Azure DevOps Work Items Configuration and Customization

Work items in Azure DevOps can be configured to track various aspects of your project, such as bugs, tasks, and user stories. Each work item type has its own set of fields that can be customized to fit your team's needs.

Customizing work item types is a key feature of Azure DevOps, allowing you to tailor the platform to your specific project requirements. This can include adding or removing fields, as well as changing their data types.

Azure DevOps also allows you to create custom work item templates, which can be used to speed up the creation process for frequently used work items.

For more insights, see: Azure Devops Explained

You can add due dates to work items with hard deadlines, such as rotating a TLS/SSL certificate on a web server that expires soon. Due dates are one of the predefined field types in Azure DevOps.

To add a due date field, you can follow the steps outlined in the tutorial, which involves adding the field to your work item templates and custom process model definition. This will allow you to set due dates on work items that have real-world due dates.

Due dates are optional, so you can leave them blank on work items without hard deadlines. You can also modify the process details by switching to a custom process that inherits from a base process.

See what others are reading: Delete Work Item in Azure Devops

The due-date field is a useful addition to your work item templates in Azure DevOps. You can add it to your templates, but it's best to only enter due dates for work items that have hard deadlines.

Use the due-date field for work items with real-world due dates, such as rotating a TLS/SSL certificate on a web server that expires soon. This approach helps avoid unnecessary overhead.

You can't modify base process models built into Azure DevOps, so if you're using a base process model like Scrum, Agile, or Basic, you'll need to switch to a custom process that inherits from a base process. This will allow you to modify the process details.

To add the due-date field to your work item templates, follow these steps: click on the definition object for User Story, select the Due Date field from the Use an existing field drop-down, and leave the defaults on the Options tab.

For more insights, see: Azure Pipelines Templates

Azure DevOps comes with a built-in Blocked field that we can use to visually highlight blocked work items on our sprint board.

You can find this field in the Definition tab of the Add a field to Task pop-up, where you can select the Use an existing field drop-down and pick the Blocked field.

We don't have to make a new blocked field because Azure DevOps already supports it.

To get started with work item fields, you'll need to meet some prerequisites.

You must be a project member to access the project. This is a basic requirement, but it's essential to ensure you can add tags to work items.

To add tags to work items, you'll need a specific permission set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission, so if you're part of that group, you're good to go.

You can access work item fields through the web portal, Visual Studio 2019, or the Azure DevOps CLI.

The Azure DevOps CLI commands are only valid for Azure DevOps Services, not for Azure DevOps Server.

For more insights, see: Azure Devops Access Levels

Customizing your sprint board in Azure DevOps is a great way to get a quick glance at time-sensitive work items. You can visually highlight overdue work items by following a similar process to highlighting blocked work items.

To highlight overdue work items, you'll need project collection administrator access rights. You can add the Due date field to the work item templates and then update the sprint board tile card styles to provide the visual highlighting effect.

Here's a quick rundown of the steps to update the sprint board tile card styles:

Note that you can use the @Today WIQL operator to represent the current date in your styling rules. Also, be sure to uncheck the Show empty fields option to hide the Due date field on the tile card when it's empty.

Customizing your sprint board's tile card styles is a great way to add visual clarity and make your workflow more efficient. You can add style changes to your sprint board tile cards to provide a visual highlighting effect.

To get started, click on the gear icon in the top right of your sprint board to view the sprint board settings. This will open up the sprint board settings dialog window.

In the User Story section, under the Fields tab, click on the + Field button under Additional fields and select the Due date field from the drop-down menu. This will add the Due date field to your sprint board tile cards.

You can also uncheck the Show empty fields option checkbox to hide the Due date field when it is empty, which is a good idea since not all work items will have due dates.

To create styling rules, move on to the Styles tab in the dialog window. Here you can create two styling rules: one for overdue items and one for items due soon. You can use the @Today WIQL operator to represent the current date in your rule comparisons.

If you already use tile card color rules for other purposes, you can style the work item title instead. This can be a good alternative to styling the tile card itself.

To test out your new style settings, save the changes and refresh the sprint board window. Then, apply a due date to a User Story to see the different scenarios in action.

Consider reading: Azure Devops User Story

You can customize a work item type to include or revise fields, introduce a personalized work item type, or adjust the display of work item types on backlogs and boards.

Customization is available for different process models assigned to your project. For more information, see the articles on Customize your work tracking experience and About process customization and inherited processes.

You can customize your work tracking experience by including or revising fields within a work item type. This can be done for different process models, such as Agile, Basic, Scrum, and CMMI.

Customization is also available for hosted XML process models, while on-premises XML process customization is available for certain projects.

Here's a breakdown of the different work item types and their categories:

Issue (Basic)

Product Backlog Item (Scrum)

Requirement (CMMI)Product backlogs and boards and Sprints backlogTaskTaskSprint backlogs and TaskboardsBugBugDependent on team configuration for tracking bugs

Each team can configure how they manage Bug work items at the same level as User Story or Task work items. Use the Working with bugs setting.

Viewing and navigating work items in Azure DevOps is a breeze. You can view work items assigned to you, work items you're following, and work items in which you're mentioned.

To view work items, you can use the Azure DevOps CLI with the az boards work-item show command. This allows you to view a new work item with just a few commands.

You can also view work items using the web portal, where you can filter work items based on various criteria, such as work items that you follow or that you viewed or updated.

Updating your view to see blocked work is a great way to stay on top of your tasks. To do this, you'll need to modify your work item templates and add custom style rules, which requires Project Collection Administrator access or Allow permissions to edit processes.

You can view work items in various ways, including assigned to you, following, mentioned, and recently viewed or updated. You can also use the Azure DevOps CLI to view work items.

