ART-level Backlog workitems (e.g. Features) in ADO are synced to the ART Backlog Board in piplanning.io. By following the details in this article you can configure the ART Backlog Board to support the bi-directional sync of the Team assigned to the Features. Plus allow the Features moved to the Team Area Path in ADO to continue to sync on the ART Backlog Board.
Note: Based on the guidance from Microsofts Azure DevOps article Implement SAFe with Azure Board - Complete Guide, in Azure DevOps, the ART and Team organizational nodes are defined by the ADO Area Path.
We support the following two cases:
Case 1: Your ART Level workitems are always in the ART Area Path and never moved into any other Area Path (e.g. the Team Area Path). Also no sub-paths.
Features would sync to the ART Backlog Board only if the Features lives in one of those Area Paths representing the ART. In the example about these Area Paths are only:
/SAFe/Animals
/SAFe/Mountains
Case 2: Your ART-level workitems are in the ART Area Path and also in the Team Area sub-paths or any other Area Path mapped to the piplanning.io Team (ALM Connections > Team Mapping).
In this example the Features can sync to the ART Backlog Board if they reside in any of the Team defined Area Paths, and this is because of certain Settings on the #5 ART Backlog Board. :
/SAFe/Animals (ART)
/SAFe/Animals/Cats (Team)
/SAFe/Animals/Tigers (Team)
/SAFe/Animals/Lions (Team)
/SAFe/Mountains/Matterhorn (ART)
/SAFe/Mountains/MountEverest (Team)
/SAFe/Shared Service (Team)
Case 1: ART Level workitems in ART Area path only
In the piplanning session, on the backlog board config step, select the settings tab. Make sure that Synchronize piplanning.io Teams via Area Path is off.
Case 2: ART Level workitems in ART Area path and child-paths
In the piplanning session, on the backlog board config step, select the settings tab. Make sure that Synchronize piplanning.io Teams via Area Path is on.
Hints:
Only sub-paths which are mapped to a team (ALM configuration -> Team Mapping) will be taken into account. Workitems assigned to a sub-path which is not mapped to any team, will not be synced to the app.
Workitems which belong to a path not being a sub-path of the ART will also be synced.
ART-Sessions: For each sticky-type, you should map the Area Path field to the path of your ART.
In case you have multiple area-paths mapped to a single team, the first are-path is used to
The sync is bidirectional:
When you assign a team in the app, it will change the Area Path in ADO to that teams sub-path. If multiple area-paths are mapped to a single team, we will take the first one.
When you un-assign a team in the app, it will change the Area Path to the ART Area Path (Area Path mapped on the sticky-type in case of ART session)
Video: Synchronizing ADO Features assigned to ADO Teams