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Agile process work item types

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019

The Agile process supports the following work item types (WITs) to plan and track work, tests, feedback, and code review. With different WITs you can track different types of work, such as features, user stories, and tasks. When you create a project using the Agile process, these artifacts are created, based on Agile principles and values.

Diagram is a conceptual image explaining Agile process work item types.

Along with the WITs, teams have access to work item queries to track information, analyze progress, and make decisions.

Note

Note

  • You can customize the work tracking system for your project by customizing an Inherited process or an On-premises XML process. For more information, see Process customization and inherited processes or On-premises XML process customization. The latest version of each process uploads automatically when you install or upgrade to the latest version of Azure DevOps Server. Other artifacts, such as SQL Server reports, are only available when you connect to a project. Other resource requirements apply.
  • You can also customize a process template. For more information, see Default processes and process templates.

Plan and track work with Agile

Build your project plan by creating a backlog of user stories that represent the work you want to develop and ship. Track bugs, tasks, and blocking issues using the bug, task, and issue WITs. To support portfolio management, teams create features and epics to view a rollup of user stories within or across teams. For more information, see Agile process work item types and workflow.

The following image shows the essential flow for getting started. For more information, see Get started with Agile tools to plan and track work.

Select one of the following images to go to the linked article.

Note

A work item is a database record that contains the definition, assignment, priority, and state of work. Work item types define the template of fields, workflow, and form for each type. Work items can be linked to each other to support tracking dependencies, roll up of work, and reports.

List work items by using queries

To manage your workload more effectively, frequently review the status of user stories and tasks. You can use the shared work item queries to list work items for a current sprint or the product backlog.

Note

When you create a new project, there's no longer a default set of Shared Queries. The definitions for Shared Queries were removed from the process template. For on-premises deployments, you can add them to a custom process template as described in Add work item queries to a process template.

View and run queries from the web portal or from the Team Explorer plug-in for Visual Studio. Modify a query using the query editor to apply different filter criteria and add queries to team dashboards.

Tips for shared queries

Enhance your workflow using the following tips:

  • Add @Me as the value for the Assigned To field in a query clause to find work items assigned to you.
  • Open the query editor to modify any query by adding criteria for a product area, iteration, or another field.
  • Open a query in Excel to update fields of one or more work items and publish changes to the database.
  • Create a pie-chart, column chart, or trend chart to visualize status or progress for flat-list queries.
  • Create queries and folders under the My Queries area with standard access. To create queries and folders under Shared Queries, ensure you have the Contribute permission and at least Basic access. For more information, see Set permissions on queries.

Monitor progress

All processes, including Agile, Scrum, and CMMI, support building status and trend charts and dashboards. Also, several charts are automatically built based on the Agile tools you use. These charts display in the web portal.

Create light-weight charts

You can define a shared flat query and create a chart based on your tracking interests. Chart types include:

  • status: pie, bar, column, stacked bar, and pivot
  • trend: stacked area, line, and area

Select one of the following images to go to the linked article.

Analytics widgets and Power BI reports

The Analytics Service can answer quantitative questions about the past or present state of your projects. You can add Analytics widgets to a dashboard or use Power BI to create charts and reports.

For more information, see What is the Analytics Service?

SQL Server reports

If your project collection and the project are configured with SQL Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services, you have access to many Agile reports. For these reports to be useful, teams must complete certain activities, such as define build processes, link work items, and update status or remaining work. For more information, see Review team activities to support useful reports.

If you need to add reporting services or update reports to the latest versions, see Add reports to a project.

Agile process versions

As updates are made to the Agile process template, the version number is updated. The following table provides a mapping of the versioning applied as updates are made to the Azure DevOps on-premises process templates. For Azure Boards, the latest version is always used. Each template provides a version element. This element specifies a major and minor version.

Version Agile process name Major version
Azure DevOps Services
Azure DevOps Server 2022		 Agile 18
Azure DevOps Server 2020

For a summary of updates made to process templates, see Release Notes for Azure DevOps Server.

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