Area Paths vs. Iteration Paths
Two of the most useful organizing concepts in Azure Boards get confused all the time, and the confusion creates real mess in a backlog. Area paths and iteration paths sound similar and live near each …
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Project Dashboards vs. Team Dashboards
When you create a dashboard in Azure DevOps, you make a choice that's easy to breeze past: is this a project dashboard or a team dashboard? They look similar and they're built from the same widgets, …
Read more →Information Radiators That Actually Inform
An information radiator is any display, physical or electronic, placed somewhere visible that shows process or product information. The phrase has been around for years, but plenty of teams set one up …
Read more →Marketplace Extensions Worth Installing on Day One
The Azure DevOps Marketplace boasts more than 1,200 extensions across all the services. That's a lot to wade through, and most teams either ignore it entirely or install a dozen shiny things they …
Read more →Stakeholder Access Is Free Transparency
Here's a feature teams routinely leave on the table: Stakeholder access. It's free, it's unlimited, and it gives the people around your Scrum Team a window into the work. If you care about …
Read more →Customizing a Professional Scrum Process
The Scrum process in Azure DevOps is the closest fit to the Scrum Guide of any system process, but it isn't a perfect fit. Over the past decade the Scrum Guide evolved while the process largely stood …
Read more →The Pre-Game Checklist: Setting Up an Org and Project Right
In rugby, a lot happens before kickoff. Fields get selected, dates get negotiated, teams get formed, and player positions get designated. Scrum development efforts have a pre-game too. It's everything …
Read more →Azure Test Plans Is Your Sprint Plan, Not Just a Test Tool
Most teams I meet think Azure Test Plans is simply about creating and running tests. That's how Microsoft promotes the product and how it tends to get demoed. It can certainly do those things. But …
Read more →Choosing a Process: Basic, Agile, Scrum, or CMMI
Every Azure DevOps project starts with a decision that most teams make in about four seconds and then live with for years. When you create a new project, you have to pick a process. That process …
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