Azure DevOps - Maximum backlog levels allowed is 5

0
votes

I have a number of teams in the Azure DevOps (Visual Studio Online) tracking a different type of work item.

Currently i have created 3 different backlogs for 3 different teams. There is 2 default backlogs 'Epics' and 'Features', hence total of 5 backlogs.

I'm trying to added a 4th team and now trying to add a backlog for that team. But i'm getting the message "You have reached the maximum number of backlog levels".

I also learnt that maximum number of allowed Portfolio backlog levels defined for a process is 5.

I also tried to edit the default backlog, which would not let me de-select the work item selected in it, so i could rename it and add the new work item it needs to track.

So is there any other way i could achieve that or to increase the number of portfolio backlog levels.

2
azure-devops
Did any of these answers lead to solving your problem? Consider accepting one that does! – Adam

2 Answers

0
votes

I think you may be going about this the wrong way with respect to Azure DevOps.

You should look into having an Area Path for each Team. See here. For instance in my company we have two Teams say; Alpha and Omega and we've set up two Area Paths as Company\Alpha and Company\Omega. You can then manage each teams backlogs, iterations, work items etc. separately. See here also. We use the same set of iterations across all teams and when we move work items between teams we change the Area Path of the work items.

0
votes

By default projects, your hierarchy is shown as below:

enter image description here

If you need more than two portfolio backlogs, you can add up to two more for a total of five backlog levels. (limits mentioned here. Portfolio backlog levels defined for a process 5)

This will increase the totally level to 7 (3 customized+ Epic+Feature+PBI+Task)

You can add them by customizing your process, adding new work item types, and then configuring your backlogs and boards.

You can also add or modify the fields defined for a work item type (WIT) or add a custom WIT.

After this it could be:

enter image description here

For details, see Customize an inheritance process and Customize your backlogs or boards (Inheritance process).

However, this is backlog level not designed for multiple teams.

Your team's product backlog lists only those items whose area path matches those assigned to your team.

For details, see Define area paths and assign to a team.

Then you could simply switch backlog for different teams here:

enter image description here