Welcome to Azure Boards
Azure Boards is a powerful suite of Agile tools that enable you to plan, track, and discuss work across your teams. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to get started with setting up your Azure Boards for efficient project management.
Whether you're using Scrum, Kanban, or a custom process, Azure Boards provides the flexibility to adapt to your team's workflow.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following:
- An Azure DevOps organization. If you don't have one, you can create it for free at Azure DevOps.
- Appropriate permissions within your Azure DevOps organization (e.g., Project Collection Administrator or Project Administrator role).
Setting Up Your Project
The first step is to create or select a project within your Azure DevOps organization where you'll configure your boards.
Create a New Project (if needed)
Navigate to your Azure DevOps organization. Click on "New project".
Key Details:
- Project name: Choose a descriptive name.
- Visibility: Select Public or Private.
- Version control: Choose Git (recommended).
- Work item process: Select a process template that suits your methodology (e.g., Agile, Scrum, CMMI, Basic).
Select an Existing Project
If you already have a project, simply navigate to it from your Azure DevOps organization dashboard.
Adding Users and Assigning Access Levels
Invite team members to your project and assign them the appropriate access level.
Invite Members
From your project dashboard, go to Project settings (bottom left gear icon).
Navigate to Permissions > Teams.
Click on your team name and then click "Add members". Enter the email addresses of the users you want to invite.
Assign Access Levels
Ensure users have the correct access level (e.g., Basic, Stakeholder) based on their role and required features. This is managed under Organization settings > Users.
Tip: Stakeholder access is free and provides limited access to Boards and Queries, ideal for clients or end-users.
Configuring Your Boards
Customize your project boards to match your team's workflow.
Navigate to Boards
In your project, click on Boards in the left-hand navigation pane. Then select Boards again.
Customize Board Columns
Click the Board configuration (gear icon) on your Kanban or Taskboard.
Under the Columns tab, you can:
- Add new columns to represent stages in your workflow (e.g., "Ready for Dev", "In Review", "Done").
- Map existing work item states to these columns.
- Set column sizes (WIP limits) to visualize and manage flow.
Example Workflow: New -> Approved -> Committed -> In Progress -> Testing -> Done
Configure Swimlanes
Swimlanes help categorize work items on your board. You can create swimlanes based on criteria such as:
- Sprints
- Assignments (e.g., specific teams or features)
- Work item type
Access this under the Swimlanes tab in Board configuration.
Add Work Items
Click the + New Work Item button on your board or navigate to Boards > Work Items to create your first backlog items, user stories, tasks, or bugs.
Fill in the relevant details, assign owners, and set priorities.
Next Steps
With your Azure Boards set up, consider these further steps to enhance your project management:
- Explore Backlogs: Organize and prioritize your product backlog.
- Use Sprints: Plan and track sprint work using the Sprint planning tools.
- Dashboards: Create custom dashboards with widgets to visualize project progress and key metrics.
- Integrate with Repos: Link work items to your code commits and pull requests in Azure Repos.
- Define Queries: Create powerful queries to filter and find specific work items.
Continue exploring the rich features of Azure Boards to optimize your team's delivery.