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Kanban and Sprint Board Condensed Views

61 posts · Dec 2011 – Aug 2026

What this trail covers

Azure Boards continues to evolve with enhanced reporting and visualization capabilities for Kanban and Sprint workflows. This includes interactive Sprint Burndown, Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD), and Velocity reports, offering deeper insights into team progress, bottlenecks, and planning. Recent updates focus on improving user experience by introducing new system fields (Board Column, Board Column Done, Board Lane) that capture valuable data from the Kanban board. These fields are now integrated. This post adds pull request annotations directly on work item cards, allowing teams to quickly understand the state of development without opening a work item or switching to Azure Repos. Users can also turn off these annotations in board settings.

All Microsoft trails
  1. Pull request annotations on work item cardsThis post introduces the display of pull request annotations directly on work item cards in Azure Boards. This enhancement allows users to see the status of active pull requests without leaving the Kanban board, improving visibility into development progress. Users also have the option to disable these annotations via board settings.
  2. Improving the Markdown Editor for Work ItemsImproved the usability of the Markdown editor for work items by introducing a clearer distinction between preview and edit modes. Fields now default to preview mode, and users must explicitly click an edit icon to enter editing mode. This change aims to reduce accidental edits and make interactions more intentional and predictable.
  3. Condensed views on Kanban and Sprint boardsIntroduces a condensed view option for Kanban and Sprint boards, allowing users to display only work item titles instead of full cards. This feature addresses screen space limitations caused by numerous tags and custom fields on work item cards, enabling more cards to be visible on screen for easier scanning and management of large backlogs.
  4. Markdown Support Arrives for Work ItemsIntroduced general availability of Markdown support for large text fields in Azure DevOps work items. Users can opt-in to use a Markdown editor for individual work items and fields, with a best-effort conversion from existing HTML. This conversion is irreversible. New work items can default to Markdown based on user preference. Markdown formatting can also be applied via the REST API by setting the `/multilineFieldsFormat` for specific fields.
  5. Azure Boards + GitHub: Recent UpdatesThis post details several enhancements to the Azure Boards + GitHub integration: 1. Automatic linking of merge commits, PRs, and branches to work items, with automatic branch cleanup upon PR merge and deletion. 2. Display of GitHub build status from YAML pipelines on associated work items. 3. Doubling the GitHub repository limit per Azure DevOps project from 500 to 1,000. 4. Expanded support for state transitions in Azure Boards work items via keywords like '{State or Category} AB#{ID}' in GitHub PR descriptions, in addition to the existing 'Fixes AB#{ID}'. 5. Upcoming support for referencing GitHub PRs directly in work item comments using '!' mentions.
  7. Markdown for large text fields (private preview)Introduced Markdown support for large text fields in Azure DevOps work items, allowing users to opt-in for individual fields. This feature provides a best-effort conversion from existing HTML content and remembers the user's preference for new work items. Once a field is converted to Markdown, it cannot be reverted to HTML. The feature is available in the New Boards Hub.
  8. New Boards Hub on as defaultThis post announces the transition of the New Boards Hub to the default experience for all Azure DevOps customers, completing a multi-year preview and development cycle. It details the phased rollout plan and provides guidance on how users can identify if they are using the new hub. While largely retaining existing functionality, it highlights new features and improvements introduced in the New Boards experience, including better Boards + GitHub integration. It also reiterates the process for reporting issues found in the new hub.
  9. New Boards Hub Update, January 2024The New Boards Hub has seen significant improvements in accessibility and page reflow, addressing initial shortcomings. Performance issues, particularly with large projects, have been resolved, bringing loading times for backlogs and sprint boards to acceptable levels. Over a hundred bug fixes have been implemented, with no active blocking bugs remaining. New features include the general availability of Team Automation Rules and ongoing private preview of Markdown for comments.
  10. Work Items in Visual StudioThis post details the transition to a new, REST-based work item experience in Visual Studio, replacing the legacy SOAP APIs. It provides guidance on enabling the new view, linking work items to commits (via Work Items Hub, #mention in commit messages, or branch creation from work items), managing queries (web-based, dashboard tiles, drag-and-drop, renaming), and reparenting work items (drag-and-drop, Mapping pane, Change parent option). The post also announces the eventual deprecation of the legacy Visual Studio work item view.
