Working with Multiple Projects and a Single Team

Question

We are a small team of around 8 developers and I would like to ask if it is possible to view all work on a single board. We use the kanban board and we are not working in sprints so the Delivery Plan extension is not suitable for us. We want to view all works of all our engineers on different projects on a single kanban board.

I read this article (https://nkdagility.com/one-team-project/) and so far it is working for us. However, it seems that this is really a workaround instead of an actual feature.

I would like to ask if this is still a legit way to do it or VSTS has already improved and maybe provided a solution for this problem?

Thanks

Answer 1

Having used Azure DevOps for a while, I'm now starting to understand that I have been using it wrong all along. The main reason for this is the use of the term "Project" in Azure DevOps and how that is interpreted.

If you follow Microsoft's definition:

A project provides a repository for source code and a place for users to plan, track progress, and collaborate on building software solutions. A project represents a fundamental container where data is stored when added to Azure DevOps.

This doesn't say "a software solution" but it says "software solutions" which suggests you can have multiple software projects within one Azure DevOps "Project".

It wasn't until recently I realised you can have more than one repository inside an Azure DevOps Project.

This means that all the Boards / Sprints etc can share work items across Software Projects.

In fact, this is the Microsoft default recommendation;

When to add another project

In general, we recommend that you use a single project to support your organization or enterprise. A single project minimizes the maintenance of administrative tasks and supports the most optimized / full-flexibility cross-link object experience.