Delivery Plans 2.0 Update
We are excited to announce that the dependency tracking feature for Delivery Plans 2.0 is complete and the Team limit has been increased to 15! We’ve also addressed some bugs and issues so please keep the feedback coming.
Viewing Dependencies
Dependency tracking works by defining the predecessor and successor links for work items. This informs Delivery Plans of the dependencies. Dependencies are viewed through the dependency panel which shows all the dependencies for that work item, including the direction. A red exclamation mark indicates a dependency problem. To bring up the panel simply click on the dependency link icon in the upper right corner of the card.
Here are examples of the dependency panel…
Dependencies between work items are visualized with arrow headed lines between the respective work items. Multiple dependencies will display with multiple lines. A red colored line indicates a problem. Just click on the card to activate the dependency lines. Here is an example of a single dependency.
Here’s an example of a dependency with an issue…
Here’s an example of multiple dependencies…
When there is an issue the line color is red and you can hover over it to get the specific dependency that has an issue.
Clarifications
Based on feedback we’ve been receiving I want to provide clarification on some common activities
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Any fields included on your plan(via Settings) can be filtered on with the text filter
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Any plan created with the original Plans extension will work with Delivery Plans 2.0, no data has to migrate.
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HTML fields like description can’t be added to a card because it’s a challenge to format. We’ll update the field selector to not include HTML fields.
What’s next?
We’ll continue addressing feedback and fixing bugs. We plan to GA Delivery Plans 2.0 by the end of March.
It seems pretty good! Is it possible to block pipeline stage executions if any of the changes/commits related to an issue blocked by another issue?
Cheers,
Mehmet
DevOps Consultant @Tigillo
I am +1'ing to the suggestion to be able to see all dependencies on the board.
We have been longing for a "Program Planning Board" in Azure Boards, and with the dependency tracking we are almost there. Thank you!
Our reason is ofc that it is crucial for us to identify items with the biggest amount of work depending on it. All of the individual dependencies could be fine (e.g. all successors are planned after this specific item, etc), but we need a way to identify the items imposing the biggest risk to our progress - if they are not completed. A...
I still miss a couple of features I would really like to have in Delivery Plans:
1) I would like to be able to create sprints through DP.
2) To be able to see items that have not been assigned to a sprint/that are still in the backlog.
3) Adding up the total hours/units of work per sprint.
These three combined would help me to plan the work for multiple projects from one location. Creating sprints and assigning work to them all from the same location is a lot faster than having to dive into each separate project.
4) Unlimited teams/sources of...
Love the new dependency functionality, however…
1) a few days ago it was clear to see which work items had dependencies because the link icon in the top right was red. Today I have noticed that the link icons are no longer displaying red, until you move your cursor over a card.
2) also, it would be useful to have the ability to see all the arrows at the same time on the Delivery Plans view (PI Planning string exercise)