  11. New Boards Hub, Fall UpdateThe post announces a slowdown in the rollout of the New Boards Hub to focus on quality and bug fixes, with a revised tentative timeline for early 2024. It also details that users will have the option to choose between a Markdown or HTML editor for new comments, addressing feedback from non-developer roles. The Team Automation Rules preview is progressing towards general availability.
  12. Introducing Work Item Chart Filtering in Azure DevOps DashboardsIntroduced Work Item Chart Filtering in Azure DevOps Dashboards, enabling users to click on chart segments to directly view filtered query results. This feature streamlines workflow by eliminating the need for manual filtering and creating multiple queries. It also provides an expanded view for comprehensive analysis directly on the dashboard.
  13. Team Work Item Automation Rules (Private Preview)Introduced Team Work Item Automation Rules, allowing teams to configure rules for automating state transitions of parent work items based on the state of their child tasks. These rules can be set independently for each backlog level (Stories, Features, Epics) and operate within a team's workflow on the backlog and boards. The feature uses State Categories for consistency and defaults to the first state within a category. Limitations include configuration being exclusive to Team admins, rules applying only to work items within the same team, and REST API updates not triggering automation.
  14. New Boards Hub Rollout UpdateThis post provides an update on the rollout of the New Boards Hub, indicating that over 30% of active organizations have had it enabled by default. It highlights that approximately 95% of users continue to use the new experience and that 25-35 bugs are being fixed per sprint, with most being edge cases. The rollout is expected to continue at the same rate, with all organizations transitioned by mid-to-late November. Concurrently, the work item comments editor is transitioning to Markdown support. The post encourages users to report bugs rather than revert to old boards, as the revert option will be phased out. It also notes that some extensions may not work properly with the New Boards Hub and advises extension builders to test their extensions.
  15. New Boards Hub Update, Sprint 224This post details the bug fixes and upcoming rollout of the New Boards Hub. Over 40 bugs were fixed in the last sprint, and the 'Try the New Boards Hub' message will be activated for all organizations. The New Boards Hub will also start becoming the default experience for customers in earlier deployment rings. Specific bug fixes are listed, addressing issues with error banners, release linking, task board navigation, pull request creation, text field expansion, numeric input, file previews, work item links, task board parent/child interactions, chart creation, filters, backlog item addition, query tags, comments, child item addition, templates, deleted queries, backlog ordering, CSV import, disabled work item types, mentions, column width persistence, cross-project work item copying, and large backlog ordering. An improvement to the 'Copy link' functionality for work item URLs is also noted.
  16. New Boards Hub Update, Sprint 223This post details bug fixes for the New Boards Hub in Sprint 223. Notable fixes include addressing issues with linking work items in comments, display inconsistencies for single child backlog items, state color mismatches for release stages, incorrect order numbers on large backlogs, sticky taskboard filters, incorrect 'add to bottom' behavior, drag-and-drop issues for backlog items, inaccurate rollup column counts and names, UX display problems with dragging child items between Kanban cards, missing vertical scroll bars on the sprint board, date and time format settings not applying to columns, time zone issues for work item history, improper rendering of links added via the REST API, missing top-level and linked info on queries, discrepancies in item placement when adding to the task board, and loading timeout errors on task boards with over 100 tasks when switching tabs.
  17. Markdown editor for comments (preview)Introduced a new Markdown editor for work item comments, aligning with the experience in Pull Requests. Existing HTML comments can be optionally converted to Markdown, with a best-effort conversion process. New comments support essential Markdown formats, HTML table conversion, string highlighting via `<mark>`, and continued support for @mentions and !mentions. This feature is exclusively available in the New Boards Hub and will replace the current HTML editor upon general availability.
