So after setting up my teams, I need to define separate sprints for each. I notice that when I go under project settings > work > iterations, I see the default set defined for a new project. The name that these default iterations fall under is the same name as the project. So that leads me to ask
- Is the name Im looking at for a new project that has these default iterations, the name of the project or the default team?
In other words, Im looking at setting up my team/iteration structure like this, is there a better or best-practice approach (when using multiple teams within a single team project) ?
Below, I defined new children of the root node (again, is that the project name or default team with the same name?)
root-name-here
|__Team1
|__Sprint1
|__Sprint2
|__Sprint3
|__Sprint4
|__Sprint5
|__Sprint6
|__Team2
|__Sprint1
|__Sprint2
|__Sprint3
|__Sprint4
|__Sprint5
|__Sprint6
|__Sprint1
|__Sprint2
|__Sprint3
|__Sprint4
|__Sprint5
|__Sprint6
The "default" set of iterations that are now at the same level, can I simply remove them?
You can config different iterations based on different teams. Detail as below:
PS: I share the steps with New Navigation, if you want to turn on the New Navigation, set as below:
Click profile -> Preview features -> then turn on the New Navigation).
1. Add iterations with the structure you need
In Project settings -> Project configurations -> Iterations Tab -> Add iterations as below (as you listed):
2. Specify different iterations for different teams
In Project settings -> Team configurations -> select different iterations for different teams. Besides, you can also set default iteration and backlog iteration for different teams.
Such as:
Select Git2\Sprint 1~6 to Git2 Team:
Select Git2\team 1\Sprint 1~6 to teamA:
Select Git2\team 2\Sprint 1~6 to second team:
Now when open backlogs for different teams, only the specified iterations are listed.
You can define the overall iterations for the project at the project level.
At the team level, you set the team's backlog iteration and what sprints belong to that team.
If the project level iteration is just for rolling up the progress of the individual teams, then yes, you can remove the project level iterations.
Related
If I create a work-item in project 1 with id 100 then the next work-item would be 101 if I create another work-item but in project 2. I need work-item id 100 in project 1 and work-item id 100 (or whatever) in project 2. Is that possible?
Can I have work item auto-id numbering separated by project?
For this issue,I think it is impossible to make work items automatically numbered in their respective projects. Currently this is designed like so.
The scope of our work is an organization, sometimes we will need multiple projects to work together, so the id of the work item is applied to the entire organization. If there are workitems with the same id in different projects, then we will be confused when we query work items across projects.
In addition since work item ID is unique identifier which is assigned by system, so we can not custom the work item ID when creating a work item. You can refer to this official document.
The unfortunate answer is: no.
The reason lies in the fact that the work item ID is also used as the single unique identifier to link work across projects in the same project collection (on-premise) or organization (cloud). Hence, the number must be unique in the whole collection.
There have been multiple attempts in the past to separate projects and the identifiers. All have met an untimely end due to the complexity involved and backwards compatibility concerns.
If I create a work-item in project 1 with id 100 then the next work-item would be 101 if I create another work-item but in project 2. I need work-item id 100 in project 1 and work-item id 100 (or whatever) in project 2. Is that possible?
Can I have work item auto-id numbering separated by project?
For this issue,I think it is impossible to make work items automatically numbered in their respective projects. Currently this is designed like so.
The scope of our work is an organization, sometimes we will need multiple projects to work together, so the id of the work item is applied to the entire organization. If there are workitems with the same id in different projects, then we will be confused when we query work items across projects.
In addition since work item ID is unique identifier which is assigned by system, so we can not custom the work item ID when creating a work item. You can refer to this official document.
The unfortunate answer is: no.
The reason lies in the fact that the work item ID is also used as the single unique identifier to link work across projects in the same project collection (on-premise) or organization (cloud). Hence, the number must be unique in the whole collection.
There have been multiple attempts in the past to separate projects and the identifiers. All have met an untimely end due to the complexity involved and backwards compatibility concerns.
I have a number of teams in the Azure DevOps (Visual Studio Online) tracking a different type of work item.
Currently i have created 3 different backlogs for 3 different teams.
There is 2 default backlogs 'Epics' and 'Features', hence total of 5 backlogs.
I'm trying to added a 4th team and now trying to add a backlog for that team.
