Activate and Close Cards in Azure Boards
Activate and Close Cards in Azure Boards
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Microsoft Azure Boards has introduced a new automation feature that helps manage the state of parent items based on the status of their child items. Previously, a common issue was that a team might update the status of a task to "in progress" or "done," but the parent item, such as a story or epic, would remain unchanged. This discrepancy could skew metrics and make it difficult for project managers to get an accurate overview of a project's progress.
To address this, the new feature allows users to set up rules that automatically update a parent item's status. For example, a rule can be created to set a parent to "in progress" as soon as a single child task is started. Similarly, the parent can be marked as "done" once all of its child tasks are completed. This automation works up the hierarchy, so completing a task can automatically update its story, and completing all stories can automatically update the epic. However, it's important to note that these rules must be configured for each backlog level—like stories or epics—where you want the automation to occur.
This new tool simplifies project management and ensures that the status of higher-level items accurately reflects the work being done at the task level. While it automates the beginning and end of a workflow, it does not manage intermediate steps, as that would require a complex and highly structured process. The feature is configured at the team and backlog level, so it's a team-specific setting.
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