  18. New Boards Hub Update, Sprint 222This post details the activation of the "Try the New Boards Hub" message for a larger customer base, leading to increased user engagement and feedback. It also highlights significant performance improvements in the Recycle bin functionality and lists numerous bug fixes related to various aspects of the New Boards Hub, including work item verification, extensions, filtering, error handling, ordering, field display, and linking.
  19. New Boards Hub Update, Sprint 221Sprint 221 bug fixes for the New Boards Hub include resolving issues with link counts on form when using search, incorrect extension registration names and async execution order, errors when using removeWorkItemRelations, boards filters not working with direct links, the planning panel showing more than 10 sprints, issues with comment history display, status badge errors in boards settings, inability to create queries from sprints, disabled work item types being displayed, tags on query results flashing and causing performance problems, and issues with the 'Move to iteration' option for incomplete items and invalid node IDs.
  20. Azure Boards Summer UpdateThis post introduces several new features for Azure Boards: 'Move to column position' for re-ordering work items on Kanban boards, 'Query by parent' to get a flat list of children, a fix for work item attachments in history to prevent downloading removed attachments, an improved 'Show more items' UX that uses more specific WIQL queries, displaying 'Assigned To' avatars on child items in Kanban cards, filtering on work item history to see revisions by specific users, and toggles for Delivery Plans to show all dependency lines and a 'Last accessed' column in the Delivery Plans directory. Additionally, a work item revision limit of 10,000 is implemented for REST API updates to address performance and usability issues caused by excessive revisions.
  21. Copy Dashboard Public Preview Part 3This post announces the public preview of the 'Copy Dashboard' feature, specifically highlighting the addition of folder selection for copied queries. It details the user interface for initiating the copy operation, selecting dashboard type (Team or Project), choosing whether to copy queries, and then selecting a folder for those queries. It also mentions how team configurations in widgets are handled during the copy process.
  22. Copy Dashboard - Public Preview Phase 2This post announces the phase 2 public preview of the Copy Dashboard feature. It details that queries and widget configurations are now carried over with the copy operation. The user interface for copying a dashboard is described, including providing the new dashboard's name, description, and type (Team or Project). Behind the scenes, a folder is created in 'Shared Queries' for the copied queries, and widgets with team configurations are updated. Feedback is solicited via the developer community site.
  23. Azure Boards Fall UpdateThis post introduces several enhancements to Azure Boards' Delivery Plans 2.0: dependency visualization with colored icons (red for issues, light green for no issues), tag emphasis using colors, filtering cards by boolean field types, and always visible work item titles on cards. It also announces a partnership with Solidify AB to maintain specific Azure DevOps extensions, including the Azure Boards Kanban Tool, Branch Visualization, and Estimate – Planning poker for Azure Boards.
  24. Delivery Plans 2.0 is now GA!This post announces the general availability of Delivery Plans 2.0 in Azure DevOps Service, highlighting its key features: timeline view, progress tracking (via child/linked item count), and dependency tracking. It details the differences from the previous Plans 1.0 extension, including increased team limits, broader work item timeframe support (start/target dates and iterations), condensed/expanded views, roll-up progress information, and card styling. The post also provides visual examples of these features.
  25. Delivery Plans 2.0 - We got Style!Introduced card styling for Delivery Plans 2.0, allowing users to define up to 10 rules with 5 clauses each to visually highlight work items. This feature enhances visualization by enabling users to style cards based on specific attributes, similar to Kanban boards. Clarifications were also provided on toggling dependency lines and ensuring work items display correctly by filling out start/target dates and iteration paths.
  26. Delivery Plans 2.0 UpdateIntroduced dependency tracking for Delivery Plans 2.0, allowing visualization of predecessor and successor links between work items. Increased the team limit for plans to 15. Addressed bugs and issues based on feedback. Clarified that existing plans from the original Plans extension are compatible and no data migration is needed. Removed HTML fields from card display due to formatting challenges.
  27. Group By Tags for Chart WidgetIntroduced the Group By Tags capability for the Chart Widget, allowing users to group and visualize work items by tags. This feature is now available in public preview.
