Welcome to Azure DevOps Boards!
Azure DevOps Boards provides an agile, flexible set of agile tools. You can use Scrum, Kanban, CMMI, or your own custom process. This guide will help you get started with the core features of Azure Boards.
Creating Your First Azure DevOps Project
Before you can use Azure Boards, you need an Azure DevOps organization and a project. If you don't have one, follow these steps:
- Go to Azure DevOps and sign in.
- If you don't have an organization, create one.
- From your organization, click "New project".
- Enter a Project name, Description, Visibility (Public or Private), and choose a Version control system (Git or TFVC).
- Select your desired Process template (e.g., Agile, Scrum, Basic). For this guide, we'll assume you've chosen a standard template.
- Click "Create".
Navigating the Boards Hub
Once your project is created, you'll land on the project's overview page. To access Azure Boards:
- In the left-hand navigation pane, click on "Boards".
- You'll see several sub-sections: Backlogs, Boards, Sprints, Taskboard, Queries, and Delivery Plans.
Understanding Work Item Types
Azure Boards uses Work Items to track your team's work. The default templates include several common work item types:
- Epics: Large bodies of work that can be broken down into smaller stories.
- Features: A deliverable slice of functionality that can be delivered as part of an Epic.
- User Stories: Represent a requirement or feature from an end-user's perspective.
- Tasks: The granular steps needed to complete a User Story or Feature.
- Bugs: Defects in the product that need to be fixed.
Key Concept: Hierarchy
These work item types are often organized in a hierarchy. For example, an Epic can contain multiple Features, a Feature can contain multiple User Stories, and a User Story can contain multiple Tasks.
Setting Up Your First Board
The Boards view provides a Kanban-style board to visualize your team's workflow. It typically shows columns representing stages of your process (e.g., New, Active, Resolved, Closed).
- Navigate to "Boards" > "Boards".
- By default, you'll see a board that reflects your process template.
- To add a new work item, click the "New Work Item" button and select the type (e.g., User Story).
- Fill in the title and other relevant details, then click "Save & Close".
- Your new work item will appear in the leftmost column.
You can drag and drop work items between columns to update their status. This visually represents the progress of your work.
Customizing Your Board
Azure Boards offers extensive customization options:
- Column Configuration: Go to "Board configuration" (gear icon) to add, remove, rename, or reorder columns to match your team's workflow stages.
- Swimlanes: Group work items horizontally based on criteria like "Priority", "Assignee", or custom fields.
- Card Settings: Customize the information displayed on each work item card on the board.
Experiment with these settings to make your board a true reflection of how your team works.
What's Next?
Congratulations on getting started with Azure Boards! Here are some suggested next steps:
- Explore the Backlogs view to plan your product roadmap.
- Dive into Sprints to manage your iterative development cycles.
- Learn how to create and run Queries to find specific work items.
- Integrate with other Azure DevOps services like Pipelines and Repos.