Setting up an Azure Devops Integration

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Setting up a Azure Devops Integration

ProdPad has a direct integration available with Azure Devops (formerly known as Visual Studio Team Services/VSTS).

The two-way integration between Azure Devops and ProdPad allows you to push any idea from ProdPad to Azure Devops, creating a link between the idea and the new work issue. You can map your issue statuses in Azure Devops with the custom statuses in ProdPad, and so when the status is updated in Azure Devops, the change reflects in your ProdPad account where the rest of the team can see it. You can also update the linked Work Issue with any text-based changes made to the linked Idea in ProdPad using the  Sync updates to Azure DevOps button!

Getting the integration with Azure Devops set up is easy, and just requires you to follow these steps:

Part 1. Setting up an Azure Devops integration
Part 2. Mapping Fields
Part 3. Pushing ideas to Azure Devops
Part 4. Sharing with your team

Part 1. Setting up the Azure Devops integration in ProdPad

To start, log in to ProdPad as an Admin, and head to the Integrations page.

On the module page, click on +Create Integration and select Azure Devops to get started.

Enter a name for the integration e.g. ADO Dev Queue and and a quick description, then click Create.

If you aren't already logged into Azure Devops, you will be prompted to enter your credentials. Once you're logged into Azure Devops you’ll be prompted to allow ProdPad limited access to your Azure Devops profile. We require access to read your organizations and boards; create and update cards, lists and boards; and make comments on your ideas.

You should ensure your Organization settings are set to accept third party applications via OAuth. You can read more about this here.

Part 2. Mapping fields

Once the authorization is complete, you will be able to select a project from your Azure Devops account. Select the project you want your ProdPad ideas to appear in once they've been pushed to Azure Devops.

Next, it's time to map your field types from Azure Devops to ProdPad. To begin with, select the Ticket Type for Ideas and the Ticket Type for User Stories. 

You can view the list of current compatible Azure DevOps work item types below:

In the next step, you'll pick which fields from your Ideas page you want to send to Azure Devops. At the very least, you need to select something for the Title field in Azure Devops – we recommend using the Title field from your ProdPad idea for this. You can also pre-fill the Description in your Azure Devops issue with the description, business case, and functional specs in ProdPad, or any combination of them. 

It's worth noting you can also set your field mapping to include Designs and Files from ProdPad, which will be added as Attachments to your new card in Azure Devops!

Once you've finished mapping Ideas, you can do the same for User Stories if required:

The last step is to map statuses, so that as the issue moves within the development workflow, ProdPad will reflect those changes.

To ensure your field selections have been saved, make sure to check that you've scrolled down and clicked the ' Save changes' button for each field. 

Part 3. Pushing ideas to Azure Devops

Now that you've got an active integration with Azure Devops set up, it's time to start pushing finished ideas from ProdPad to Azure Devops.

Head to your Ideas List, and pick an idea that's ready for development. In the Idea Canvas page, click on  Push to development at the top right. This will open up a modal window where you can choose to push the Idea via the Azure Devops integration you've set up, or any of your other integrations.

Once pushed to Azure Devops, your ProdPad statuses will sync with your Azure Devops statuses as they are updated. (Note: the update cycles every 20 minutes, you should not have to wait longer than that to see this in ProdPad).

If you make any changes to a pushed Idea or User Story in ProdPad, you'll notice the  Push button on the top right-hand side of the Idea page changes to Sync updates to Azure DevOps. Clicking this button after you make changes to a pushed Idea will update the linked Work Item in Azure instead of creating a separate new Work Item. The updated changes will be reflected in the Azure Work Item immediately when the Sync updates to Azure button is clicked. 

Part 4. Sharing with your team

To make it easy for your team to use the same integration mappings, you can share your integration with your team.

In your Integrations list, click the 'Teamwide' setting.

Once this is done, anyone in your ProdPad account can log in and go to the Integrations & API page, and select the original integration in the 'Available Integrations' list.