  28. Delivery Plans Public Preview UpdateThis post provides an update on the Delivery Plans feature, highlighting improvements made since its public preview announcement. Key updates include the addition of rollup functionality to display child work item progress on cards, performance enhancements for card rendering, resizing, and re-ordering, and the introduction of a collapsed card view for a more condensed display. It also mentions upcoming features like dependency tracking and support for more than ten teams.
  29. Delivery Plans 2.0 Public PreviewThis post announces the public preview of Delivery Plans 2.0, which is now part of the core Azure Boards product. New features include work items spanning iteration boundaries (plotted using Start Date, Target Date, and Iteration Path dates), drag-and-drop date and card size adjustments, stakeholder read-only access, and a compact view for leadership reporting by removing extra fields and zooming out. Coming soon features include child rollup, dependency notifications, and parent display/filtering. Known issues include a hard limit of 10 team backlogs per plan and card formatting issues with zoom.
  30. Azure DevOps Roadmap update for 2020 Q4This post announces updates to Azure Boards, Azure Pipelines, and Azure Artifacts. For Azure Boards, Delivery Plans 2.0 is being integrated into the core product with features like spanning work items across sprints, supporting items without iteration paths, stakeholder access, dependency tracking, and roll-up of child work item progress. For Azure Pipelines, manual validation is being introduced for YAML pipelines, allowing runs to be paused for peer input. For Azure Artifacts, upstream publication latency is being reduced via a new publication-subscription architecture. General updates include the addition of billing, sign-in, PAT, and SSH usage events to the audit log, API support for PAT lifecycle management, on-demand re-evaluation of Azure AD group permissions, and the ability to hide organization settings.
  31. New in Azure Boards Sprint 174This post announces the general availability of adding system work item types (Issue, Impediment, Change Request, Review, Risk) to backlog levels in Azure Boards. It also introduces a new process audit log event for picklist value additions/removals. A preview feature allows customizing work item state upon pull request merge by scanning the PR description for state mentions. Another preview feature enables Stakeholders to move work items across board columns. Finally, the repository limit for the Azure Boards GitHub app has been raised.
  32. Azure Boards Summer UpdateIntroduced state transition restriction rules as generally available, allowing users to restrict work item state transitions and by group membership. Added a 'Copy children' option when copying work items, limited to 100 children and same project/work item type. Improved system rules for Activated By/Date and Resolved By/Date fields to be triggered by state category rather than specific states. Announced private preview for system work item types (Issue, Impediment, Change Request, Review, Risk) on backlogs and boards. Outlined upcoming features: better PR integration with work item #mention updates, stakeholder ability to move items across Kanban boards, and Delivery Plans 2.0 enhancements for multi-team planning, roadmap visualization, and dependency tracking.
  33. New in Azure Boards sprint 170This post announces updates to Azure Boards in sprint 170. It details improvements to Kanban board error handling by making error messages clickable links to view the cause. It also adds parent filtering to the task board and task backlog, allowing users to filter by parent work items (Features/Epics). Additionally, the GitHub action for creating Azure Boards work items from GitHub Issues is now generally available. Finally, a private preview for state transition restriction rules in inherited processes is announced, allowing for more granular control over work item state changes.
  34. Create Dashboards without a TeamIntroduced Project Dashboards as a new dashboard type that can be created without association to a team. This allows for cross-team tracking, virtual-team collaboration, or special projects not tied to a team. Project Dashboards are public by default, with configurable admin permissions. Widgets that require team context have been updated to allow selection of a specific team when used on Project Dashboards.
  35. A Sprint Burndown widget with everything you've been asking forIntroduces a new Sprint Burndown widget with enhanced customization options, including burndown by Story Points, Task count, or custom fields. It supports burndown for Epics, Features, and Stories, and allows summing any field or counting any work item type. The widget displays average burndown, % complete, and scope increase, and can be resized up to 10x10 on dashboards. It also offers the ability to display sprint burndowns for multiple teams on the same dashboard. A legacy version is kept for customers with restricted 'View Analytics' permissions.
