track&plan is for team collaboration. Work item is critical to provide transparency and real-time status. Everybody on the team should have the right to add comments to the work item. My best practice is to use daily scrum meeting to review team dashboard and validate the work item status.
In real life, I seldom see team members deliberately update work items that don't belong to them. Instead, scrum master needs to motivate team to provide more update to the work items.
If you want to share the status to a stakeholder who's not in the project team, one doable option is to set your project as "public".
Try to access the link I created: https://hub.jazz.net/ccm51/quickplanner/jazzhub.html#items:projectId=_9b859SQ7EeesKZSRjqyxIQ&serverId=hub.jazz.net&planType=allwork&allIterations=true
Steps to set up your project as public:
1. Navigate to the Track&Plan dashboard. Click "Settings" icon
2. De-select "private" project checkbox & save

TFS help - Backlog,burncharts, velocity, and raising questions in TFS

Can I have guidence for TFS 2010 for the following areas:
What is the correct use of tfs and the properties that are exposed for each backlog item and task for recording of effort so that we report on progress using the burndown charts and can assess velocity.
It is not obvious to us what is the appropriate workflow for raising questions about functionality against tasks / user stories so that the person who needs to answer them can easily find those tasks / stories that have outstanding questions. And for when the question is answered how the person(s) who need to know the answer are alerted that the answer is there. Maybe tfs is not the right place to do this and we should be manually doing this?
Unless you customized something, the report features you are asking about will light up in the reports if you use the field in the Task work item named Remaining Work - update it regularly - daily if possible.
The database most of the default reports use (Tfs_Analysis) gets updated every 2 hours by default. Some of the reports only show a daily roll-up so depending on what you are looking for you might not see changes until the day after.
As for your 2nd question about how to communicate about missing information in user stories, etc.. you should read the Process Guidance for the template that was used to create your Team Project. I'm guessing you are using the MSF Agile 5.0 template, so do a search for that and "Process Guidance." The Process Guidance is basically the instructions for how to use the TFS work items and reports, etc... It can be found online (on MSDN) or by right-clicking on your team project in Team Explorer and choosing Process Guidance from the context menu. I'm answering this from my phone but can include a link to it later if you find this helpful.