To enable the sync of between a team's backlog work items in ADO, defined by the ADO Area Path and Sticky Notes on the team's Team Board in piplanning.io you need to map:
piplanning.io Teams to ADO Area Paths in the ALM Connection > Team Mapping tab.
piplanning.io Iterations to ADO Iteration Paths in the PI Session set up on tab #11 Iterations. This step is covered in the PI Session set up articles.
Mapping of piplanning.io Team to their ADO Area Path
Navigate to ALM Connections
Edit the ADO Connection you want to use
Navigate to the Team Mapping tab
Select the Edit button for each Team
On the Team Mapping detail page, click the green button labeled Add Area Path
Enter the ADO Area Path for this [piplanning.io] Team in the input field. Click Save.
Important details:
When you tab out of the text input field (unfocus) it will validate if the ADO Area Path is valid. Ensure the ADO Area Path value validates and there are no errors.
The ALM Connection is designed based on Microsofts guidance about how to set up the Area Paths and Iteration Paths in an ADO Project to manage a SAFe Portfolio/Program.
Multiple ADO Area Paths
You can have multiple ADO Area Path for each Team in piplanning.io. It is not best practice (in ADO) but we hope you find this useful if a new team in your transformation has backlog items managed in multiple ADO Area Paths due to the legacy set up of the ADO Projects.
Schema of ADO Area Paths
You will need to include your root node into the path. Example: You have an ADO Project called SAFe5.0. In that you will create the a path Online Store (for the top level Product or Organization). The each layer in the organizational hierarchy (organizational taxonomy) should be represented in the Area Path, for example ART Name\Team Name.
If you want to map to Online Store, you will need to enter the whole path: SAFe5.0\Online Store\ART\Team I. Keep in mind that ADO uses backslashes "\" to structure the path.
Guidance from Microsoft on ADO Project Area Paths for SAFe
Read this guide: Implement SAFe with Azure Boards Complete Guide from Microsoft.