But i'm getting the message "You have reached the maximum number of backlog levels".
I also learnt that maximum number of allowed Portfolio backlog levels defined for a process is 5.
I also tried to edit the default backlog, which would not let me de-select the work item selected in it, so i could rename it and add the new work item it needs to track.
So is there any other way i could achieve that or to increase the number of portfolio backlog levels.
By default projects, your hierarchy is shown as below:
If you need more than two portfolio backlogs, you can add up to two more for a total of five backlog levels. (limits mentioned here. Portfolio backlog levels defined for a process 5)
This will increase the totally level to 7 (3 customized+ Epic+Feature+PBI+Task)
You can add them by customizing your process, adding new work item types, and then configuring your backlogs and boards.
You can also add or modify the fields defined for a work item type (WIT) or add a custom WIT.
After this it could be:
For details, see Customize an inheritance process and Customize your backlogs or boards (Inheritance process).
However, this is backlog level not designed for multiple teams.
Your team's product backlog lists only those items whose area path matches those assigned to your team.
For details, see Define area paths and assign to a team.
Then you could simply switch backlog for different teams here:
I think you may be going about this the wrong way with respect to Azure DevOps.
You should look into having an Area Path for each Team. See here. For instance in my company we have two Teams say; Alpha and Omega and we've set up two Area Paths as Company\Alpha and Company\Omega. You can then manage each teams backlogs, iterations, work items etc. separately. See here also. We use the same set of iterations across all teams and when we move work items between teams we change the Area Path of the work items.
How do I add an existing work item to a the default board?
I can create work items under the Work Items section and I can also create work items by clicking + New Item in the Boards section.
But how can I add an existing item to that board?
I cannot find a setting, field, option anywhere to do that.
This is an organization Azure DevOps.
Your existing item needs to be "visible" to the board by existing in the appropriate iteration path and area path.
Without breaking out all the organization settings that allow you to detail this stuff, the easy way to know the value you need to use is to create a new item on the board you want, and use the values it gets in iteration path and area path on the existing item.
Illustrations:
Make sure your project has areas and iterations that make sense for you. Typically your project will start out with a root iteration path and three child iteration paths:
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
Iteration paths are used to handle both backlogs and sprints for teams.
The combination of area path and iteration path allows admins to divide sections of the global backlog among the teams that are doing the work.
Think of the connection like a grid. If the rows are iteration paths, then the areas are the columns that divide that row (or vise versa). Multiple teams can operate on the same row (iteration/backlog), but they will only see the work items that also fall inside their assigned columns (areas).
When you create a team the area can be created for you, or you can assign an area to a team after it is created.
You can also change the backlog iteration for a team.
Now your team has a board and a backlog. Again, for your first team, this is done for you.
You have obviously already created some work items, so you'll need to move them into the right area and iteration to make them show up.
This can also be done in bulk from another team backlog
You can configure the board on what to be displayed.
By default, it's the Backlog items, so you will see the work items from your backlog (according to the sprints).
You can't just add a particular work item to the board.
See more details here.
I have a VSTS project based on the Scrum process with two Area Paths for frontend and backend teams. For all Backlog item boards I created a new column to indicate what is 'ready for testing' (splitted in doing and done). For the state mapping I could only chose 'Commited' from the dropdown list.
The root area is configured to include both sub-areas and should provide a broad overview for the product owner about the progress and the tester to see what he needs to do.
My problem is, that when a team moves an item to this column, the change of state is not reflected on the general board. How can I achieve this? Or what are best practices to deal with additional states like 'ready for deployment' and 'ready for test'?
Kanban board states are "per team" so you won't see the change reflected in another team's board (in this case, the top level default team).
If this was on-premise we could add a new underlying State to the Work Item so it worked across teams. I believe this is coming for VSTS but it's not there yet.
VSTS and TFS 2015 Update 1 allow you to Query by Kanban board changes which means you could have a Work Item Query which shows all the items across teams that are Ready For Test on the board.
Depending on exactly what you want to see in your query results, you'll probably have to do something slightly clever with grouping the clauses of your query - ie. (PBI Area Path = Area 1 AND Column State = Ready for test) OR (PBI Area Path = Area 2 AND Column State = Ready for test)