In this article, we will review the Azure DevOps tasks page, its layout, and detailed information on how the Azure DevOps work items are synchronized to the Azure DevOps tasks page.
You can review work items synchronized from Azure DevOps on a separate Azure DevOps tasks page in PPM Express.
To access this page, perform the following:
1. Open the Project dashboard of the Project where you need to review Azure DevOps work items.
2. Navigate to the Tasks (Schedule) Project section and select Azure DevOps tasks by clicking on the corresponding icon on the right.
3. Click on the 'View Backlog from Azure DevOps' button.
Also, if you click on the number of the work items on the Backlog Overviews or Current Iteration cards, the Azure DevOps tasks page will be opened at once, and the work items will be filtered out according to the selected work item.
You can review all work items synchronized from Azure DevOps on the Azure DevOps tasks page.
When clicking on the Iteration name on the Tasks page, the filter criteria for the Iteration will include both Iteration and Type ‘User Story’. As the 'User Story' item type is mostly used for Iterations, it is included in the Iteration filter to display the items tree correctly, in the same way as it is in Azure DevOps. If you have a different item type, you can open the filter for editing and select your item type instead of the 'User Story'. When needed, you can switch to this filter to see the information for your Iteration.
Azure DevOps tasks page includes two sections: Summary and Tasks.
Summary section includes the following information cards: Backlog Overview, Current Iteration Backlog, Current Iteration Progress, and Iterations.
- Backlog Overviews where you can quickly review completed and open Epics, Features, User Stories, Tasks numbers.
- Current Iteration Backlog where you can review the number of completed and open Features, User Stories, Tasks, Bugs of the current iteration.
- Current Iteration Progress where you can review the progress of the current iteration items.
- Iterations (shows the current iteration in green color and the rest in grey).
All the numbers on the cards are clickable and can be used to filter out the information in the Tasks section.
To get back to the PPM Express Project, click on the Project name at the top of the page or on the 'Back to Project Dashboard' button.
To open PPM Express tasks, click on the 'View PPM Express Tasks' button.
To open the Azure DevOps system, click the Azure DevOps icon at the top of the Project Dashboard.
Tasks section includes all work items synchronized from Azure DevOps.
There are two views available: table and timeline.
You can use multiple filters to review the work items you need quickly. You can also create new filters and new views if needed.
Using custom filters, you can filter the information by any iteration or area you need to review the information for, etc.
To hide/show all tasks in the tasks hierarchy use the Outline button. It is applied to all tasks at once, you can either Expand all tasks to show subtasks or Collapse all tasks to show only the parent task.
The selected tasks can be exported to an Excel/PNG file by clicking on the Export button at the top of the Tasks section or via the Actions menu.
Azure DevOps work items are displayed by the created date. Completed work items are always at the bottom of the page.
The work items hierarchy is hidden by default, and you can always open the tree to review the child tasks.
The Start and Due Dates, along with other fields will be synchronized according to the External Items Mapping. To set mapping values, perform the following:
1. Open the Configure Connection settings => Configure Connection option.
2. Select the External Items Mapping option. Click on the pencil-like button next to the required work item and set the mapping rules.
3. Save the changes.
Azure DevOps fields will be mapped to PPM Expres fields in the following way:
- AreaPath = Area Path
- Assigned To = Assigned To
- Completed Work = Completed Work
- Description = Description
- Effort = Original Estimate
- Iteration = Iteration Path
- Parent Id = Parent Id
- Parent Name = Parent Name
- Priority = Priority (Urgent - 1; High-2; Medium-3; Low-4)
- Progress = State Category
- Remaining Work = Remaining Work
- Start Date = Start Date
- State = State
- Story Points = Story Points
- Tags = Tags
- Title = Title
- Type = Work Item Type
- Tags = Tags
The Progress is synchronized according to the state categories:
- All states in the Proposed category will be synchronized with 0% Progress;
- All states in the In Progress category will be synchronized with 50% Progress;
- All states in the Completed category will be synchronized with 100% Progress.
It is possible to set up additional fields mapping, for more details please refer to the tasks fields mapping article.
Tasks Status is not editable and is set according to the Tasks finish date, taking into account the current date. The following calculation logic is applied:
- On Track - Finish Date is greater or equals Today;
- At Risk - The task is late for less than 10 days (from Today);
- Critical - The task is late for more than 10 days (from Today);
- Done- The task is marked as Completed.
These default calculation logic rules can be customized on the Insight settings page. If custom rules are set there, the custom logic will be applied to the tasks statuses on the Azure DevOps tasks page.