Azure Boards is a service for managing the work for your software projects. Teams need tools that flex and grow.

Azure Boards

Azure Boards does just that, brining you a rich set of capabilities including native support for Scrum and Kanban, customizable dashboards, and integrated reporting. Here you are aided by three work item types:

• Epics

• Issues

• Tasks

Also as the work gets completed the status gets updated stage by stage from:

• To Do

• Doing

• Done

Here is the image below depicting the same

Each time we create or add an issue, task or an epic, it means we are creating a work item.

Useful links below, hope it helps.

Choose a process ← Process

Agile workflow ← Agile

CMMI workflow ← CMMI

Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches.

The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a model that helps organizations to: Effectuate process improvement. Develop behaviors that decrease risks in service, product, and software development

Azure Boards Processes

1. Basic: Choose Basic when your team wants the simplest model that uses Issues, Tasks, and Epics to track work.

2. Agile: Methodology is a way to manage a project by breaking it up into several phases.

3. Scrum: Framework for creating and maintaining a consistent rate of work for complex projects.

4. CMMI: Structured collection of best practices in engineering, service delivery and management, which aims to assist companies improve their ability to deliver customer satisfaction through an ever increasing understanding of their capabilities.

The basic process contains three work item types:

• Epics: Group your more significant items into Epics such as Website updates, Cloud migration, CICD implementation

• Issues: Further divide your Epics into Issues such as Homepage, about us page, secure sign-in

• Task: Tasks are the smallest amount of work that can be assigned to someone, for example, designing a homepage header, standardizing fonts, and fixing the homepage CSS to make it mobile responsive.

Read more ← Azure Boards

Defining Teams and Work Items

What is a Work Item:

A work item can track all types of activities. It could be a

• Task to do

• A bug to fix,

• An issue or anything that we can assign to people and keep track of the progress.

Kanban Board

Kanban is a visual system for managing work as it moves through a process. Kanban visualizes both the process (the workflow) and the actual work passing through that process.

Kanban has two significant elements namely:

1. Cards

2. Boards

The board can be physical, but the software team has a preference towards virtual board as this could be easily accessed from various locations and thus makes the team collaboration more proficient.

Usually, the board can be split into three sections namely:

1. To-Do

2. In Progress

3. Done

Basic principles associated with the Kanban process

1. Visualize the workflow

2. Limit work in progress

3. Managing the workflow

4. Make explicit process policies

5. Implement feedback loops

6. Continuous Improvement

Hands-On

Create a new project

Click left side Boards → Boards

This is a todo list template or notion template and this a board view.

Switch on the view as backlog. Using create a work item and list over here.

Lets go to the board view and lets try to add the work items.

Two types of work item here

1. Epics

2. Issues

Create a work item

Click on the work item it will be expand. So you can add more details

Created a first work item which is to-do state

Create a new issues work item and add to the task

Expand the website homepage work items. Add a description after save and close.

Click the particular task add the activity

Lets move to the work item the task is complete.

We will go the advanced concept → Scrum

Go to this link → https://azuredevopsdemogenerator.azurewebsites.net/ → Sign In

Generates from dummy data in our project.

Create a new project → Select a template & Organization

How to check the project created or not? Goto the organization the project showing

Make some changes in project setting

Create a new team

Open the PUL-Web after click iteration and access paths

Goto iteration tab and add to the sprint

Go to my dashboard → Click Overview

Create a new work items add sprint2

Go to boards → work items. If you have check the work items created or not?

Add to the child work items

Goto the boars → My team boards → PUL-Web boards

Change the features state → Add Product Backlog Item

Go to the View as backlog you can approve the separate features and assign to the task particular members.

Click view as backlog → to create a task another way

Sprint means a fixed period of time during which the team commit and work towards a fixed goal which does not change.

There is no changes in particular project

So if you change the project

Now you add iterations. Go to Project setting → Team Configuration → Iterations

It shows the sprints

Assign to someone → Some task

Capacity → adjust the team planning

Go to the task board

Modify the task the working hours automatically change

Or let move to the another sprint in particular tasks

Lets check the sprint 3

Easily identify the some color technique. Go to setting

Go and check the development the color will be change

Changed the p1 issue show the red color

I change the priority select 1 color will automatically change

Other setting will be change → tag color

Add tag

The automatically change the data tag

One more column add in work items

Split the column

Swim lanes → Track the more items

Now check the another work item

How to create a Custom dashboard

Dashboards → New dashboard

Add a Widget → Sprint Overview → Click Configure

Add another widget → Sprint Capacity → Select the team → PUL Web

Go to boards → queries → New query → Create a custom query

Add Charts → New

Save all → Click save as

Shared queries → Queries shared across the board.

Go to chart → Add new chart → Assigned to → Save

Add to dashboard

The chart is added to dashboards

Click Edit button → Chart for Work Items → Add

Click Configure

Customize the team process

Go to Organization setting → Process → Scrum → Create inherited process

Create a process

Click the Customized Scrum → Product Backlog Item

Add → New field → Click Add field

Go to All processes → Scrum → Projects → Parts Unlimited → Change Process

Save — Customized Scrum

Go to our project → Parts Unlimited → Boards → Work Items

The Ticket ID has been created

If you create a new project the work item process show the customised process….

Thanks for reading…I hope it would be more helpful for understand the Azure Boards.!

👤 Author

Join Our Telegram Community || Follow me on GitHub for more DevOps content!