| title | Manage Scrum process work items types & workflow |
|---|---|
| titleSuffix | Azure Boards |
| description | Learn how to use the Scrum process work item types and workflow to track work in Azure Boards and Azure DevOps. |
| ms.custom | work-items, engagement-fy23 |
| ms.service | azure-devops-boards |
| ms.assetid | 34c866ea-a130-4371-bfc4-a3d9f87dccca |
| ms.topic | conceptual |
| ms.author | chcomley |
| author | chcomley |
| monikerRange | <= azure-devops |
| ms.date | 06/08/2023 |
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To plan a software project and track software defects using Scrum, teams use the product backlog item (PBI) and bug work item types (WITs). To gain insight into a portfolio of features, scenarios, or user experiences, product owners, and program managers can map PBIs and bugs to features. When teams work in sprints, they define tasks that automatically link to PBIs and bugs.
:::image type="content" source="media/scrum-process-plan-wits.png" alt-text="Conceptual images of Scrum process, work item types used to plan and track.":::
Note
If you're new to the Scrum process, review About Sprints, Scrum and project management.
Testers can create and run test cases and create bugs to track code defects using the web portal or Microsoft Test Manager. Impediments track blocking issues.
When you define a product backlog item, focus on the value that your customers gain and avoid descriptions of how your team develops the feature. The product owner can prioritize your product backlog based on each item's business value, effort, and relative dependency on other backlog items. As your business requirements evolve, so does your product backlog. Typically, teams specify details only for the highest priority items, or those items assigned to the current and next sprint.
You can create PBIs and bugs from the quick add panel on the product backlog page.
Afterward, you can open each PBI or bug to provide more details and estimate the effort. Also, by prioritizing the PBIs and bugs on the backlog page (which is captured in the Backlog Priority field), product owners can indicate which items should be given higher priority.
:::image type="content" source="../media/about-work-items/work-item-form-product-backlog-item.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Product backlog item work item form.":::
When you define the Effort for PBIs and bugs, you can use the forecast feature and velocity charts to estimate future sprints or work efforts. When you define the Business Value, product owners can specify priorities separate from the changeable backlog stack ranking.
Use the following fields and fields used in common across work item types when you complete the work item form. For more information, see Manage bugs.
:::row::: :::column span="1"::: Field/tab :::column-end::: :::column span="3"::: Usage :::column-end::: :::row-end:::
:::row::: :::column span="1"::: Effort
:::column-end::: :::column span="3"::: Estimate the amount of work required to complete a PBI using any unit of measurement your team prefers, such as story points or time. A numeric value is required.
Agile velocity charts and forecast tools reference the values in this field. For more information, see the Estimating white paper.
:::column-end::: :::row-end::: :::row::: :::column span="1"::: Business Value
:::column-end::: :::column span="3"::: Specify a number that captures the relative value of a PBI compared to other PBIs. The higher the number, the greater the business value.
:::column-end:::
:::row-end::: :::row::: :::column span="1"::: Description
:::column-end::: :::column span="3"::: Provide enough detail for estimating how much work is required to implement the item. Focus on who the feature is for, what users want to accomplish, and why. Don't describe how the feature should be developed. Do provide sufficient details so that your team can write tasks and test cases to implement the item.
:::column-end::: :::row-end::: :::row::: :::column span="1"::: Acceptance Criteria
:::column-end:::
:::column span="3":::
Define what "Done" means by describing the criteria that the team should use to verify whether the PBI or the bug fix has been fully implemented.
Before work begins on a PBI or bug, describe the criteria for customer acceptance as clearly as possible. Conversations between the team and customers to determine the acceptance criteria helps ensure a common understanding within the team to meet customers' expectations. The acceptance criteria can be used as the basis for acceptance tests so that the team can more effectively evaluate whether an item has been satisfactorily completed.
:::column-end::: :::row-end:::
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As work progresses, you change the State field to update the status. Optionally, you can specify a reason. The state and reason fields appear on the work item form in the header area.
:::image type="content" source="media/scrum-bug-workflow-header-form.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the bug work item form, header area.":::
When you update the State, teams know which items are new, in progress, or completed. Most WITs support transition both forward and backward from each workflow state. These diagrams show the main progression and regression states of the PBI, bug, and task WITs.
