10 Azure DevOps Area Path Best Practices

In Azure DevOps, area paths are used to organize work items into meaningful groups. They can be used to represent features, components, teams, or any other logical grouping of work items.

Area paths can be assigned to work items manually or automatically using work item rules. In this article, we will discuss 10 best practices for using area paths in Azure DevOps.

1. Create a hierarchy of Area Paths

If you have a flat structure (i.e. all area paths are at the same level), it can be difficult to see the big picture and understand how work is progressing. This is because you can’t easily roll up data from child area paths to parent area paths.

A hierarchy of area paths solves this problem by allowing you to roll up data from child area paths to parent area paths. This gives you a better understanding of how work is progressing and where bottlenecks might be occurring.

To create a hierarchy of area paths, simply create a new area path for each level in the hierarchy. For example, you might have an area path for each team, each project, and each release.

2. Use the same Area Path for all work items in a project

When you use the same area path for all work items in a project, it’s easier to track and manage work because all of the work is grouped together. This also makes it easier to generate reports because you don’t have to worry about filtering by multiple area paths.

Additionally, using the same area path makes it easier to share work item queries and dashboards with other users, since they won’t have to filter by multiple area paths.

3. Don’t use Area Path as a filter when creating queries

If you use Area Path as a filter when creating queries, you’re essentially hard-coding the query to only return results for a specific area. This might not seem like a big deal at first, but it can cause problems down the road if you need to change the query or want to reuse it for another area.

Instead of using Area Path as a filter, add it as a column in the query so that you can easily change it or remove it altogether if necessary. This will make your queries much more flexible and reusable, which will save you time and effort in the long run.

4. Avoid using Area Path to track status or progress

If you use Area Path to track the status of work, then every time the status changes (e.g. from “To Do” to “Doing”), a new work item is created. This quickly leads to an unmanageable number of work items, and makes it difficult to get an overview of what’s actually going on.

A better way to track the status of work is to use Azure DevOps Boards. You can create a board for each status (e.g. “To Do”, “Doing”, “Done”) and add work items to the appropriate board. This gives you a clear overview of the work that needs to be done, and makes it easy to see the progress that’s been made.

5. Keep your Area Path structure simple and easy to understand

If you have a complex structure, it will be difficult for people to understand where they should be working on items, and items will likely get misplaced. This can lead to frustration and confusion, and ultimately decrease productivity.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your Area Paths at the same level as your Iterations. So if you have 4-5 Iterations, you should have 4-5 Area Paths.

Additionally, it’s important to give your Area Paths clear and concise names that accurately reflect the work that will be done there. For example, if you’re working on a project for a specific customer, you might name your Area Path “Customer XYZ Project”.

6. Make sure you have an “Unassigned” area path

If you don’t have an Unassigned area path, then every single work item created will need to be assigned to an area path. This can quickly become a problem if you have a lot of work items being created, or if you have work items that span multiple teams.

The Unassigned area path acts as a catch-all for work items that don’t need to be specifically assigned to a team. This way, you can still track the work item, but it doesn’t need to be bogging down your team’s area path.

To set up an Unassigned area path, go to your Azure DevOps project settings and select “Area Paths.” From there, you can create a new area path called “Unassigned.”

7. Remember that Area Paths are case-sensitive

If you have an area path called “MyArea” and another called “myarea”, they will be considered two different areas in Azure DevOps. This can lead to confusion and errors when trying to assign work items to the wrong area.

To avoid this, make sure to use a consistent case for all of your area paths. A good rule of thumb is to use all lowercase letters, as this will make it easier to avoid mistakes.

8. Use Area Paths to group related work together

When you’re working on a complex project with multiple teams, it can be difficult to keep track of all the work that’s being done. Area paths help to organize work by grouping related items together. This way, you can easily see what work is being done by each team and how it fits into the overall project.

Area paths also make it easier to report on progress and identify areas of concern. For example, if you’re trying to track the progress of a specific feature, you can use an area path to filter the work items so that only items related to that feature are displayed. This makes it easy to see which team is responsible for each item and whether or not the work is on track.

Finally, area paths can be used to control access to work items. For example, you can use area paths to restrict who can view or edit work items in a certain area. This is useful when you want to limit access to sensitive information or prevent accidental changes to work items.

9. Use Area Paths to assign ownership

When you have a large project with many teams working on it, it can be difficult to keep track of who is responsible for what. Area paths help to solve this problem by allowing you to assign an owner to each area.

This way, when someone has a question about a certain area of the project, they know who to go to. It also helps to prevent duplication of work, as each team knows which areas they are responsible for.

Area paths also make it easier to generate reports, as you can filter them by owner. This is especially useful if you need to find out how much work a certain team has done or if you want to see which areas are behind schedule.

10. Use Area Paths to create dashboards

If you want to get the most out of Azure DevOps, it’s important to have visibility into all aspects of your process. This includes understanding how work is progressing, what areas are causing bottlenecks, and where potential risks exist.

Area paths provide an easy way to segment your data and create custom dashboards that give you the insights you need to optimize your process. By creating area-specific dashboards, you can quickly identify and address issues before they become problems.

Creating custom dashboards in Azure DevOps is easy and only requires a few clicks. Simply select the “New Dashboard” option from the main menu, then click “Add Widget.” From there, you can choose the “Area Path” widget and select the area path you want to track.

Once you’ve added the widget, you can customize it to display the information you want to see. For example, you can add charts that show the number of work items in each stage of your process, or you can track the average time it takes to complete work items in each area.

By using area paths to create custom dashboards, you can gain valuable insights into your process and make sure that work is flowing smoothly through your system.