Details on an example VSTS Dashboard the is used to capture, report and take action to correct data quality problems that will occur in a VSTS backlog.
Written in 2016-2017:
This is part of a series of articles that I originally wrote in 2016-2017 and were only published on private internal company wikis. I am publishing them publicly for the first time in 2019, here on my blog.
Written for Microsoft’s VSTS:
Some content is written for Microsoft’s Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS), as it existed in 2016-2017. VSTS was renamed to Azure DevOps in 2018 (WikiPedia).
Learn More:
Microsoft VSTS documentation:
About the Action Required Dashboard:
- Purpose: Make it much easier for Scrum Masters and Scrum Product Owners to find and fix problems in your Backlogs.
- Scrum Masters and Scrum Product Owners should check this dashboard a few times a week, so they can catch and fix some problems early.
- Dashboard contains over 160 dashboard Tile widgets, powered by over 160 queries.
- Makes finding and fixing some backlog health problems significantly easier.
How Dashboard is Organized:
Widget Color Coding:
- Red = Action Required to fix problem.
- Green = No issues, no action required.
- Grey = Information only
Widget Organization:
- Organized by team, so you can jump straight to the things you need to take immediate action on.
- Organized in a grid, like a spreadsheet.
- Tiles are used as column and row headers, to describe what is in each tile (or cell).
- Teams are organized in to rows of Tiles.
- Actions Required to be taken, are organized in to columns.
How To Use:
Scrum Masters and Scrum Product Owners should check this dashboard a few times a week, so you can catch and fix some problems early.
- Click on a Tile to drill down in to the detailed query.
- Take action directly on the work items in the query.
- Check the All > No Team Area Path row at the top, and add Area Paths to the work items there, that your team owns.
- Check your team’s row for all your team’s work items, and take action to fix the issues with them.
- Check All row for work items that your team needs to take action on.
About Widgets:
| Widgets | Description | Work Item Types Included |
| No Team Area Path | All Scrum Masters and Scrum Product Owners should check these for work items that should be in your team’s Area Path. Move them to your team’s Area Path. | Varies by widget, see widget title. |
| Wrong Release or Sprint | Shows work items where the Sprint does not align with the release time frame. | Feature User Story Bug |
| Wrong Release Version | Not a valid Release Version. | Feature User Story Bug |
| No Estimate Features | Features where Work Effort is blank. | Feature |
| Unparented Work Items | Work Item does not have a parent. | All, except top level |