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VSTS Dashboard Example: Backlog Data Quality

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.

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.

  1. Click on a Tile to drill down in to the detailed query.
  2. Take action directly on the work items in the query.
  3. Check the All > No Team Area Path row at the top, and add Area Paths to the work items there, that your team owns.
  4. Check your team’s row for all your team’s work items, and take action to fix the issues with them.
  5. Check All row for work items that your team needs to take action on.

About Widgets:

Widgets DescriptionWork Item Types Included
No Team Area PathAll 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 SprintShows work items where the Sprint does not align with the release time frame.Feature
User Story
Bug
Wrong Release VersionNot a valid Release Version. Feature
User Story
Bug
No Estimate FeaturesFeatures where Work Effort is blank.Feature
Unparented Work ItemsWork Item does not have a parent.All, except top level

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