Azure Boards — DevOps
Azure Boards is a service for managing the work for your software projects. Teams need tools that flex and grow.
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:
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- 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
- Basic: Choose Basic when your team wants the simplest model that uses Issues, Tasks, and Epics to track work.
- Agile: Methodology is a way to manage a project by breaking it up into several phases.
- Scrum: Framework for creating and maintaining a consistent rate of work for complex projects.
- 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. Kanbanvisualizes both the process (the workflow) and the actual work passing through that process.
Kanban has two significant elements namely:
- Cards
- 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:
- To-Do
- In Progress
- Done
Basic principles associated with the Kanban process
- Visualize the workflow
- Limit work in progress
- Managing the workflow
- Make explicit process policies
- Implement feedback loops
- 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.
Swithch on the view as backlog. Using create a workitem and list over here.
Lets go to the board view and lets try to add the work items.
Two types of workitem here
- Epics
- Issues
Create a workitem
Click on the workitem it will be expand. So you can add more details
Created a first workitem which is to-do state
Create a new issues workitem and add to the task
Expand the website homepage workitems. Add a description after save and close.
Click the particular task add the activity
Lets move to the workitem 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
Goto my dashboard → Click Overview
Create a new workitems add sprint2
Goto boards → work items. If you have check the workitems 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
Goto 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 itetation. Goto Project setting → Team Configuration → Iterations
It shows the sprints
Assign to someone → Sometask
Capacity → adjust the team planning
Goto the taskboard
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. Goto 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
Swimlanes → Track the more items
Now check the another workitem
How to create a Custom dashboard
Dashboards → New dashboard
Add a Widget → Sprint Overview → Click Configure
Add anothet widget → Sprint Capacity → Select the team → PUL Web
Goto boards → queries → New query → Create a custom query
Add Charts → New
Save all → Click save as
Shared queries → Queries shared across the board.
Goto 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
Goto Organization setting → Process → Scrum → Create inherited process
Create a process
Click the Customized Scrum → Product Backlog Item
Add → New field → Click Add field
Goto All processes → Scrum → Projects → Parts Unlimited → Change Process
Save — Customized Scrum
Goto 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.!