| title | Get Started as a Project Administrator |
|---|---|
| titleSuffix | Azure DevOps |
| description | Learn how to structure projects, manage users, and set policies as a project administrator in Azure DevOps to support your development teams effectively. |
| ms.custom | copilot-scenario-highlight |
| ms.subservice | azure-devops-new-user |
| ms.author | chcomley |
| author | chcomley |
| ms.topic | get-started |
| ai-usage | ai-assisted |
| monikerRange | <= azure-devops |
| ms.date | 03/17/2026 |
[!INCLUDE version-lt-eq-azure-devops.md]
As a member of the Project Administrators group, you're responsible for configuring resources, managing permissions, and setting policies for your project. This article walks through the key tasks to set up and maintain a project in Azure DevOps.
[!INCLUDE ai-assistance-mcp-server-tip]
[!INCLUDE prerequisites-project-administrator-only]
Add users to a team or project so they can contribute. Adding a user to a team automatically adds them to the project's Contributors group, which grants permissions for work items, code, builds, and releases. Team members also appear in team-specific tools like sprint capacity planning and the Team Members widget.
For more information, see Add users or groups to a team or project. For an overview of default permissions, see Default permissions quick reference.
Use the project summary page to share goals and onboarding information through a README file. For more detailed documentation, create a project wiki to capture processes, procedures, and guidelines.
Simplify the web portal by disabling services your project doesn't use. For example, if you only track bugs, disable everything except Boards. For more information, see Turn a service on or off.
Security groups and permissions control who can access and modify resources in your project. Review Default permissions and access to understand what users can do by default, then see Change project-level permissions to adjust them.
[!INCLUDE project-level-permissions]
The person who creates a project is automatically added to the Project Administrators group. Add at least one other member to this group to ensure continuity. See Add members to the Project Administrators group.
As a project administrator, you can grant or restrict permissions at the project and object levels. To delegate tasks to others, you can:
- Add users to a built-in or custom security group
- Assign role-based permissions for resources like agent pools, service connections, and pipelines
- Restrict access to specific features
::: moniker range="azure-devops"
Note
If you enable the Limit user visibility and collaboration to specific projects preview feature for the organization, users added to the Project-Scoped Users group can't access projects that they weren't added to. For more information, see Limit user visibility for projects.
::: moniker-end
Each project comes with default notification subscriptions. You can also define team or project-level subscriptions. If users receive too many notifications, direct them to manage their personal notifications.
Link work items, commits, builds, and test results to track changes from requirements through deployment. For more information, see End-to-end traceability and Cross-service integration overview.
Set policies to help enforce code quality, compliance, and resource management across your project.
- Branch policies — Require reviewers, enforce successful builds, or block direct pushes to protected branches. See Manage branch policies.
- TFVC check-in policies — Enforce rules like code analysis or work item association before check-in. See Add check-in policies.
- Pipeline retention policies — Control how long to keep build and release runs, artifacts, and logs. See Set retention policies.
- Test retention policies — Set how long to keep automated and manual test results. See Set test retention policies.
At a minimum, configure area paths to group work items by team, product, or feature area, and iteration paths to group work into sprints or milestones. For a full overview of configuration options, see Configure and customize Azure Boards.
Define area paths to organize work by team, product, or feature area. Define iteration paths to assign work to sprints or milestones. This configuration is required for sprint backlogs, taskboards, and capacity planning. For an overview, see About areas and iteration paths.
[!INCLUDE customize-work-tracking]
Azure DevOps integrates with Azure, GitHub, and many other services. You can also extend functionality by installing extensions from the Marketplace.
| Service integration | Resources |
|---|---|
| GitHub | Azure DevOps and GitHub integration overview Azure Boards–GitHub integration |
| Microsoft Teams | Azure Boards · Azure Repos · Azure Pipelines |
| Slack | Azure Boards · Azure Repos · Azure Pipelines |
| Service hooks | Integrate with service hooks — push events to external services like Jenkins, Trello, or custom webhooks |
| REST APIs | Azure DevOps REST API reference — build custom integrations and automation |
As your organization grows, add teams so each team gets its own set of customizable Agile tools – backlogs, boards, sprints, and dashboards.
For more information, see Add a team and Add a team administrator.
::: moniker range="azure-devops"
If you configure the Azure DevOps MCP Server, you can use AI assistants to manage your project through natural language prompts.
| Task | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Manage team members | List all members of the <Frontend> team in <Contoso> project |
| Check permissions | Show the permissions for the <Contributors> group in <Contoso> project |
| Review project settings | Show the process template and settings for <Contoso> project |
| Set up areas | List all area paths in <Contoso> project |
| Manage iterations | Show the current and upcoming iterations for <Contoso> project |
| Add users | Add user <jamal@contoso.com> to the <Contributors> group in <Contoso> project |
| Review integrations | List all service hooks configured in <Contoso> project |
| Audit access changes | Show permission changes in <Contoso> project from the past <14> days |
| Onboard a new team | Create a new team called <Mobile> in <Contoso> project and add users <sara@contoso.com> and <jamal@contoso.com> |
| Generate a project health snapshot | Summarize open bugs, active pull requests, and running pipelines in <Contoso> project |
::: moniker-end