To view a work item, double-select the title or open the context menu and select Open. A browser window will open with the work item form. You can also use the az boards work-item show command to view a new work item.

There are seven pivots you can use to focus on relevant items within a project: Assigned to me, Following, Mentioned, My activity, My team(s), Recently updated, and Recently completed. You can filter each pivot view by entering a keyword or using fields like work item type, State, Area Path, and Tags.

Here are some common filters you can use:

You can add tags to any work item to filter backlogs, queries, and work item lists. Users with Basic access can create new tags, while users with Stakeholder access can only add existing tags.

To create a personal view, filter each work item pivot view by entering a keyword or using fields like work item type, State, Area Path, and Tags. The page will remember your filters for each pivot, providing personalized views across all pivots.

To view dependencies, you can use the Query Editor to create custom queries that show all work items linked to a specific work item.

The Backlogs and Boards views also show parent-child relationships between work items, making it easy to see dependencies at a glance.

You can view the list of all objects linked to a work item by opening the work item and selecting the Links tab.

The Links tab indicates the count of all linked objects and groups them by link type, with a count within each group.

You can expand or collapse each group and sort within each group by State, Latest Update, or Comment.

Links prefaced with an exclamation mark indicate that the build, release, or other object is deleted due to retention policies.

You can also use the Dependency Tracker, a Power BI report that provides a visual representation of dependencies between work items.

Here's a quick rundown of the tools you can use to view dependencies:

Work item types are used to track different types of work in Azure DevOps. They describe the customer value of the work and provide fields to track information about that work. Each team can configure how they manage bugs at the same level as other work item types.

There are several default work item types available, including User Stories, Issues, Product Backlog Items, and Requirements. Each of these types is used to track work, and they can be customized to fit the needs of your team. For example, you can include or revise fields within a work item type, introduce a personalized work item type, or adjust the display of work item types on backlogs and boards.

Here are some of the key work item types:

You can track testing, reviews, and feedback using specific work item types. These types are available for most all processes and can be categorized.

Curious to learn more? Check out: Azure Devops Work Item Types

There are work item types that track testing, reviews, and feedback, listed in the following table by category:

Bugs can be tracked as requirements, showing them on the product backlog and board.

This approach allows teams to see bugs alongside requirements, making it easier to visualize and prioritize work. Your team can choose how to track bugs, and this option is one of the choices available.

Bugs tracked as requirements can be linked to specific product backlog items. This helps teams understand the impact of bugs on the overall product and make informed decisions about how to address them.

This option is configured through the team settings, specifically by enabling the "Show bugs on backlogs and boards" feature.

You can link work items to deployments in Azure DevOps to track the status of work items as they are deployed to different release environments. This is done through the Deployment control, which provides a quick view of whether a feature or user story is deployed and to what stage.

The Deployment control requires configuration of a Classic release pipeline, which doesn't support linking to release stages defined for a YAML pipeline. To populate the Deployment control, you need to define a Classic release pipeline, set up the release stages, and configure the pipeline to support work tracking.

You can link work items to a commit or pull request in Azure Repos Git repository, and then run the pipeline to populate the Deployment control. This will show the status of the release in real time, and you can go to each release stage and run. The Deployment control only shows work items that are linked to a Git commit or pull request for the pipeline.

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GitHub Objects are an essential part of integrating Azure Boards with GitHub repositories.

You can link work items to a GitHub Commit, GitHub Pull Request, GitHub Branch, and GitHub Issue.

You can only link work items to GitHub objects that have repositories connected to Azure Boards.

For more information, see Connect Azure Boards to GitHub.

To auto-complete work items with pull requests, make sure you have connected your Azure Boards to GitHub.

A unique perspective: Azure Devops Board

Creating New Git Branches is a breeze. From a backlog or query results page, you can multi-select the work items you want to link to a new git branch.

To create a new branch, choose the actions icon and then select New branch. For more information on linking work items to Git development objects, see the documentation.

You can link multiple work items to a new branch at once, making it easier to manage your project's codebase.

For more insights, see: Azure Devops Rename Branch

Linking work items to existing builds is a crucial step in the Git and deployment process. You can link work items to existing builds from the Links tab of a work item by selecting Add link > Existing item.

To link a work item to an existing build, you'll need to specify the build number, which is a combination of the pipeline and build name. If you're unsure of the build number, you can search for it by choosing the icon.

From the Link builds dialog, you can filter your search of builds by specifying a build number, selecting a build pipeline, or a build result. For example, you can choose All, succeeded, partially succeeded, failed, or canceled.

Here are the build link types you can choose from:

To complete the operation, choose the build from the list you want to link to and select OK. Then, from the Add link dialog, select OK to complete the operation.

Recommended read: Link Azure Devops to Github

Deployments are a crucial part of the Git and deployment process. The Deployment control provides a quick view of whether a feature or user story is deployed and to what stage. It gives you visual insight into the status of a work item as it is deployed to different release environments and quick navigation to each release stage and run.

To populate the Deployment control, you need to define a Classic release pipeline and set up the release stages. This is a requirement for the Deployment control to work. You can link work items to a commit or pull request in Azure Repos Git repository.

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The Deployment control displays release information for two stages of the release pipeline integrated with Azure Boards. It only shows work items that are linked to a Git commit or pull request for this pipeline. You can also gain visual insight into the status of a work item as it gets deployed to different release environments.

Here are the steps to configure the Deployment control:

The Deployment control is automatically enabled for custom work item types that use the Inherited process. It shows the release information for two stages of the release pipeline integrated with Azure Boards.

Discover more: Azure Devops Release Pipeline