Multiple Backlogs in the Same Azure DevOps Project

Azure DevOps allows you to add multiple Git repositories to the same project. That allows you to set the permissions only once and organise your code as you like. Sooner than later, you try to add a second backlog and that is where things get complicated. This feature is well hidden and easy to overlook.

Multiple backlogs, really? Yes, there are situations in which you want to track some tasks in a separate place without creating a new project in Azure DevOps. It works well when you have multiple internal NuGet packages that you keep in one project but track the work in their dedicated backlog.

In a new Azure DevOps project, you start with one backlog:

There is by default only one backlog available.

To create a new backlog, you need a new team. Open up your Azure DevOps project and go to “Project Settings“. In the “General” section you find an entry for “Teams“:

By default, there is just one team per project

Add a new team and make sure that you select the option “Create an area path with the name of the team“:

Create your new team

(You can assign all members of the Azure DevOps project in one go with a predefined permission group or only the ones that should see the new backlog)

If you go back to the backlog, you now can switch between the old and the newly created one:

Select the backlog you want to work with.

You can repeat these steps to add as many teams as you need backlogs. When you create a new backlog item, it will pre-select the backlog in which you create it. You can move your item between backlogs by changing the “Area” property:

Change the area and the item changes the backlog

This approach gives you a lot of flexibility and scales nicely with your growing demands.

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