  36. Track the progress of work using Rollup columnsIntroduced Rollup columns to the Azure Boards backlog view, enabling users to track progress and aggregate data (e.g., sum of story points, count of work items) based on parent-child work item relationships. This feature supports both out-of-the-box and custom rollups, offering 'Progress' (percentage of completed items) and 'Totals' (state-agnostic aggregation) types. The post details how to add these columns via 'Column Options', configure custom rollups for numeric fields, and provides examples of reading the data. Important notes cover latency, cross-project linking limitations, and how descendant links are always considered.
  37. Get insights into your team’s health with Azure Boards ReportsThis post introduces three new interactive reports in Azure Boards: Sprint Burndown, Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD), and Velocity. The Sprint Burndown report is enhanced with additional metrics (percentage completed, average burndown, total scope line), flexible date options, and support for counting work items or other numeric fields. The Velocity report is improved to monitor all backlog levels and configure metrics like sum of story points. The CFD report provides enhanced control over time periods, board columns, and swimlines, with a focus on WIP and workflow trends. These reports replace older versions and offer interactive features for data exploration.
  38. What’s new in Azure DevOps Sprint 155Introduced three new interactive reports in Azure Boards: Burndown, Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD), and Velocity, accessible via a new analytics tab. These reports provide enhanced visibility into team progress, workflow bottlenecks, and planning commitments, with metrics like sprint burndown, flow of work, and team velocity. The reports are interactive and allow for adjustments.
  39. What’s new in Azure DevOps Sprint 150?This post announces the general availability of Analytics features in Azure DevOps at no additional cost, including Analytics Widgets (Burndown/Burnup, Cycle Time/Lead Time, Cumulative Flow Diagram, Velocity, Test Results Trend) and the top failing test report. It also mentions the deprecation of the Analytics marketplace extension for hosted customers, emphasizing Azure DevOps Analytics as the future of reporting.
  40. Analytics For Azure DevOps Services is Now Generally AvailableThis post announces the general availability of Analytics features for Azure DevOps Services at no additional cost. These include Analytics Widgets (Burndown and Burnup, Cycle Time and Lead Time, Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD), Velocity, Test Results Trend) and In-Product Experiences like the Top Failing Test Report. It also mentions continued support for Power BI Integration and OData endpoint in preview, and the deprecation of the Analytics marketplace extension for hosted customers. For Azure DevOps Server 2019, Analytics remains in preview as an installable extension.
  41. Azure Boards Project Paper CutsIntroduced state ordering for states in process order instead of alphabetically, consistency improvements for work item transition rules, auto-tagging in comments for easier collaboration, and automatic live updates for all new boards.
  42. Navigation Update for Azure DevOpsThis post details improvements to the navigation model for Azure DevOps, specifically addressing feedback on the new navigation experience. Key changes include performance fixes, improved scrolling, elimination of left navigation "jumpiness", improved filtering and styling, updates to the "My Work" panel to include work items, pull requests, and favorites, and improved navigation across hubs in Azure Boards. For Azure Boards, navigation between Boards, Backlogs, and Sprints now bypasses the directory page to go directly to the artifact for the same team. Directory pages have been consolidated into a single page with sections for "Continue where you left off," "Favorites," "My," and "All" artifacts. Dashboards will also adopt this model. The rollout schedule includes turning on the new navigation for all organizations in mid-October 2018, with an opt-out period until January 16th, 2019, after which it becomes the only option. The new navigation model will also be the default in the next version of Azure DevOps Server.
  43. Dashboard Updates Generally AvailableThis post announces the general availability of updates to the dashboard experience in Azure DevOps (VSTS and TFS). Key enhancements include an easier way to switch between team dashboards, fine-tuned permissions for individual dashboards, and new dashboard directory pages for searching and favoriting. The directory pages highlight dashboard metadata like name, owner team, and description, and offer filtering, favoriting, and permission management capabilities. Other improvements include dashboard descriptions, full-screen mode, and a streamlined editing experience.
  44. What’s new in VSTS Sprint 136 UpdateThis post announces the VSTS Sprint 136 Update, which includes significant UI modernization. Key changes include a new navigation system and the splitting of the Backlogs hub into three distinct hubs: Backlogs, Boards, and Sprints. It also highlights a new build results page with a graphical timeline for build steps. The post points to external resources for more detailed information on these features.
