I still didn't get it.
Where do complete backlog stays if we have to plan for new sprint and pick items from backlog. Like I can see stories/features but what about all bugs/issues, where they can be seen?
I don't want to search for all items in queries/work items. How can I bring all work items in backlog?
Sounds like you're using the Agile template, which doesn't put everything on the product backlog by default. You can edit the backlog settings to put the bug workitem on the backlog. You can find this setting in the Backlog customization screen, as long as Bug is configured to show up as a requirement, it should show up on the product backlog:
Since issues follow a completely different workflow, they cannot be placed on the product backlog. I would guess that they're being used as something else than what they were meant for. But you'd have to help me with additional information. The Issue work item type is the scrum equivalent of an Impediment. Anything that is blocking the team from progressing effectively. These aren't part of the work that goes into the product and are not managed on the same list.
If you're using the Issue work item as a different kind of Bug/Defect then I recommend either creating a custom field on bug to signal the bug type or create a new work item type that is a copy of bug to start with, that way it starts out with all the fields required for it to show up on the backlog.
Related
I am using Area Path in Azure DevOps for categorization rather than breaking into separate Teams. So I can't see all the Work Items underneath the Default Backlog. I go into Settings and choose "Include Sub Areas" and I get the following Warning:
Are you sure you want to include sub-areas?
You have selected the root area path as your team's work area. This
causes two things to happen:
All work items that appear on any team backlog will also appear on
your team's backlog.
All work items under this area path will be updated, which might
impact the performance of your server until the changes are complete.
Are you sure you want to do this? If not, choose Cancel, and the
change will not be made.
#1 is what I want, but what are the implications of #2? What is updated on the Work Item? Will the Assigned To user be emailed of the change?
For #2. The items will be stackranked again to define the backlog order for all work items in the selection. I've seen instances that had millions of work items and the recalculation of the backlog priority field and mapping to your team's custom board columns may take a while in that case.
This field is excluded from the standard email notifications.
I set up my first AzureDevops organisation by starting with the Agile process but later changed it to CMMI for the organisation to better align with the other projects my team works on. I think this is where the cause of the problem is but can't figure out how to address it.
PROBLEM:
I cannot see in the backlogs any of the Epics I created. The Epic selector in the dropdown menu of the backlog navigation is present and selected. Some of the Features can be seen in the Features backlog, however, not all.
WHAT I TRIED TO DO:
I created a query from the Epics backlog and tried changing its filters and got to see all the epics if I change the filter from having several OR statements on the Area Path filter to one with Area Path Under "top level area path".
I am 100% sure this is because I changed the process. Would appreciate if someone could please let me know some troubleshooting steps to address the issue?
Thank you
Sorry if this isn't the right place for this, but all the devops question I see on stack exchange seem to be in stackoverflow.
I've begun working with Azure DevOps, and something I'm noticing is that managing items becomes more cumbersome as I add in more bugs, stories, etc... I'm searching for a way to be able to manage and prioritize these items more easily, and I was wondering if it's possible to have multiple backlogs. Say one for bugs, then one for enhancements, one for support tickets. The issue I'm running into is that we only have one team of developers, so ideally this would all be housed under one team so all these items can be dealt with in a single team's sprint instead of a sprint for each team.
Initially I thought that queries might be a viable option, but when creating them I quickly learned that I cannot reorder items. So that ended that idea.
I also considered just viewing the backlog with a filter to only show what I'm looking for, but that too does not allow me to reorder items easily. It looks like I can drag n drop them, but that doesn't work. I can open the ellipsis menu and choose "move to position", but that's far too clunky of a solution when you have many work items. I also sometimes get conflict errors when trying to move them in that manner.
So I keep coming back to the idea of multiple backlogs for a single team. Is this possible? I don't really see anything in the documentation, and I don't even know if this is considered best practice? Any insights are greatly appreciated.
Sounds like you have tried the out the most obvious ways of filtering and searching for workitems in the backlog and on the boards.
What you can setup is an hierarchy of area paths and (sub)teams to allow for filtered view of the backlog.
Consider the following structure of area paths
ProjectName
- Bugs
- Enhancements
- Tickets
Then you create 4 teams, each corresponding to one node in the Area Path tree (make sure to tick the box include children for all of them). As you now have 4 teams you also get 4 backlogs. The top level team that maps to ProjectName will contain the full backlog (equivalent to what you have now). The other three will only show workitems under their respective area path. You can now use those 3 teams to view filtered versions of the backlog (or boards), but still maintain a single backlog on top level.
As Iterations are defined per project, and are shared across teams, you can continue with one set of iterations and add them to all teams, making them shared.
By this setup any team member can jump between the different subteams to view their preferred filtered version of the backlog (or the complete backlog on the root team)
This feels kinda hackish, setting up new "Teams" just to filter the backlog and whether this is considered best practice or not isn't straightforward to answer. Generally an Agile team should have one backlog and prioritize it as a whole but one could argue that the top level combined backlog fills that purpose and the sub backlogs are used for easier management and for visualizing only parts of the backlog. After all Agile is not about tools it is about being productive.
As danielorn's answer, you can set up multiple iterations. But you don't need to set up multiple teams, you can just use your currently team.
