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We're using Azure devops, "agile settings".

We write the user stories in different ways (combination "As a user..", "Do this", "Adjust SinglanR...", etc. We have a functional team (FA) that write the user stories - all members pitch stories do the backlog.

During the current sprint (8), FA sit down with the developer(s) and discuss the user stories that have been assigned the next sprint as its iteration path. We do this prior to the start of the sprint in order to avoid a lot of questions in the planning meeting. During the discussions, dev. break down the work into tasks. The tasks are assigned an iteration path as well. Now we have an iteration path on both the user story as well as the tasks.

In DevOps, user stories are shown with their (child)tasks in "sprint backlog view". But - let's say that you start on a user story in sprint 9, complete 50% of the work in sprint 9 but have to move the remaining set of tasks to sprint 10 - do you adjust iteration path for the remaining tasks, the user story or both? Or do you remove the iteration path from the user story when you create the task and assign iteration to them?

The reason I'm asking is that I want to group the tasks under the correct story - at the same time it is incorrect to show that a user story with iteration path 9 is "still being worked on" in sprint 10. I would therefore prefer to remove the iteration path on the user story and keep it on the task-level only.

How are others doing this?

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Iteration paths are given to both, the user story and the task as well.

During the current sprint (8), FA sit down with the developer(s) and discuss the user stories that have been assigned the next sprint as its iteration path.

Since you have mentioned that you are working in sprints, I assume you are working with the Scrum framework. In which case, no external entity other than the development team can decide whether or not the user story can be delivered during a sprint i.e. the development team completely owns the sprint backlog. Here it looks like the user story is already committed for the next sprint, which would not be the correct approach.

Assuming that due to some unforeseen reasons, only 50% of the user story was complete, we would change the iteration path of the user story and all it's pending tasks as well. Ideally, all incomplete items would be sent back to the product backlog and planned again during the sprint planning meeting for the next iteration. No story points are considered in the previous iteration for that user story as there is no real value added to the increment.

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  • As I wrote we're using the agile settings, not Scrum. My question is a practical one in regards to how others are using devops, first and foremost in regards to iteration path (ip). Yes, I agree that a user story optimally is delivered in a sprint. Sometimes it is not. We close tasks as we complete them, so in practice, 5 of 6 tasks can be closed when the enddate is reached. If you only have ip on the tasks, the US will be in the backlog for both sprint 8 and 9 - this is nice. But if ip is set on both I believe that the US only show up on the ip set, ergo the task "hang alone" on the board. – sonstabo Jan 30 '20 at 7:11
  • @sonstabo There are many frameworks of agile like Lean, XP, Kanban etc. Scrum is one of them and is the most popular one. In scrum, the team works in sprints. Coming back to the question, It would really depend on your preference. You can change the iteration path of the user story(To sprint 9) when the current sprint(Sprint 8) ends. This would indicate that the user story is being worked on the next sprint as well. Keeping it in the backlog would reduce transparency and also the ease of knowing if the user story is being worked on. – Shaunak Lawande Jan 31 '20 at 3:56
  • Shaunak - I read my first book on XP, eXtreme Programming Explained, back in 2000 - I'm familiar with agile frameworks :) I've been lucky and not had to work with TFS >> Azure Devops throughout my career. Until now. That is why I'm asking specifics how other people work with DevOps as I do not find it as userfriendly as Jira (at least according to my taste). If sprint is only set on the task(s), the user story show up in both sprint 8 and sprint 9. If you set it on the US as well, it only turn up on the US specified. Not the biggest problem, but I wanted to ask others for feedback. – sonstabo Feb 2 '20 at 20:44

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