  45. New Work HubsThis post details the splitting of the Backlogs hub into three distinct hubs: Backlogs, Boards, and Sprints, to address complexity and improve usability. It also introduces Favorites, Directories, and Search for easier navigation, a Team Profile pane for quick access to team-related information, and new Sprint features like Sprint Planning and updated filters.
  46. Stakeholders can now view VSTS Analytics widgetsThis post enables users with Stakeholder licenses to view VSTS Analytics widgets, including CFD, Lead/Cycle Time, Velocity, and Burndown/Burnup widgets. Previously, only users with Basic licenses or higher could access these widgets. Access to the Analytics OData endpoint and Power BI integration still requires a Basic license or higher.
  47. Burndown and Burnup Widgets available for the VSTS Analytics ExtensionThis post announces the general availability of Burndown and Burnup widgets for the VSTS Analytics Extension. The Burndown widget displays progress across multiple teams and sprints, computes average burndown, tracks scope increase, and projects completion dates. It can burndown on any work item type by count or sum of a field, using various intervals or iteration schedules, with additional filter criteria. The Burnup widget plots completed work. Examples of release burndown and bug burndown are provided. Configuration details are available in the documentation.
  48. Velocity Widget available for the VSTS Analytics ExtensionIntroduced the Velocity Widget for the VSTS Analytics Extension, providing enhanced functionality over the existing Velocity Chart. Key improvements include the ability to show velocity for any team, any backlog level or work item type, calculate velocity by summing any field (not just Story Points) or by counting work item types, and display planned vs. actual delivery, highlighting late work. The widget supports sizing to 1x1 for average velocity display. This widget is available upon installation of the Analytics Extension, which also provides Lead Time, Cycle Time, and CFD widgets.
  49. Delivery Plans now included with Visual Studio Team Services basic access levelThis post announces that Delivery Plans, a feature for overlaying backlogs from different teams onto a shared sprint schedule, is now out of preview and included with the VSTS basic access level at no additional cost. It also states that Delivery Plans will be included in Team Foundation Server 2017 Update 2. The post directs users to documentation for leveraging plans and to a feature matrix for details on the VSTS basic access level.
  50. Team Services Extensions Roundup - MarchThis post introduces two new extensions for Azure DevOps: SpecMap, which brings Story Maps to Team Services and links them to Work Items, and Board Group, which allows modification of work item lanes and columns directly from the work item form or board without dragging and dropping. These extensions enhance the visualization and management of work items on Kanban boards.
  51. New Feature: Delivery Plans for Visual Studio Team ServicesIntroduces Delivery Plans, a new feature for Visual Studio Team Services that provides a cross-team and cross-project view of work on a calendar. Users can add teams from different projects, drag and drop cards to update iteration paths, and customize card fields. The feature is available as a public preview extension and will be integrated into Team Foundation Server in a future release. Future enhancements planned include markers for key dates, field criteria for filtering, and dependency tracking.
  52. Inside Visual Studio Team Services: Kanban boards with Patrick DesjardinsThis post introduces Patrick Desjardins, a software developer on the Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) Agile tooling team, focusing on the Kanban board. He discusses his role in developing web expertise and guidance for VSTS agile tooling, including improving the Kanban board. He highlights his work on dashboard features like integrating a third-party widget library, animated widget previews, and slide-out menus. He also mentions his current work on a new project using Facebook React for managing work. He details his daily use of VSTS for backlog prioritization, Kanban board state management, and code review via Pull Requests. He also shares a tip on using browser developer tools to apply inline CSS for work item descriptions and mentions the Code Search extension.
  53. New fields bring Kanban goodness to queries, and moreThis post introduces three new system fields: 'Board Column', 'Board Column Done', and 'Board Lane'. These fields capture data directly from the Kanban board and are now available for use in Queries, Charts, and Alerts within Azure DevOps. This enables users to report on Kanban board metrics directly from the query editor, group charts by 'Board Column' for better visualization, and set up alerts based on the status of work items on the Kanban board (e.g., notifying when a story moves to 'under development'). The post also mentions the availability of these fields in Excel for read-only export and the introduction of Project Dashboards that can be configured without team association, supporting cross-team tracking and special project dashboards. The Chart Widget now supports grouping by tags.
