How to modify state transition in Azure DevOps - azure-devops

Is there any way to modify a custom state to be only available for a certain user groups and state?
For example I have 2 custom states:
QA PR Approved
Released To QA
For build administrators, the only available state is Released To QA and that state will only be available if the work item's state is QA PR Approved. Thanks.

Is there any way to modify a custom state to be only available for a
certain user groups and state?
As of today, unfortunately, this haven't been supported to achieve.
We provided one similar feature and it can make the fields viewable to some specific groups, but not the value of fields.
A good news is we has took such feature suggestion into our develop roadmap. And there has one develop task in our backlog to track this feature. You can keep following on that suggestion link so that you can get the latest develop news we update.
If everything goes well, I believe this feature can be available in Azure devops soon. BUT, until now, our Azure Devops can not satisfied your demand.

Related

Is there any Roadmap creation feature for Projects in Azure DevOps as its there in JIRA?

There is a roadmap feature in JIRA, through which we can create Epics, user stories and assign start and end date to them itself by simply dragging the horizontal bar in table.
With help of this feature we can perform month-wise/day-wise or quarter-wise planning for any project. Additionally, we can export and share with client too. I require this kind of user friendly feature in Azure DevOps too. I tried integrating a Epics and Features Roadmap Plugin, but its not giving precise results as JIRA Roadmap is giving. Its user interface is very confusing, giving some occasional error message. Plus, it configuration is also very tedious and time-consuming. Can I get better user friendly GUI in Azure DevOps for Roadmap creation?
Please Help. Attached screenshots for reference of both platforms feature. Thanks in advance.
DevOps provides Delivery Plans to review the schedule of stories or features your teams plan to deliver. Delivery Plans show the scheduled work items by sprint (iteration path) of selected teams against a calendar view.
If it doesn't meet your requirement, you could check the existing extensions to see whether there are extensions useful:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=roadmap&target=AzureDevOps&category=All%20categories&sortBy=Relevance

What work item to select in Azure Devops Server (TFS)

I'm fairly new to the different work items available in Azure Devops Server 2020 (TFS) and wonder if I could get some advice on what to select.
I am the only developer in a project and have direct contact with the stakeholder. When the stakeholder report an issue should I then create an Issue/impediment that describes whats is wrong or needs to be changed. And then create a task or bug that I link to that issue/impediment?
You can use Agile Glossary to get some information.
Issues/Impediments:
A type of work item that helps track unplanned activities. Resolving
an issue or impediment requires more work beyond what was scheduled
based on actual requirements.
Bugs:
A type of work item that records a potential source of dissatisfaction
with the product.
You can use Bugs to report issues from your stakeholders and here you also use two ways:
Use bugs on the requirements level and create tasks under it.
Use bugs on tasks level and link them to affected user story or product backlog item.
Show bugs on backlogs and boards
Or you can use user stories/product backlog items as a record to enhance your product.

How to update work item state after a release

We have multiple release pipelines (Dev, QA, etc.). After a given release, we want to update the State for each work item associated with the release. I understand that can cause problems if we manually re-release, or re-build. I see third party marketplace extensions that could do it, but is there a way to do it from something built into DevOps pipelines?
I've tried every out-of-the-box feature I can find to accomplish this and found my way blocked.
It seems the options are: use the extensions others have written, write your own, or dive into the REST API.
We are currently using the WorkItem Updater extension for production stages.

What is the purpose of Feature in Azure DevOps Agile workflow?

So I´m looking at the Agile Workflow in Azure DevOps and I´m wondering, what´s the purpose of the Feature work item?
I´ve used Jira a lot and we only used Epics->User Stories->Tasks.
I can´t fine any good explanation to why Microsoft has added this WIT to their default workflow.
See here, Adding Features and Epics
I think of it this way, you would define a feature flag around code for a feature because it's a single shippable unit of testable code, but you wouldn't do the same for an epic because it's a hodgepodge of stories related to a business initiative. Having the two WITs allows you to clearly delineate those two needs and to map the user stories accordingly.

VSTS Agile Process Template - User Story as child of Epic and ignore Feature WIT

In Microsoft's VSTS, is there a way to have User Story as a child of Epic in the Agile process template, eg including when performing "mapping", without creating a VSTS custom process template? In the image below in the main content area, hide / remove Feature, and in the "Mapping" panel on the right, have Epics for mapping User Stories.
I'm asking because in my org's agile practice we have epics and user stories but we don't see the need / benefit to the extra layer of Feature WIT.
OOTB Agile process template has Epic > Feature > User Story and when you view Product Backlog (aka user stories) you can map them to Features and when you view Feature portfolio backlog you can map them to Epics, but you can't (that I know of) turn off the Feature WIT so that User Stories can be mapped directly to Epics in the GUI.
Btw, it isn't possible to rename OOTB WITs otherwise I would simply turn off Epic WIT and rename it to "Epic OOTB", and rename Feature WIT to "Epic My Org".
UPDATE: Per Add a portfolio backlog level it is possible to add a portfolio backlog level with a new WIT:
You'll first export your process, add or update definition files, and
then import that process to either update existing team projects or
use it to create a team project.
but I want to remove one. I may try the reverse using this procedure but first I'd like some reassurance that it likely works for removing an OOTB level.
Some of the docs I've consulted include:
Agile process work item types and workflow - Microsoft Docs
Define features and epics - Microsoft Docs
There isn’t such feature in VSTS, also you can’t custom too: Modify the backlog and boards
Why don't you use tools like Jira or Rally to map in your agile practices? It will be immensely beneficial in long run.
Agile, by its very definition, means that you should be flexible. As such, ignoring the User Story as a sub-class of feature can be done. However, I think that if the focus of your delivery has a strong user-component to it, then marrying that up in deliverables will give a better indicator to your product owners.
If you're scrumming it, then you'd generally be working on a feature-task loop anyway, so I wouldn't worry, VSTS seems to cope well with both.
VSTS doesn't really concentrate heavy on Workflows OOTB like JIRA pushes (I've seen some crazy JIRA workflows in my time), although it is quite extensible, I believe the VSTS Team have gone Zen Agile in terms of offering a service that helps teams develop code first and foremost, and consigns the machinations of the upper tier management of software delivery and work tracking second.
See the process guidelines for more info: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/boards/work-items/guidance/choose-process?view=vsts