You can try the following steps to see whether this method can fit your requirement.
Step 1. Go to Project Settings -> Boards/Project configuration, create some new child Iterations of your project. In your case, you can leave out the start and end dates of the iteration. Just like this:
Step 2. Go to Boards/Backlogs -> View Options (top right corner) -> Choose "Planning".
Step 3. Click "New Sprint" in the Planning Side Pane, add the Iterations you have created in step1 to the Planning. (Of course, you can skip step 1 and directly create new iterations here, but the iterations you create here must have start and end dates.)
Step 4. Drag the work item to the corresponding Iteration. Then click the iteration, you will see a "new" Backlog that only has work items of this iteration.
On the Azure DevOps TaskBoard for a sprint, it would appear that the only thing I can drag across the board is Tasks. Not bugs. Not Backlog items. Which means if I want to see where a bug is on the board, I have to create a task for it. (Note: My project uses Scrum. Bugs are managed with requirements)
I guess this makes sense. It is a "Task board" after all. But this seems tedious. Most of the time, the bug is the task. I make a bug, make a check in, and mark it done. I would expect to be able to drag the bug itself across the board to mark it done.
And even if I go to the trouble for creating a task for a bug (or a Backlog Item) and then I drag the task across the task board to "Done", the bug's status still stays where it was. It doesn't change to not done. I then have to go to the bug and manually mark it as "Done"
This really limits the usefulness of the Taskboard for our planning.
Am I missing something? Is there way to change this?
You can choose to manage the Bugs with tasks as Daniel commented. And You can use extension Work item form one click actions to assign the Bug to some parent PBI automatically. See below example:
First you need to install Work item form one click actions extension to your Organization.
Then Go to project setting page-->WIT One Click Actions under Extensions-->Bugs-->Create rule group-->New Rule
Triggers: New work item load
Actions: Link to an existing work item(relation type: Parent; Work Item id: Id of PBI)
After above rule is created. The newly created bugs will be automatically added to the parent PBI you specified in above rule.
However, The PBI and Bugs(managed with requirements) can be moved around in Boards. So you can use the filter to view your work items in a specific sprint.
I am using the Agile Process on my project and have a question regarding how to handle bugs on my boards. I have been using the option "Bugs are managed with requirements" because this seems to be the only way bugs are visible on the board. When you use this option, bugs appear as separate work items on the board. (essentially they are treated like User Stories) and can be moved around the board independently. Screenshot of my board
This is OK, but I would rather have them act like Tasks and be grouped together with their parent user stories. This is how tasks appear:
Screenshot of a story with it's associated tasks
One would think then that selecting "Bugs are managed with tasks" would do this, but it does not. By selecting this option I would expect to see somthing like this mocked up image here:
Screen mock of what I would expect bugs to look like using this option
Instead, when I select "Bugs are managed with tasks" they no longer appear on the board at all. screenshot of my board when "Bugs are managed with tasks" is selected
Is this the desired effect of this option? If I select "Bugs are managed with tasks" where do I interact with bugs? Clearly not on the board...
Am I missing something? Again, what I would love to see is this: Screen mock of what I would expect bugs to look like using this option
where bugs are truly treated like tasks, and are shown on the user stories cards on the board.
Thanks for any input/insight you may have.
For anyone else that happens upon this, I'm including a straightforward answer. I realize that at the time the answer was posed, things worked a little differently, but as of 2021 this works (and has for at least the last year or two I would say).
"Bugs are managed with tasks" results in this:
and in the sprint:
However for the above to work, the bug must be a child of the user story.
If the bug is not the child of the user story, the bug will show as unparented, like this.
"Bugs are managed with requirements" results in this:
and in the sprint:
You cannot manage the bugs with requirements and tasks at the same time.
"Bugs are managed with requirements" makes the Bugs have the same
level with PBIs, so bugs appear as separate work items such as PBIs
on the board.
"Bugs are managed with tasks" makes the Bugs have the same level
with Tasks, so you can treat Bugs as Tasks in Backlog.
The feature you requested is Enable/Disable annotations (Kanban boards) in Azure DevOps.
Not sure where did you find the screenshot you provided: Screen mock of what I would expect bugs to look like using this option. As far as I know we cannot add "Bug" annotation to cards for now. No such a built-in feature.
However there's already some user voices submitted to suggest the feature, you can go and vote them up to achieve the feature in future release...
Add annotation for bugs on feature board
Add a "bug" annotation to feature cards on the features backlog
board
This is a bit late so you probably already resolved, but this just in case it's not....
you wrote:
'Instead, when I select "Bugs are managed with tasks" they no longer appear on the board at all. screenshot of my board when "Bugs are managed with tasks" is selected
Is this the desired effect of this option? If I select "Bugs are managed with tasks" where do I interact with bugs? Clearly not on the board...'
If bugs are managed at the task level, then it would be quite messy to see all tasks on a PBI board. Instead, you might want to look at the Taskboard (under Sprints). This tracks one level deeper and provides PBI to task item mapping and status.
Regarding the annotation, yes you can add Bugs to the PBI card. From the Board, click on the gear icon and select annotation option Cards.