  54. Agile Project Management Futures (August 2015)This post details upcoming enhancements to Azure Boards and Visual Studio Online's agile project management features. Key updates include a new Work Item Form with improved readability, structure, and integration of related data like history and code artifacts. It will feature a rich discussion experience with @mention and #id intellisense, a new history experience with filtering, and support for custom fields and work item types. The post also announces the introduction of Dashboards, a customizable canvas for ALM and DevOps data, starting with existing home pages and expanding to new widgets. Kanban metrics for lead and cycle time are being bundled with the dashboard work. Specific updates include the ability to query and view Kanban columns from backlogs and query results, and the introduction of inline tasks on Kanban boards, allowing for lightweight interactions like editing titles and marking as done directly from the board.
  55. Scaled Agile Framework: Visual Studio Online process template updatesAdded an 'Epic' work item type and a corresponding backlog/board. Introduced a 'Value Area' field to Epics, Features, and Stories/Requirements, with options for 'Business' and 'Architectural'. Made these SAFe concepts opt-in for teams via Team Settings.
  56. Agile project management futures...This post details the rollout of several enhancements to Azure Boards' agile project management features, specifically focusing on Kanban and Taskboard functionalities. Key updates include: - **Kanban Board Enhancements:** Inline adding and reordering of cards directly on the board, split columns (Doing/Done) for better pull model visualization, and the introduction of swim lanes for prioritizing specific work items. - **Bug Handling:** Support for visualizing bugs as cards on the Taskboard, either decomposed like tasks or parented to backlog items. - **Definition of Done:** Ability to add text descriptions for each column on the Kanban board to clarify 'done' criteria. - **Hierarchical Backlog Management:** Reordering and re-parenting of items directly within hierarchical backlog views. - **Card Customizations:** Unlocking the ability to add additional fields and inline edit information directly on cards. - **Lead Time Metric:** Work is underway to allow configuration and monitoring of lead time, a critical Kanban metric.
  57. Where is the field on the work item form to order the backlog?Removed the 'Stack Rank' (Agile/CMMI) or 'Backlog Priority' (Scrum) field from the work item form in Visual Studio Online to reduce user confusion caused by its arbitrary updates during backlog ordering. The field remains in the work item for scenarios like Excel ordering. Introduced context menu items for changing item position on the backlog as an alternative to drag-and-drop.
  58. Help content for the Agile planning tools gets a makeover with TFS CU2This post announces updates to the help content for Azure Agile Planning tools, specifically highlighting new features in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 with Update 2. It details improvements in creating and organizing backlogs, customizing Kanban boards, working in sprints, and adding tags to work items for categorization and filtering. It also introduces streamlined scenarios for bulk work item modification with Excel, setting alerts, using work item templates, and adding storyboard shapes. The post also mentions an end-to-end guide for adding reports to a team project.
  59. How to fix “TF400898: An Internal Error Occurred.” on your Kanban board in TFS 2012 Update 2This post addresses a specific provisioning error (TF400898) on the Kanban board in TFS 2012 Update 2 that occurs when customizable columns are enabled. The error arises from incorrect assumptions in the provisioning logic regarding the mapping of work item states to board columns, particularly when multiple states are mapped to the 'Complete' metastate or when different work item types within the Requirement category do not share the same last 'Complete' state. The post provides a detailed, step-by-step resolution using `witadmin` to export and modify category and common configuration XML files, followed by re-importing them to correct the provisioning. It also includes a workaround for persistent issues involving column renaming.
  60. Fixed the incorrect order of the first column on the Kanban board on the serviceThis post addresses a bug introduced in the March 4th service update where the first column on the Kanban board was incorrectly ordered by closed date instead of stack rank, leading to random item order. The service has been updated to fix this issue, restoring the correct stack rank ordering for the incoming column.
