Setting Up a New Area in Azure DevOps

To set up a new area in Azure DevOps, you'll need to create a new project. This can be done by clicking the "New Project" button on the Azure DevOps dashboard.

A project in Azure DevOps is the top-level entity that contains all your work items, such as bugs, tasks, and user stories. You can choose from a variety of project templates to get started.

Before creating a new project, you'll need to choose a name for your project. This name will be used to identify your project in Azure DevOps and will also be used to generate the URL for your project. The name should be unique and follow the project naming guidelines.

A hierarchy of Area Paths can help you see the big picture and understand how work is progressing by allowing you to roll up data from child area paths to parent area paths.

To create a hierarchy, simply create a new area path for each level in the hierarchy. For example, you might have an area path for each team, each project, and each release.

Keep your Area Path structure simple and easy to understand by keeping it at the same level as your Iterations. This means having 4-5 Iterations should have 4-5 Area Paths.

Give your Area Paths clear and concise names that accurately reflect the work that will be done there, like "Customer XYZ Project" if you're working on a project for a specific customer.

Creating a project in Azure DevOps is a straightforward process that can be done in a few simple steps. You can create up to 1,000 projects within an organization in Azure DevOps.

To create a project, sign in to your organization at https://dev.azure.com/{Your_Organization} and select New project. You'll be asked to enter information into a form, including the project name and visibility settings. With public visibility, anyone on the internet can view your project, while private visibility restricts access to users you give permission to.

You can also create a project from a process or using the az devops project create command. Azure DevOps ignores several process template files when creating a project from the web portal, specifically those that would create a Report Manager site.

Here are the steps to create a project:

Azure DevOps recommends limiting the number of projects within a project collection to 300 or fewer for performance purposes.

Note that there isn't a limit on the number of projects that you can create within a project collection, but for performance reasons, it's best to keep it under 300.

Creating a hierarchy of Area Paths is a game-changer for complex projects. This allows you to roll up data from child area paths to parent area paths, giving you a better understanding of how work is progressing and where bottlenecks might be occurring.

To create a hierarchy, simply create a new area path for each level in the hierarchy. For example, you might have an area path for each team, each project, and each release.

A flat structure can be difficult to navigate, making it hard to see the big picture. By creating a hierarchy, you can easily see how work is progressing and where to focus your efforts.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your Area Paths at the same level as your Iterations. So if you have 4-5 Iterations, you should have 4-5 Area Paths.

This helps to keep your structure simple and easy to understand, making it easier for people to know where to work on items.

A hierarchy of Area Paths helps you see the big picture and understand how work is progressing by allowing you to roll up data from child area paths to parent area paths.

You can create a hierarchy of Area Paths by simply creating a new area path for each level in the hierarchy. For example, you might have an area path for each team, each project, and each release.

Having a flat structure can make it difficult to understand how work is progressing, but a hierarchy solves this problem.

To keep your Area Path structure simple and easy to understand, aim to have 4-5 Area Paths at the same level as your Iterations.

A good rule of thumb is to give your Area Paths clear and concise names that accurately reflect the work that will be done there, such as "Customer XYZ Project".

It's essential to have an "Unassigned" area path to act as a catch-all for work items that don't need to be specifically assigned to a team.

This way, you can still track the work item without it bogging down your team's area path.

Assigning ownership to each area path helps to prevent duplication of work and makes it easier to generate reports.

By using area paths, you can filter reports by owner and see which areas are behind schedule.

Area paths also make it easier to identify and address issues before they become problems by providing an easy way to segment your data and create custom dashboards.

You can use area paths to assign ownership to teams, making it easier to keep track of who is responsible for what. This is especially helpful in large projects with many teams working together.

Having an "Unassigned" area path is a must-have to prevent clutter in your team's area path. You can create one by going to your Azure DevOps project settings and selecting "Area Paths."

Area paths also make it easier to generate reports, allowing you to filter by owner. This is useful for finding out how much work a team has done or identifying which areas are behind schedule.

To create custom dashboards, you can use area paths to segment your data and gain valuable insights into your process. This helps ensure work flows smoothly through your system.

Security is a crucial aspect of Azure DevOps. Azure DevOps creates a set of default security groups when you create an organization, collection, or project.

These default security groups are automatically assigned default permissions. You can also create custom security groups at various levels.

Custom security groups are created when you add a team, resulting in a team security group. This group gets assigned default permissions.

You can't create object-level security groups, but you can assign custom groups to an object-level and assign permissions to that level. This allows for more granular control over permissions.

To create a new area in Azure DevOps, you'll need to specify a few parameters. The name of the project is required, so make sure you have that ready.

You can also provide a short description of the project, which is optional but can be helpful for others to understand the purpose of the project.

If you want the project to open in the default web browser once it's created, you can specify the open parameter.

If you're working with multiple organizations, you can specify the org parameter to choose which organization to create the project in.

The process model to use is also optional, with Agile being the default. You can choose from Agile, Basic, Scrum, CMMI, or other custom process models.

Here's a summary of the parameters you can specify: