AZ-400 - Configure Processes and Communications
1. Azure Boards Overview
Azure Boards is the work-tracking system within Azure DevOps that provides a rich set of capabilities including native support for Agile, Scrum, and Kanban processes. It enables teams to plan, track, and discuss work across the entire development effort.
Work Item Types
Process Templates
Azure DevOps provides four built-in process templates: Basic (Issue, Task, Epic), Agile (User Story, Task, Bug, Feature, Epic), Scrum (Product Backlog Item, Task, Bug, Feature, Epic), and CMMI (Requirement, Task, Bug, Feature, Epic). Organizations can also create custom inherited processes to extend these templates with additional fields, states, and work item types.
Work Item Hierarchy
Work items follow a hierarchy: Epics → Features → User Stories / PBIs → Tasks. This hierarchy enables portfolio-level tracking. Parent-child links allow rolling up effort and state across the hierarchy. You can also link work items with predecessor/successor relationships for dependency management.
Sprints and Iterations
Sprints (called Iterations in Azure DevOps) represent time-boxed periods in which a team delivers a set of work items. Teams can define iteration paths at the project level and assign them to specific teams. The Sprint backlog view shows committed items, remaining capacity, and burndown charts.
Capacity Planning
Each team member can set their capacity per day and days off for each sprint. Azure Boards calculates the total team capacity and compares it against the assigned work. The capacity bar turns red when the team is over-allocated, helping teams balance workloads before the sprint begins.
2. Dashboards and Queries
Azure DevOps dashboards provide an at-a-glance view of project progress through configurable widgets. Each team can create multiple dashboards to monitor different aspects of their project.
Dashboard Widgets
Built-in Widgets
Key widgets include: Burndown/Burnup Charts for tracking sprint progress, Velocity for measuring team throughput across sprints, Cumulative Flow Diagram for identifying bottlenecks, Query Results for displaying work item lists, Test Results Trend for quality tracking, and Build History for CI pipeline status. Teams can also add custom widgets from the Azure DevOps Marketplace.
Work Item Queries
Queries in Azure Boards use a structured query editor with three query types: Flat list (returns a simple list of matching work items), Tree of work items (returns work items in parent-child hierarchy), and Direct links (returns work items with their direct links). Queries support clauses using field operators such as equals, contains, in, and was ever.
Shared Queries and Charts
Queries can be saved as personal (My Queries) or shared with the team (Shared Queries). Shared queries can be pinned to dashboards and used as data sources for charts. Query-based charts support pie, bar, stacked bar, pivot table, and trend chart types, making it easy to visualize work item distributions and trends.
3. Permissions and Security
Azure DevOps uses a role-based access model with permissions set at multiple levels: organization, project, team, and area path. Security groups such as Project Administrators, Contributors, and Readers define the base set of permissions.
Area and Iteration Permissions
Granular Access Control
Area paths control which teams own which work items and can restrict read/write access to specific areas of the product. Iteration paths define when work is scheduled. Permissions can be set at each area or iteration node, supporting scenarios where external vendors can only see certain product areas. The Deny permission always takes precedence over Allow.
4. Azure DevOps Wiki
Azure DevOps supports two types of wikis: Project Wiki (managed directly in the Azure DevOps portal, backed by a Git repository automatically) and Code Wiki (published from Markdown files already existing in a code repository). Wikis support Markdown syntax, Mermaid diagrams, mathematical notation, and table of contents generation.
Wiki Best Practices
Use the project wiki for living documentation such as onboarding guides, architecture decision records, and runbooks. Use code wikis when documentation should be versioned alongside the code it describes. Wiki pages support @mention for people, #mention for work items, and can embed Azure Boards query results.
5. Delivery Plans and Teams Integration
Delivery Plans
Delivery Plans provide a cross-team calendar view showing work items plotted against iterations. They enable program managers to see work scheduled across multiple teams, track dependencies, and identify scheduling conflicts. Each row in a delivery plan represents a team, and columns represent iterations.
Plan Features
Delivery Plans support markers for milestones, dependency tracking with visual lines between linked work items, and team filters to focus on specific backlogs. Plans can include teams from different projects within the same organization, enabling portfolio-level visibility.
Microsoft Teams Integration
Azure DevOps App for Teams
The Azure DevOps app for Microsoft Teams allows teams to monitor work items, pipelines, pull requests, and releases directly from Teams channels. Key features include: subscribable notifications for pipeline completions and work item changes, ability to create and update work items from Teams, and previews of Azure DevOps links shared in conversations. The Azure Boards app and Azure Pipelines app can be installed separately in Teams channels.
Service Hooks and Notifications
Service hooks enable integration with external services by triggering actions when events occur in Azure DevOps. Supported targets include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jenkins, Trello, and custom webhooks. Notifications can be configured at the organization, team, or individual level, with support for custom email templates and role-based notification subscriptions.
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