  61. TFS Kanban board Swim lane customization walk throughThis post details how to customize swim lanes on the TFS Kanban board to better manage the product backlog, specifically for IT demand management. It provides a walkthrough of loading work items from Excel into a Team Project, customizing columns (swim lanes) on the Kanban board to reflect a specific workflow (e.g., Discovery, Investment Return Investigation, To Be Scheduled, In Delivery), and configuring work-in-progress (WIP) limits for each swim lane. It demonstrates how dragging and dropping work items between swim lanes updates their state and logs changes in the work item history. The post also explains how to visualize the swim lane flow using the cumulative flow graph and lists advantages of this new approach, such as visual representation of bottlenecks and audit trails. It also addresses frequently asked questions regarding swim lane functionality.
  62. March CTP (“CTP4”) of Visual Studio Update 2 now availableThis post introduces the ability to customize columns in the Team Foundation Kanban Board to better align with development workflows. It also mentions improvements to the Kanban board with the ability to customize columns to better align with your development.
  63. Kanban customizable columns, “under the hood”This post details the technical implementation of the 'Kanban customizable columns' feature in Azure DevOps. It introduces 'WIT Extensions' as a mechanism to dynamically attach fields and rules to work items at runtime, without altering work item type definitions. Specifically, it describes the 'Kanban Column' WIT Extension, which synchronizes the work item's state with its position on a Kanban board. The post explains the predicate logic for attaching/detaching WIT Extensions based on backlog membership and area path, and illustrates how a work item can appear on multiple boards if teams share an area path, detailing the rule execution flow in such scenarios. It also notes current limitations of WIT Extensions, such as lack of query and reporting integration, with a future goal of customer-defined extensions and more componentized process definitions.
  64. Eylean BoardThis post introduces the Eylean Board, an add-in for TFS that provides visual project management capabilities. It highlights Eylean Board's visualization of work items as cards that can be moved through states, assigned to team members, and synchronized with TFS. The post also emphasizes Eylean Board's flexibility in supporting custom TFS process templates and its Kanban functionality, which allows mapping board columns to TFS states, implementing WIP limits, and queues. This complements the existing Kanban and Sprint Board features in TFS 2012.
  65. TFS/Agile PM: Configuring so your tasks are estimated in story pointsThis post details how to configure the unit of measure for the 'Remaining Work' field on Task work items in TFS 2012 on-premise. This is achieved by exporting the common process configuration using `witadmin.exe`, editing the XML to change the `format` attribute for the `Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.RemainingWork` type field (e.g., from '{0} h' to '{0} sp'), and then importing the modified configuration. This allows for estimation in units other than hours, such as story points, by changing the displayed suffix on the task board and capacity pane.
  66. Team Foundation Service: Process template changesUpdated process templates for Agile (version 6.1), CMMI (version 6.1), and Scrum (version 2.1) in Team Foundation Service. For Agile, the User Story state model was updated to allow transitions between any states. For Scrum, the same was done for Product Backlog Item and Bug. CMMI's ResolvedBy, ResolvedDate, ActivatedBy, and ActivatedDate fields were corrected for specific transitions. The primary motivation for these changes is the industry trend towards less restrictive process flows, highlighted by the limitations observed with Kanban boards where moving back to a previous state was not possible.
  67. Changing the default number of tasks displayed on the taskboardThis post details how to modify the process template to increase the default display limit for the taskboard from 500 to a higher value. This is achieved by exporting the process template using `witadmin exportagileprocessconfig`, modifying the `workItemCountLimit` attribute within the `<IterationBacklog>` element, and then importing the modified template using `witadmin importagileprocessconfig`. It also warns about increased memory demand on clients due to this change.
  68. Team Foundation Service Preview – Get Started with Agile Planning ToolsThis post details the initial setup and usage of Agile planning tools within Team Foundation Service Preview, focusing on the Scrum process template. It guides users through configuring sprint schedules, creating backlog items, planning sprints by moving items and creating tasks, setting team capacity, and visualizing progress on the task board. It also explains the color coding for capacity visualization.