[!div class="mx-tdBreakAll"]
Product Backlog Item Bug Task :::image type="content" source="media/alm-pt-scrum-wf-pbi.png" alt-text="Conceptual image of Product Backlog Item workflow states, Scrum process."::: :::image type="content" source="media/alm-pt-scrum-wf-bug.png" alt-text="Conceptual image of Bug workflow states, Scrum process."::: :::image type="content" source="media/alm-pt-scrum-wf-task.png" alt-text="Conceptual image of Task workflow states, Scrum process.":::
PBIs and bugs follow this typical workflow progression:
- The product owner creates a PBI or a tester creates a bug in the New state with the default reason, New backlog item
- The product owner moves the item to Approved after it's sufficiently described and ready for the team to estimate the level of effort. Most of the time, items near the top of the Product Backlog are in the Approved state, while items toward the middle and bottom are in a New state
- The team updates the status to Committed when they decide to commit to working on it during the sprint
- The item gets moved to the Done state when the team has completed all its associated tasks and the product owner agrees that it has been implemented according to the Acceptance Criteria.
Teams can use the board to update the status of PBIs, and the sprint Taskboard to update the status of tasks. Dragging items to a new state column updates both the State and Reason fields.
:::image type="content" source="../../boards/media/alm-cc-move-card.png" alt-text="Screenshot of track progress on the board.":::
You can customize the board to support more swim lanes or columns. For other customization options, see Customize your work tracking experience.
When you manage a suite of products or user experiences, you might want to view the scope and progress of work across the product portfolio. To do so, define features and map PBIs to features.
Using portfolio backlogs, you can drill down from one backlog to another to view the level of detail you want. Also, you can use portfolio backlogs to view a rollup of work in progress across several teams when you setup a hierarchy of teams.
When your team manages their work in sprints, they can use the sprint backlog page to break down the work to be accomplished into distinct tasks.
:::image type="content" source="media/IC795962.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Sprint backlog, Add a task to an item in the sprint backlog.":::
Name the task and estimate the work it takes.
:::image type="content" source="media/scrum-task-form.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Scrum process, Task work item form.":::
Teams can forecast work and define tasks at the start of each sprint, and each team member completes a subset of those tasks. Tasks can include development, testing, and other kinds of work. For example, a developer can define tasks to implement PBIs, and a tester can define tasks to write and run test cases.
When teams estimate work using hours or days, they define tasks and the Remaining Work and Activity (optional) fields.
:::row::: :::column span="1"::: Field/tab :::column-end::: :::column span="3"::: Usage :::column-end::: :::row-end::: :::row::: :::column span="1"::: Remaining Work
:::column-end:::
:::column span="3":::
Indicate how many hours or days of work remain to complete a task. As work progresses, update this field. It's used to calculate capacity charts, the sprint burndown chart, and the Sprint Burndown (Scrum) report.
If you divide a task into subtasks, specify Remaining Work for the subtasks only. You can specify work in any unit of measurement your team chooses.
:::column-end::: :::row-end::: :::row::: :::column span="1"::: Activity
:::column-end::: :::column span="3"::: Select the type of activity this task represents when your team estimates sprint capacity by activity.
:::column-end::: :::row-end:::
From the web portal or Test Manager, you can create test cases that automatically link to a PBI or bug. Or, you can link a PBI or bug to a test case from the :::image type="icon" source="../../backlogs/media/icon-links-tab-wi.png" border="false"::: (links tab).
:::image type="content" source="media/test-plan-new-item.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Web portal, Select the test suite and add a test case.":::
The test case contains many fields, many of which are automated and integrated with Test Manager and the build process. For a description of each field, see Query based on build and test integration fields.
:::image type="content" source="media/scrum-test-case-form.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Scrum Test case work item form.":::
The :::image type="icon" source="../../backlogs/media/icon-links-tab-wi.png" border="false"::: (links tab) captures the links to all the PBIs and bugs in a test case. By linking PBIs and bugs to test cases, the team can track the progress made in testing each item.
You can create bugs from the web portal web portal, Visual Studio, or when testing with Test Manager.
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Use the Impediment work item type to track events that may block progress or ship a PBI. Use the Bug work item type exclusively to track code defects.
You can add an impediment from the New work item widget added to a team dashboard, or from the New menu on the Queries page.
:::image type="content" source="media/scrum-new-work-item-widget.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing adding work item from a New work item widget.":::
Work items you add from the widget are automatically scoped to your team's default area and iteration paths. To change the team context, see Switch team context.
The Backlog Priority field is used to track the relative ranking of PBIs, bugs, features, or epics. However, by default it doesn't appear on the work item form. The sequence of items on the backlog page is determined according to where you've added the items or moved the items on the page. As you drag items, a background process updates this field.
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